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!

Posted by Charles at 04:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Found in Branding, Gold, Misc, Remember, Ride sharing, Stagecoach, Transportation, Travel, Wells Fargo Bank

Here's a video piece about George Monroe, the celebrated stagecoach driver we wrote about the other day! It's from a video Wells Fargo made a few years ago on our history, "Since 1852: The Universal Friend and Agent."

The piece is short, but it's vid which is über  hip. Welcome to Guided By History, progressive in all ways...

Share your story with us!

Posted by Charles at 12:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Found in African American History, Misc, Remember, Stagecoach, Transportation, Travel, Wells Fargo Bank

On April 15, 1868 (a Wednesday if you're keeping track), a crowd gathered at the Abbot-Downing factory  in Concord, New Hampshire. A special steam engine pulled in to lead fifteen flatcars and four boxcars. These cars were loaded with the largest stagecoach order ever—a proud fleet of 30 elegant coaches, bound for Wells, Fargo and Co.'s stagecoach empire, the Great Overland Mail.

Our San Diego museum features one of the 30 coaches from this order. The four box cars at the end of the train, incidentally, carried harnesses for the horses waiting at the destination to pull the stagecoaches. There is a trunk in the San Diego museum made by the same harness-maker who supplied the shipment.

When the Pembroke engine steamed into Omaha, Nebraska  a week later, Wells Fargo agents and teams of horses were there to welcome the shipment.

The stagecoaches went into service right away, carrying packages and passengers across thousands of miles: Nevada to Wyoming, south to Denver's high mountains , north into the Montana and Idaho wilderness .

Stagecoaches had to be suitable for rugged trips like these. Wells Fargo specified details like "extra roomy inside," as well as:

Iron work to be extra stout; [thorough]braces 31/4 wide &; 13/8 thick stout stitched; Bodies made roomy inside &; 3 in. more room between back &; middle seats; candle lamps extra large size.

Skilled Abbot-Downing craftsmen shaped iron, leather, and oak, ash, and elm, to construct the vehicles.

A finished coach weighed 2,223 pounds and cost $2,500 . A deluxe paint job was an extra $20, and fancy lanterns another $7. Coaches seated eighteen people: nine inside and nine more on top, including the driver and shotgun messenger. Upholstered in leather and damask cloth, painted red and yellow and finished with a landscape on each door, the Concord Coach was one of the marvels of American craftsmanship .

Posted by Charles at 12:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Found in Artifacts, Misc, Museums, Remember, Stagecoach, Transportation, Travel, Wells Fargo Bank

In the 19th century, we are apt to think travel difficult, yet across the country and back never deterred Wells Fargo from aiding a customer. It happened like this:

In February 1895, two Johnson boys borrowed $275 from Sarah W. Swanton, a hotel keeper in Pescadero, Calif.  When they could not pay, they fingered Uncle R. Augustus Johnson in New York City, and Mrs. Swanton asked Wells Fargo to collect.

Wells Fargo sent the note across country to New York, where its banker Hosmer B. Parsons added his endorsement. Meantime, Uncle Augie thought his brother, Lorenzo M. Johnson, had deeper pockets, leading Wells Fargo to hurry the note to Chicago. General Agent Bernette Wygant quickly sent it to Johnson in Winnetka , a wealthy suburb 20 miles from downtown. But Winnetka was an American Express town—rather than cash, it accepted Johnson’s check for $275.

Without a national check-clearing system  as we have today, Wells Fargo could neither cash the check nor dispatch the money. By then, Johnson had left for Piedras Negras, Mexico , across the Rio Grande from Eagle Pass, Texas , where he ran ranches, railroads, telegraphs and, especially, coal companies.

In this quandary, Wells Fargo's Chicago Agent Wygant quickly provided a solution. "In consideration for you," Wygant wrote Johnson on September 21, 1895, "we accepted the check and forwarded it to Eagle Pass for collection, and in turn forwarded the money from there to California without extra charge."

Wells Fargo's service, from California to New York to Chicago to Eagle Pass to California, made Mrs. Swanton a satisfied customer.

Posted by Bob at 09:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Found in First-hand Accounts, Misc, Remember, Transportation, Travel, Wells Fargo Bank