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Origin of Wells, Fargo & Company: 1841–1852
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 July 2012
Extract
Wells, Fargo & Company, established in 1852, had its roots in Harnden & Company, the first of all express carriers. In the year 1841, Vermont-born Henry Wells, whose name was to rank in prominence with that of William F. Harnden and Alvin Adams in the history of the express business, was serving as Harnden's agent in Albany, New York. Many years later he explained how he came to leave Harnden's employ and to become the moving force in the first of several new express enterprises:
“I was in his [William F. Harnden's] employ and recommended him to extend his express line from Albany to Buffalo, and as transportation was offered, to Chicago, [but] Mr. Harnden did not believe that the People were there and he declined. His words of declination were ‘If Mr. Wells chose to run an Express to the Rocky Mountains he might — He [Mr. Harnden] would not do it.’ ”
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- Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 1948
References
1 Wells, Henry, The American Express in Its Relation to Buffalo. A Paper Prepared in 1863 at the Request of the Buffalo Historical Society. Bingham, Robert W., editor (Buffalo, N. Y.: The Buffalo Historical Sodety, 1938), p. 9.Google Scholar
2 Loc. cit.
3 Wells related in 1863 the since famous story of the oyster delivery: James Leidley, the proprietor of the Seneca Street House in Buffalo, asked Wells if he could not bring oysters to Buffalo by express. At first Wells protested, but relented when told that price was no object.
“They were brought,” Wells wrote, “—opened in Albany and brought to Buffalo at the cost of three dollars a hundred — and the arrival of those oysters by Express at Buffalo created a sensation as great as would today attend the coming hither of a section of the Atlantic Telegraph.” (Wells, The American Express, p. 12.)
4 Wells, Henry, Sketch of the Rise, Progress, and Present Condition of the Express System (Albany, N. Y.: Van Benthuysen's Steam Printing House, 1864), pp. 12–13.Google Scholar
5 Partners in Wells & Company were, first, Crawford Livingston's widow, to whom he had left his interest, and later Johnston Livingston and Edward T. Winslow. Two receipts of Wells & Company in the Wells Fargo history collection (Wells Fargo Bank & Union Trust Company, San Francisco) place within a few months the date of the withdrawal of Mrs. Livingston from the company. The first, dated March 30, 1848, gives “H. Wells” and “Mrs. C. C. Livingston” as proprietors. On the second, dated July 24, 1848, Mrs. Livingston's name is crossed out and the words “& Co.” are written after Wells' name.
6 Stimson, A. L., History of the Express Business (New York: Baker & Godwin, 1881), p. 62.Google Scholar
7 A receipt in the Wells Fargo history collection, dated March 17, 1851, carries the printed heading: “American Express Company. Late Wells & Co., Express Forwarders, and General Foreign and Domestic Agents. Wells, Butterfield & Co., between, New-York and Buffalo. Livingston, Fargo & Co., Buffalo, West.”
8 Stimson, op. cit., pp. 32–33.
9 Ibid., p. 31.
10 Wells, American Express, p. 10.
11 Stimson, op. cit., p. 67.
12 Other companies made, shipments of goods and treasure between Atlantic and Pacific ports, but none except Adams had its own complete facilities established on both coasts.
13 Wells, Sketch, p. 15.
14 Longstanding tradition places the date of organization at March 18. The medal issued by Wells, Fargo & Company in 1902 to commemorate the firm's fiftieth year carries that date.
15 “History of Wells, Fargo & Company,” vol. i, p. 3. This work, consisting of three typescript volumes, is a resume of minutes of directors' meetings and statements. It is in the Wells Fargo history collection of the Wells Fargo Bank & Union Trust Co.
16 Loc. cit.
17 In the seventy-five years between his birth in 1806 and his death in 1881, Morgan was active in many affairs other than his own extensive business interests. He served as Representative from New York in Congress from 18S3 to 1859. During the Civil War he was active in raising, equipping and privately rewarding troops. Through purchase of stock in the New York Times he assisted that newspaper's fight against the Tweed ring. During the latter part of his life he concerned himself largely with educational benefactions.
18 “History of Wells, Fargo & Company,” vol. i, p. 5.
19 Carter is named as agent on the two 1848 Wells & Company receipts referred to earlier. He was serving in perhaps the same capacity with the same organization in 1847, for “Wells & Co. p S. P. Carter” is signed on a December 31, 1847, Albany receipt of the Erie and Champlain Canal; the original is in the Wells Fargo history collection.
20 “History of Wells, Fargo & Company,” vol. i, p. 5.
21 Wells, Henry, Truly Yours, Henry Wells (Aurora, N. Y., Wells College Press, 1945?), p. 15.Google Scholar
22 Ibid., p. 10.
23 Issue of July 1, 18S2.
24 There were 310 packages consigned to Adams & Company on the same ship. (Alta California, July 11, 1852.) When the California arrived on July 28, it carried 91 packages for Wells, Fargo & Company, 438 for Adams & Company. (Alta California, July 29, 1852.)
25 The American Express, p. 16.
26 Photographic copy in California State Library, Sacramento.
27 This figure was given by the Alta California, July 31, 1852, and the New York Herald, August 31, 1852. The San Francisco Daily Whig gave $21,717.
28 Alta California, July 31, 1852.
29 Sacramento Daily Union, August 3, 1852.
30 Hunter & Company had earlier handled Adams & Company's exchanges. In 1854 Wells Fargo & Company was to take over Hunter & Company entirely. (Wiltsee, Ernest A., “The Franks of Hunter & Co.'s Express,” Collector's Club Philatelist, vol. xii, no. 3, July, 1933.Google Scholar)
Principal sources used in the preparation of this paper, in addition to those already cited, are: Harlow, Alvin F., Old Waybills: The Romance of the Express Companies (New York: D. Appleton-Century Co., 1934)Google Scholar; Winther, Oscar Osburn, Express and Stagecoach Days in California (Stanford University, California: Stanford University Press, 1936)Google Scholar; Dictionary of American Biography; and Appleton's Cyclopaedia of American Biography.