March 18th...This Day in History (Now with links to other events)

Wells and Fargo start shipping and banking company 1852

 

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.

 (More Events on This Day in History)

• American Revolution
• 1766 Parliament repeals the Stamp Act

• Automotive

• 1933 Studebaker goes bankrupt

• Civil War

• 1864 Lincoln praises Sanitary Commission for work with troops

• Cold War

• 1950 Nationalist Chinese forces invade mainland China

• Crime

• 1999 Three women are murdered at Yosemite

• Disaster

• 1937 Natural gas explosion kills schoolchildren in Texas

• General Interest

• 1834 Tolpuddle Martyrs banished to Australia
• 1925 The Tri-State Tornado
• 1962 French-Algerian truce

• Hollywood

• 2008 Anthony Minghella dies

• Literary

• 1932 John Updike is born

• Music

• 1911 Irving Berlin copyrights the biggest pop song of the early 20th century

• Old West

• 1852 Wells Fargo and Company established

• Presidential

• 1837 Grover Cleveland is born in Caldwell, New Jersey

• Sports

• 2002 Spectator death forces new rules for NHL games

• Vietnam War

• 1969 U.S. bombs Cambodia for the first time
• 1970 Lon Nol ousts Prince Sihanouk

• World War I

• 1915 Allies open attack on Dardanelles

• World War II

• 1942 War Relocation Authority is established in United States