Printed Document Signed

This Republican politician and state legislator served Massachusetts in Congress (1885-89) before being appointed Assistant Secretary of the Navy (1898-1900) by President William McKinley, who in 1900 appointed him the first civil governor of Puerto Rico (1900-01); a high-level Wall Street business career in the sugar refining industry then followed. Printed DS, 1p, 9 3/4" X 14 3/4", Washington, DC, 13 September 1898. Very good. Faintly age toned, with two original horizontal folds. Spanish-American War honorable discharge certificate for ALFRED B. FRY (1860-1933), a distinguished mechanical, civil and marine engineer of many accomplishments who joined the Navy on April 4, 1898 and served as Passed Assistant Engineer assigned to the Civil War vintage monitor U.S.S. Nahant tasked with defending New York harbor; on June 22 he was promoted to Acting Chief Engineer on the armed yacht (!) U.S.S. Stranger, part of the West Indies Blockading Squadron off Havana, Cuba. In this handsome document with ornate typefaces and a steel-engraved vignette of a military steamship chugging across choppy waters, Fry is released after "Having served with fidelity in the United States Navy... in the War between the United States of America and the Kingdom of Spain...." Boldly signed in brown ink at lower right by Allen as "Acting Secretary of the Navy" Allen's predecessor as Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Theodore Roosevelt, had resigned on May 10, 1898 to form his own cavalry regiment (the fame "Rough Riders") and join the war effort, thus Allen stepped in on May 11. Quite an attractive item.