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N0KFQ > TODAY 18.03.15 16:00l 59 Lines 2708 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 50515_N0KFQ
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Subj: Today in History - Mar 18
Path: IZ3LSV<I0OJJ<N6RME<N0KFQ
Sent: 150318/1500Z 50515@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA BPQ1.4.63
1852
Wells and Fargo start shipping and banking company
On this day in 1852, in New York City, Henry Wells and William G.
Fargo join with several other investors to launch their namesake
business.
The discovery of gold in California in 1849 prompted a huge spike
in the demand for cross-country shipping. Wells and Fargo decided
to take advantage of these great opportunities. In July 1852,
their company shipped its first loads of freight from the East
Coast to mining camps scattered around northern California. The
company contracted with independent stagecoach companies to
provide the fastest possible transportation and delivery of gold
dust, important documents and other valuable freight. It also
served as a bank-buying gold dust, selling paper bank drafts and
providing loans to help fuel California's growing economy.
In 1857, Wells, Fargo and Co. formed the Overland Mail Company,
known as the "Butterfield Line," which provided regular mail and
passenger service along an ever-growing number of routes. In the
boom-and-bust economy of the 1850s, the company earned a
reputation as a trustworthy and reliable business, and its
logo-the classic stagecoach-became famous. For a premium price,
Wells, Fargo and Co. would send an employee on horseback to
deliver or pick up a message or package.
Wells, Fargo and Co. merged with several other "Pony Express" and
stagecoach lines in 1866 to become the unrivaled leader in
transportation in the West. When the transcontinental railroad
was completed three years later, the company began using railroad
to transport its freight. By 1910, its shipping network connected
6,000 locations, from the urban centers of the East and the
farming towns of the Midwest to the ranching and mining centers
of Texas and California and the lumber mills of the Pacific
Northwest.
After splitting from the freight business in 1905, the banking
branch of the company merged with the Nevada National Bank and
established new headquarters in San Francisco. During World War
I, the U.S. government nationalized the company's shipping routes
and combined them with the railroads into the American Railway
Express, effectively putting an end to Wells, Fargo and Co. as a
transportation and delivery business. The following April, the
banking headquarters was destroyed in a major earthquake, but the
vaults remained intact and the bank's business continued to grow.
After two later mergers, the Wells Fargo Bank American Trust
Company-shortened to the Wells Fargo Bank in 1962-became, and has
remained, one of the biggest banking institutions in the United
States.
73, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: kohiggs@gmail.com
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