March 2008 Archives

Charles

Send a comment to Charles

When Henry Wells established Wells College for women in 1869, his purpose was clear: "Give her the opportunity!" he thundered.

Wells Fargo has a long history of hiring women, echoing founder Henry Wells' words. The Company's first female agent was Mary Taggart, who ran the Wells Fargo office in Palmyra, Nebraska, in 1873.

Many of Wells Fargo's 350 female agents across the nation held other jobs as well. In Roseville, California, Cassie Hill had three: Wells Fargo agent, railroad agent and telegrapher at the busy rail junction. All the while, she raised five children on her own. Julia Jones, agent at Mariposa, California, was elected county superintendent of schools — although she herself was not allowed vote!

Hundreds more women worked at Wells Fargo's headquarters as auditors, clerks, advertising copywriters, stenographers and telephone operators. Anchoring its modern-day commitment to women and minority-owned businesses, Wells Fargo historically partnered with woman-owned businesses and counted many women among its valued customers as well.

Today, two-thirds of bank employees are women.

"Here's to the Wells Fargo woman on the job. May she sustain all the fine traditions of our honorable company!"

• Wells Fargo agent in Roseville, California, from 1884 to 1908, Cassie Hill became agent after her husband’s sudden death. She invested in the Roseville businesses and real estate, and enjoyed driving one of Roseville’s first automobiles.

• Marie F. Putnam was the only woman among 300 employees of the Abbot-Downing Co., makers of the famous Concord Stagecoaches. From 1865 to 1895, Putnam stitched leather for every stagecoach that rolled out of the Concord, New Hampshire factory—including those bought by Wells Fargo & Company.

• At the age of 14, Delia Haskett Rawson was the first girl stage driver—and maybe the youngest—ever to carry the U.S. mail in California. She was the only woman to ever belong to the Pioneer Stage Drivers of California and served as its vice president.

• Tilla Patterson was Wells Fargo Agent at Winchester, California from 1892 to 1910. From the depot, Patterson also served as Santa Fe Railroad agent and the Western Union telegraph operator. Agent Patterson used her business connections to help build the collection of the county library where she volunteered.

• Florence Scott earned her medical degree from the University of California, and in 1922 was asked to provide medical exams and emergency care for the Wells Fargo Nevada National Bank in downtown San Francisco. This began the Bank's program of company-paid health care.

• Julia Lois Jones succeeded her sister, Lucy Jones Miller, as agent at Mariposa, California. The two sisters ran that Wells Fargo office for over 25 years. Lucy was also postmaster while Julia served three terms as Superintendent of Schools.

• When Uncle Sam called Wells Fargo's Winona, Minnesota Agent to serve in World War I, Mrs. Evangeline Sawyer patriotically filled in until he returned. Sawyer's efforts earned high praise from the regional superintendent.

• A preacher’s daughter whose family settled in southern Minnesota, Lillie Predmore served as Wells Fargo’s express agent in the town that bore her family’s name. Her younger sister, Mrs. Freda Kester, succeeded her in 1914.

• In the mid-1970s, Audrey Strand became Wells Fargo's first woman "special agent" — a designation bestowed on the likes of James B. Hume, who brought Black Bart to justice. Her responsibility was to report "embezzlement, irregularities and mysterious disappearances" to the FBI, Controller of Currency and the U.S. Attorney.

• In 1960, Wells Fargo expanded throughout Northern California. New computer technologies were introduced to handle the booming business: Janet Wright managed the engineers and technicians. For her effective work, Wright became the first woman Assistant Vice President at Wells Fargo in 1964.

• A rancher in Livermore, California, Virginia Fellingham drove stagecoaches for Wells Fargo Bank for over thirty years in the 20th Century. She and her family have appeared in hundreds of parades and civic events.

Charles

In September of 1858, stagecoaches left St. Louis and San Francisco on their way to San Francisco and St. Louis, respectively. The Overland Mail Company  was on the road.

Here's the story of the OMC in a nutshell.

John Butterfield wanted to land the government contract to carry the US Mail to the untamed West. The government was offering 600,000 bucks to whoever could get mail from the Missouri frontier to California, across all the deserts and mountains and lack of facilities, and guarantee its safety and efficiency. Butterfield figured the best method was to carry passengers as well, whose fares would help offset costs.

Anybody who was intelligent in those days knew that the undertaking was crazy. The route took a southerly arc to avoid mountains, but got deserts in exchange. The route had unpredictable weather and geographic hazards, was unpaved and even uncharted in some places. All this meant that the person who wanted to try to get that fat contract had to be a little crazy themselves. In other words, an entrepreneur.

And that was Butterfield , to be sure.

Entrepreneurs  with big vision and willing to risk everything need the sort of backers who are intelligent and willing to risk some. Butterfield was able to gather several Directors for his Company, including Henry Wells and William G. Fargo, whose Express Company in the West was growing fast. The two operations would complement each other, on paper at least, as long as things went smoothly.

Things did go smoothly, albeit at great expense, for about three years. But that's another story...

So the Stagecoaches rolled and regular overland business commenced. The three-week (or so) journey shortened the time it had formerly taken between Missouri and California terminals. By ship , or the lumbering routes by wagon train , it had taken as long as six months. Of course, it cost a lot to ride: $300 in those days is equivalent to thousands  now.

But what a view!

Greg

The other day a family came in to visit the Old Sacramento Museum, led by the matriarch. I had a nice conversation with the woman, the subject of which prompted me to write this post. We were discussing Black Bart, and we got on the subject of James Hume, Wells Fargo's Special Detective who brought Black Bart to justice after years of investigation.

She told me that she and her husband were caretakers of Hume Castle in Berkeley, California  back in the 1970s. I had no idea there was such a thing as Hume Castle in Berkeley — I wondered if it had anything to do with Wells Fargo's legendary Detective. I know Hume died in Berkeley in 1908, at age 77, after his retirement from Wells Fargo. But again, I never knew of a Hume Castle.

I started researching the castle and discovered there was a relation between Wells Fargo's Hume, and this castle in Berkeley. I discovered the castle was built in 1927, long after Hume's death. The original owners of the castle were Samuel James Hume and his wife Portia Hume. Samuel was James Hume's only son, born in 1885.

Samuel Hume was educated at Harvard and earned a degree in theater. He created the first exhibition of stagecraft   in the United States. By 1918, Samuel had returned to Berkeley as an assistant professor at the University of California , eventually becoming the head of the Greek Theater Department there. His wife, Portia Bell Hume , was a pioneer in the field of Psychiatry and lent her name to the modern Portia Bell Hume Behavioral Health and Training Center .

In 1927 the Humes engaged architect John Hudson Thomas  to build a replica of a 13th-century French Monastery . This became their home, known alternately as Hume Cloister or Hume Castle. The building still stands at 2900 Buena Vista Way in Berkeley, and has been listed as a historic landmark of Berkeley  since 1985.

There it is! Wells Fargo had a role in the history of this landmark! James Hume was headquartered in San Francisco, grounded in the area. The Humes resided across San Francisco Bay in Berkeley, home to the great new University of the West.

You can imagine conversations at dinner, with the elder Hume encouraging his creative child to go to college and holding UC as the model. The younger Hume took the advice and brought his talents back to Berkeley and established a monument to the family name.

Cool!

Heidi Berg

Our Museum was visited recently by 18 professors from Peking University  students, in Minneapolis as adult ESL  students. On the same day, a Minnesota man visited the Museum with his three cousins from Sweden. While these two groups may live half a world apart (literally!), their visits to the Museum coordinate the history and diversity that are such major features of Wells Fargo.

The professors from Beijing were touring downtown Minneapolis, looking to test and improve their English skills. In the museum, they were surprised that I had Chinese-language brochures for their convenience. Their second reaction was curiosity at the connections between Wells Fargo and the Chinese population of California in the mid-1800s.

When gold was discovered in California in 1848, the Chinese population was fewer than 100 people. But the Gold Rush radically increased all segments, and by 1860, the Chinese population  had jumped to 110,000. While many businesses in California excluded other nationality and language groups, Wells, Fargo & Co. opened their business to all customers.

To aid transactions with Chinese-speaking customers, Wells Fargo hired Chinese language interpreters and advertised in Chinese-language newspapers. By the 1870 s, Chinese patrons made up one-quarter of the customer base at some locations. Wells Fargo distributed a "Chinese Business Houses Directory" to promote bilingual locations. Indeed, a man named Wong Sam created a Chinese-American phrase book in 1875 that included a list of Wells Fargo offices.

In a similar history, the Swedish visitors to our museum were curious about their ancestors who founded a community in central Minnesota and, they believe, worked for Wells Fargo. Swedish , Norwegian , German , Polish  and other European populations came to the Midwest , hoping to prosper as farmers. Wells Fargo arrived in Minnesota in1885 but only stayed one year. So what were the odds that Swedish visitors had ancestors in Minnesota who worked for California-based Wells Fargo inside a single year? The odds were actually pretty good.

Consider: Wells Fargo returned to Minnesota in 1897. Offices cropped up in cities, towns and whistle stops, bringing express and banking services to the area's businesses and farm families . For our Swedish visitors' ancestors, it was only natural for them to conduct business in Swedish  -- just as other immigrant populations did business in their native languages. These communities were embraced by Wells Fargo, who advertised and did business in many languages.

Wells Fargo's history shows our 155-year success is, in part, tied to the open-minded business practices originating since the very beginning. Wells Fargo's commitment to serving every customer was as strong in Minnesota 100 years ago as it was in California in 1852. And it is as strong today as it was then.

Charles

So Guided By History marks its second anniversary today. That's right, two years of bringing History to The People!

Frankly, I deserve all the credit, but I want to share it because that's just the kind of guy I am — a sharer.  I choose to share credit with:

• Valerie, our best buddy in Minneapolis.

• Joel and Ed, who do more things for the production of this blog than they're actually allowed to do.

• Henrik, who pushes 3 accurate buttons for every 12 wrong ones I push. (And who really oughta consider a safer sport...)

• Tim, who thought it was a pretty good idea and probably wonders if he made the right decision.

• All my colleagues in the History world of Wells Fargo who write so well.

And of course I share credit with all of you who drop by every day and check in with us. No YOU, no Guided By History. Period.

Thanks, Everyone!!

Steve

In January, tornadoes bombarded the South , taking more than fifty lives — at least thirty of those in my native state of Tennessee. Stories of survival in this tragedy include a man who managed to protect himself by pulling a couch over his head, bank employees who sought protection in their bank vault, and a woman who huddled in her bathroom as the twister roared through her neighborhood.

The far-reaching path  of the tornado and its accompanying storms extended from Texas to Ohio and the damage was bluntly described by Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen when he said, "It looks like the Lord took a Brillo pad and scrubbed the ground." Tornado experts say this round of tornadoes is the worst they have witnessed  in about twenty-three years.

The swath of area  that tornadoes frequently go through every year is called Tornado Alley . But the untold story is that tornadoes don't just occur in Tornado Alley — they appear in some of the most unlikely places in the United States.

For instance, I had just gotten off the MAX  about a month ago, and as I headed to my son's school in Vancouver (across the Columbia River from Portland), I learned that a tornado  had come within a half mile of the school.

Here in the Pacific Northwest, earthquakes, flooding, and forest fires are the disasters we expect, not tornadoes. This small tornado had wind speeds of 90-110 mph, was 440 yards wide, and had a two mile path that touched down several times. Damage was not nearly as severe as in the South, because the Pacific Ocean and mountain terrain of the Pacific Northwest helped to limit the damage.

After hearing with relief that my kids were safe, I was interested in how often twisters went through Southwest Washington.

The last tornado that swept through Vancouver took place on April 5, 1972 , taking six lives and injuring 300. It ranks as the deadliest tornado in the state and was ranked the 7th worst weather-related event  of the 20th century in Washington State. It destroyed a grocery, a store, a bowling alley, and an elementary school, causing over five million dollars in damage. On the same day, tornadoes touched down near Spokane and in Stevens County, Washington.

All this stresses the fact that tornadoes can happen anytime, anywhere. As the year unfolds — and the traditional tornado season looms nearer — it's time to update your disaster plan, keeping in mind that tornadoes touch down  in unlikely places.

Charles

Guided By History is a blog that I and my colleagues produce as a resource for you readers. There's a couple people who help out behind the scenes to make sure that this blog and a couple others get out there for you all. One of these was Vincent, the tech genius who made this blog actually appear. When you access this blog, you read my stuff but the presentation is all by Vincent.

We learned yesterday that Vincent passed away over the weekend. This news took us all totally by surprise.

Vincent was one of those guys who you really want as a friend. He was always level-headed and never lost his cool. Indeed, Vincent was always in a good mood. Now when I say "always," I really mean it. I never had a discussion with him that was not fun, that didn't have about a dozen good laughs.

And when we finished our talk, the issue that brought us to the table was resolved. He had this talent for changing big problems into minor issues that got fixed. See, I'd call him and tell him what the trouble was, and he'd listen and say "Mm hmm" a lot. As I started giving him the details, I'd hear his keyboard clacking away on the other end ("Mm hmm...Mm hm..," he'd say as I droned on). Then the keyboard would go silent and I'd finish my monologue and he'd say, "It's all taken care of."

It was, too. I swear, I never called him about the same issue twice.

Vincent was a fun guy. He liked gadgets and was connected by wireless, chat, email and web all at the same time. Not so much because he was a techie, though he was, but more because he liked being connected. The guy could maintain half a dozen live conversations. A real "people person," that Vincent. And he was into it — you hang with him for only 10 minutes, it was like you had known him for years. Like I said, too, he liked to laugh so everything was pretty easy going, even meetings about troublesome upgrades to what-the-heck-do-I-care 2.1

Vincent did great work and was proud of his work. He was fun and funny. He was in a good mood and put everyone else at ease. He was really, really a great guy. I miss him.