Colleague Keri is correct on Wells Fargo’s paper-saving efforts. The bank has been recycling for more than a century. In 1886, for instance, Wells Fargo sold its accumulated waybills, prior to January 1, 1885, for old paper. The rag content in the waste paper  meant it could be reused.

Similarly, one agent might reuse the records of a previous agent. For instance, Benjamin F. Richtmyer was Wells Fargo’s Express agent in Drytown (Amador County), Calif. , from 1860 to 1875. His general store was busy constantly, for Richtmyer was also postmaster and telegrapher as well as express agent.

In 1875, Richtmyer became county clerk, moved to the county seat of Jackson, and continued to serve as a Wells Fargo agent until 1899. Of course, he left the Drytown office records for incoming Agent William Jennings (1875-1894). In 1884, general store keeper Jennings used Richtmyer’s 1860s money receipt books as scrapbooks to preserve bills for merchandise received.

In more recent times, I would find Hawaiian beaches strewn at the high water line with chopped debris  from sugar cane milling. Bagasse, as this refuse is called, is about a quarter-inch wide, four inches long, and in great abundance. In 1972, Wells Fargo proposed to keep this problem in check by making checks out of it.

We do our part.