Museum Visitors Reflect Wells Fargo's History of Diversity

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.