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Charles Riggs

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Charles Riggs

Tom Bennett is our Curator at the Alaska Heritage Museum at Wells Fargo, in Anchorage. He has been involved with museums for 29 years as a Museum Attendant to Director.

Tom is involved is also involved with the Alaska Zoo and is currently a Board Member with the Alaska Museum of Natural History.

"Line out!" "Gee!""Haw!" "Let's go!"

It's that time of year in Alaska: The "Last Great Race" is on, and dog mushers from around the world are competing to be first with their team of dogs to across the finish line in Nome. This year, 71 dog teams (each with at least 12, no more than 16 working dogs) will traverse the 1,049 miles, (give or take a few), generally following the Iditarod National Historic Trail and battling whatever nature decides to hand them along the way.

Wells Fargo is proudly supporting this year's Iditarod , as it has for 22 years.

The true champions of the "Last Great Race " — to me at least — are the dogs. Definitely not household pets, these are lean, lanky, Olympic-quality, calorie-burning racers. That's 10,000 calories a day, folks. The dogs train all year and get superb health care — they even get massages. (I'd take the massages. But I don't think I can eat the equivalent of 50 cheeseburgers a day.)

Huskies are born to run. Running is their job, their play and their place in the sun. I know this because my folks had a Siberian Husky, who relished digging under the three-foot fence she could have leapt from a standing start, then would run around town looking for the dogcatcher because they were the only ones who might chase her. She would stand in the middle of the street waiting for them. They never once got within 20 feet of her.

Siberian Inupiaq brought their dogs, descendents of a mix of breeds including wolf, to Alaska more than a thousand years ago to provide transportation, pulling sleds across the snow and ice.

Dog teams have played an important historical role in Alaska, hauling for gold seekers stampeding to the Klondike, then on across Alaska as each new strike developed Dog teams sped serum to the people of Nome during the 1925 diphtheria outbreak. They have carried mail, food and gear to many points along the Iditarod trail....

Charles Riggs

What better way to mark Women's History Month  and International Women's Day  than with a little music?

Now, maybe that's just me — I'm inclined to mark most days with music. I collect LPs as a hobby, and I got this one from Joycee.

25 years ago this month, Whitney Houston's  debut LP was issued. It was a smash, with consecutive hits and #1s, and it began Miss Houston's great career in music and films, that keeps going and going....

Whitney Houston is the daughter of soul and gospel singer Cissy Drinkard Houston.  With her sisters, Cissy made gospel records and sang backup on several others. One of her sisters, Lee Drinkard Warrick, managed the group and was herself mother to gospel and R&B singer Judy Clay  and pop legend Dionne Warrick. 

By the time she was in her teens, Whitney Houston had absorbed some serious musical training. She signed with Arista, and the rest is history.

Miss Houston's eponymous debut featured stellar songwriters, producers and players, including Julia  and Maxine  Waters, who released tons of records and sang with everybody. (Julia and Maxine sang as Supremes, sort of, on the 1969 hit "Someday We'll be Together,"  after the Motown legends had gone their separate ways.) Since that first record, the Whitney Houston sound has become the standard for so many pop singers. TV's "American Idol" is a stream of singers doing their best Whitney Houston  for better or worse.

Whitney Houston's career is 25 years old. She comes from a mighty female heritage and an amazing vocal heritage. She has worked in a business where many women have succeeded, in front and behind the scenes. She has inspired millions of women since.

Whitney Houston is our historical marker today.

Ryan Baum

Many bank historians and collectors of banknotes are fascinated with the variety of names that banks have used over the years. While in the most common varieties of names were "First National Bank of..." or "Farmers and Merchants National Bank of..." several banks incorporated "Federal" or "United States" in their names.

Over time, the US Treasury became concerned that customers could get confused, that banks with references to "Federal" or "United States" were actually branches of the national government. In order to limit this confusion, Congress banned the words "Federal," "United States," or "Reserve" in any private bank  as of May 24, 1926.

Banks with such a title, already incorporated before this date, were allowed to maintain their names unaltered. Today, collectors and historians consider these banks as "Forbidden Titles." Wells Fargo has several of these "Forbidden Title" banks in our lineage.

In 1855, the land agency of Joseph H. Millard & Company   opened for business in Nebraska. The Millard family withdrew from this firm in 1865, and it underwent a series of name changes, but the company continued and sought a national bank charter in 1883. On October 2, 1883, it received charter 2978 as the United States National Bank, Omaha.

This United States National Bank prospered as one of Nebraska's premier financial institutions for one hundred years. Then in 1983, it merged with national bank charter 7408.  Within four years, it merged with the older National Bank of Commerce, Denver, and then the younger Central National Bank of Denver in 1912. Several decades later, the firm changed its name to United Bank of Denver, NA, in order to prevent confusion. (And to allow for a holding company structure at the parent level. But that's for us experts.)

In 1992 this bank also merged with Norwest, and changed its name to Norwest Bank, Denver, NA. After a couple more name changes, it also merged Wells Fargo Bank, NA in November 2003.

Perhaps the most colorful of our forbidden title banks was the United States National Bank of San Diego. This bank was founded on May 9, 1913. Unlike most banks of the day, where not all its capital stock was paid up, its founding stockholders immediately paid up the full $100,000 of stock and contributed an additional $100,000 undivided profits. The bank opened for business on June 2, 1913, at the corner of 2nd Avenue and Broadway.

In 1933, C. Arnholt Smith  took control of the firm. He held control of this bank and other financial investments for four decades. During the recession of 1973, however, the bank failed in what was then the largest bank failure since the formation of the FDIC.  Crocker National Bank  assumed the deposits, but United States National Bank of San Diego lived on legally because of precedence and issues of FDIC absolution of contingent liabilities. (More expert stuff.)

Crocker merged with Wells Fargo Bank, NA in 1986.

It seems quant to think of single-branch institutions having "United States" in their name. But now that Wells Fargo is truly coast-to-coast  (PDF), and has the most retail stores of any bank, it is quite fitting that "United States" in the name is part of our heritage.

Anna Lucas

Thank you to all the smarty pants who submitted a caption for this photograph.

I initially only planned for a Top Ten, but you sent so many wonderful captions that I am posting 15 favorites, in no particular order.

The real story follows below...

Fashion Rule #13: Carrying a big credit card makes your rear end appear smaller.
–Lady Anon

Steve never would have bought his mother a New York Times large-type edition subscription if he had known it would come to this.
–S. Waldron

Who said it was more convenient to carry credit cards rather than cash?!?!
–The Lovely Ladies of the Anaconda, Montana Store

Elizabeth was always so excited to embark upon her retail 'expeditions' that she could often be heard yelling her favorite shopping rally cry: "Fix bayonets — CHAAAARGE!"
–Cat L.

Surprisingly, even unframed versions of the prototype credit poster failed to take off with consumers.
–Maureen

Increase your purchasing power by supersizing your Mastercharge card today!
–Nina

Mr. Hansen felt burdened by the size of his wife's debt, but hoisted the balances dutifully.
–Jessie Jan

Early prototype, just prior to the invention of the wallet.
–Chris S. Ervi

Am I covering enough of my number? While this card is so convenient in all other ways, I can't get past this irrational fear of identity theft.
–AMH

Bob knew Credit Cards were going to be really big; he just didn't know how big!
–Dixie Highfield

First on the shopping list: A bigger handbag...
–AC

Introducing the new product from Wells Fargo designed to curb unnecessary spending.
–psimonis

Always looking to diversify its market, Wells Fargo became the bank of choice for Lilliputians. 
–Dave

Wells Fargo now offers the peace and security of NEVER losing your card.
–Pamela

Let's go to Coach , they have bigger wallets.
–Ian

###

Amanda Hopper

This week marks the anniversary of the discovery of gold in California, which sparked the legendary Gold Rush that resonated the world over — and changed California and the West, pretty much overnight. (CR)

The other day, something made me start to wonder...what ever happened to James Marshall after the California gold rush?

James Marshal was a 35-year old carpenter employed by his friend John Sutter. Marshall went to Coloma, California to build a sawmill for Sutter. It was on a January morning in 1848 , as Marshall was inspecting the sawmill, that he spotted those first flakes of gold that changed history.

Marshall told Sutter right away and hoped the discovery would be the end of his money problems. But the discovery of gold had to remain a secret between the two friends until Sutter could lay claim to the area where the flakes had been found. Unfortunately, rumors began to spread around San Francisco about gold being found in the American river. One man from San Francisco, Sam Brannan , heard the rumors and went to see if they were true. He found gold and returned to San Francisco. He ran through the streets yelling "Gold! Gold! Gold! A bonanza of gold on the south fork. Gold!"

The Gold Rush was on. People from all over the world started coming to California.

For Marshall, a lot changed. The newness and excitement wore off and he was no longer praised for the tremendous find in Coloma.  He went back went back to working for Sutter, then to mining. Unable to find much "color" himself, Marshall sometimes took credit for other miners' finds.

Later, Marshall served as a guide for government inspection parties in the gold fields. He was also formally recognized as the discoverer of gold in California. But with his fame, Marshall found himself trying to escape from gold hungry miners following his every move.

After a short time, Gold Rush miners had found very few riches. Some people, stranded and bitter, actually threatened to hang Marshall if he did not show them where they could find gold!

Marshall was part owner of a lumber mill, but the business failed. He went back into mining and found no success. He was granted a pension by the California legislature, and continued prospecting for the rest of his life.

Living on the edge of poverty, Marshall was reduced at times to selling his autograph for 25 cents. He died in 1885.

Marshall was famous, then forgotten, then famous again — but he never became the great man he'd hoped to be. We remember Marshall, but his life was a common story in the Gold Rush. As with most Argonauts, the dream was all too real, while the reality was all too harsh.

Charles Riggs

And it's been around a while.

I found this video from 1970 in the Archives — it's cool and funny in a variety of ways. Think of that, 1970  — looooong enough for historians to examine.

Two things stand out. One, recycling and "Green" consciousness is, like, 40 years old. "Give a Hoot,"  "Pitch in"  and "Keep America Beautiful"  all happened within a short time of the first Earth Day. Green is full bore these days, after a re-invigoration of sorts when Earth in the Balance  by Vice President Al Gore was re-released during the 2000 Presidential election. But as this video proves, it's been going for quite a while. A pre-internet while, that is.

Second, it comes off like a newsreel from the 1940s or something, but 1970 was well after newsreel stuff was itself old-fashioned in movie production. Throwback then, throwback now.

Incidentally, the $22,000 cost savings mentioned at the end of the piece would be about $125K now.

Charles Riggs

On January 8, 1838, a man named Alfred Lewis Vail  introduced a telegraphic code. It was a forerunner of Morse Code , developed by Samuel F.B. Morse, Vail's colleague and fellow pioneer of the telegraph.

Vail was from a well-to-do manufacturing family. He was fascinated by the technology of rapid communication. Vail arranged to work with Morse for a share of the proceeds when they were ready to market their developments. Vail's code gave way to Morse's, though there are questions about who invented what first. Regardless, Vail eventually tired of his partnership with Morse and returned to the iron biz.

The telegraph changed the way people communicated. Messages could be transmitted over vast distances in a matter of minutes. Indeed, as the transcontinental railroad was built in the 1860s, telegraph poles went in with it—the wires strung over silent prairies, deserts and mountains. In 1869, east and west were connected in the United States by train and telegraph.

Wells Fargo & Co's Express was able to transfer money and other financial services electronically from then on. An agent in California could accept a miner's deposit, wire the details to Pennsylvania and have the funds available to that miner's family almost immediately. The promise of the future had become a reality.

The promise of history is that the most inconspicuous moment or person can end up having an impact far beyond expectations. Vail liked telegraphs and hoped to make a little money from it: He may be forgotten, but his work helped settle the continent.

And another January 8th personage demonstrates history's promise as well: That a poor kid from nowhere can become the absolute King. 

Oh yeah. Totally.

Anna Lucas

Guided by History is pleased to introduce a new blogger, Anna from our Corporate Archives. She comes to us with superior knowledge and experience — a real troublemaker, in short. (CR)

I have a great job. As an archivist in the Wells Fargo & Company Corporate Archives, I get to see all the cool stuff in our collection that hasn't made it out of the vault yet into a museum exhibit or marketing campaign. As a way to share some of these great photographs and objects from the archives and maybe some little-known history of Wells Fargo and our merger partners, I am excited to introduce a photo caption and label writing contest on Guided by History.

Send me a witty and clever caption for this photograph by using the "comments" area in this post. For example, "Elizabeth's husband has tired of these shopping trips" or "Peter was hired because of his Sherpa training." Yours will be so much more clever, of course.

Captions must be submitted by Friday, January 15, and the winners will be featured the following week, along with the real story. Sorry, people, we cannot offer any prizes, just glory.

I look forward to hearing from you.

(Anna shares the winners here.-CR)

Charles Riggs

At the first of the year, we all determine we'll do it right once and for all. No more carping at the spouse about dirty floors. Make the dog show-ready because you originally bought him to win prize money. Clean the yard every weekend, not just when the city fines you for harboring wolverines.

And every year, these resolutions become distant memories by the time Daylight Savings begins.

But not 2010. This year we really mean it. This is the year we really improve, and the world will clamor for us to write the book about how we did it. $29.95 suggested retail price.

Take our Guided by History poll below and tell us how your New Year begins a New you! We can check back on this in a couple months.

Ryan Baum

When two financial institutions join to form a new organization, it initially creates lots of work integrating two firms' financial systems, team members and cultures.

One perfect example is in Utah, the First National Bank of Ogden.

Ogden  was a booming town at an important rail junction on the original transcontinental railroad, and only a few dozen miles from where the Golden Spike  had been driven. As Utah Territory was blossoming, merchants would often get together to start banks. Two prominent Salt Lake City merchants, William Hopper and Horace Eldredge, founded The First National Bank of Ogden in 1881, even before Utah gained statehood.  This bank received charter #2597, and in the mid-1890s, control of the institution moved to David Eccles. 

A few years earlier, in 1875, and a little ways down the road, Wells Fargo agent J. E. Dooley had started a bank in Odgen. After a couple of mergers, this became the Utah National Bank of Ogden in 1883 and received charter #2880.

First National and Utah National were fierce, local competitors. In the June 14, 1909 edition of the Ogden Standard , the two firms proudly advertise  their services one above the other. First National noted that they were a U.S. Depository bank. 

Over time, the Utah National Bank of Ogden realized that First National Bank's customers benefited from the First National's affiliation with other banks as part of a chain. In those days, remember, branch banking had not yet started in earnest. Instead, stockholders would pool banks under a common holding company to form chains or affiliates. This allowed customers to access services in other cities, but did not provide the full suite of benefits to customers as branch banking did.

After nearly forty proud years as an independent bank, the Utah National Bank of Ogden merged with the First National Bank of Ogden on October 2, 1922.

Although financial institutions in the 1920's didn't have to deal with merging giant transaction and record keeping systems, they did have to combine their ledgers, alert their customers, work with their affiliates, and change the name. The combined First National and Utah National tipped its hat to both prior institutions by starting with the First & Utah National Bank of Ogden. Beyond creating an oddity for note collectors like me with a name using an ampersand symbol, the name was likely confusing by implying two still separate institutions.

After less than three months, the firm changed its name to the First Utah National Bank of Ogden on January 18, 1923. At almost the third anniversary of this name change, the name was shortened to its original First National Bank of Ogden on January 19, 1926.

Although I would love to continue this story to show the other amazing linkages with Utah banking history  and Wells Fargo, I will leave that for another article.

To whet your appetite, this humble First National Bank of Ogden would go on to be the core of what become First Security Corporation and continues on today as Wells Fargo Bank Northwest, NA, still using charter #2597. The corporation is still based on Ogden, Utah.