Chicago Board of Trade Members: McLain Brothers & Company

 

McLain Bros. & Co.

APR  8  1899

CHICAGO

My go-to reference list for members of the Chicago Board of Trade is the 1900 list.  The McLains are nowhere to be found on this list, but can be found in the 1899 membership list.  It seems the reason why is that they were caught committing fraud by trading among themselves for clients rather than in competitive sales in the trading pit of the Board of Trade, and were expelled from the organization.  Worse, they were arrested for fraud.  As for the stamps, without showing a transaction on the floor, it is not clear to me how the brothers would have demonstrated a sale that would have used the above block of 4 if they were committing fraud, since they were selling to themselves, complicating a guess as to whether this block came from a legitimate trade, or one that was nefarious.  Whatever the case, given the timing of their arrest and the date of the cancels above, a nefarious use is very possible.

From the New York Times, November 16, 1899: