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Charles

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On Saturday, November 7, 19 Wachovia Bank stores in Colorado will convert to the Wells Fargo brand. Although Colorado is the first state where Wachovia signs will disappear, Wells Fargo is not a newcomer to the Centennial State.

On November 1, 1866 Wells Fargo, took over the operation of the major stagecoach routes west of the Missouri River. This "Grand Consolidation" was with Denver-based Holladay  Overland Mail & Express Company.

Wells Fargo already operated stage companies, but the merger with Holladay’s network spread Wells Fargo stagecoach operations across 4,000 miles of territory. The Company covered the Rocky Mountains, and stretched from the Great Plains to the Pacific.

Wells Fargo was founded in New York in 1852, as a joint-stock association, the usual formation of that era. With the 1866 consolidation, the Company filed incorporation papers in the Colorado Territory in 1866.

Wells Fargo & Company operated under its Colorado charter for a century.

From the corner of 'F' and Holladay Streets in downtown Denver, Wells Fargo stagecoaches rolled out in all directions—north on the Overland route via Ft. Bridger and Boulder to Salt Lake City; west to the mines of Central City and Georgetown; and northeast to meet the transcontinental railhead as it advanced from Nebraska.

As with its California Gold Rush beginnings, a good portion of Wells Fargo’s business was transporting gold, silver, and currency.

And as in California a decade ealier, Wells Fargo entered the banking business in Denver. A local newspaper told Coloradoans that Wells Fargo could now "attend to their business to the ends of the earth if required."

By the following summer, three Wells Fargo stagecoaches arrived or departed Denver every day, with passengers, news and mail....

Charles

It's that time of year again! We haul out the decorations, start addressing cards to loved ones, plan get-togethers...Yes, it's Hispanic Heritage Month , one of my favorite times of the year.

These past couple years here at GBH, we've reflected on Salvadoran heritage, famous customers and a memorable team member. We got a well-timed visit from a norteño band. Hispanic business has certainly a part of Wells Fargo's success. Latino customers transact business, and Latino team members provide customer service.

Wells Fargo's Express network moved from east to Golden West via Panama.  Wells Fargo had agents in Panama to assist pioneers in their journey to the Gold Rush. In January 1853, Henry Wells traveled by sea to San Francisco, to assess the business.

From Panama, he wrote, "I am alive & kicking but awful sore & some tired. I have found our Agents the very best men on the entire route — men of the highest standards & great energy."

In North America, Overland stagecoaches rolled through territories that had been northernmost Mexico only a few years earlier. Colorado House was opened in Old Town San Diego in 1852 and housed the Wells Fargo Express office. Jose Guadalupe Estudillo, scion of an old Californio  family, became Wells Fargo Agent in 1870.

In Wells Fargo's early years, gold and other important business were carried by side-wheel steamships from the Columbia River basin to points in Latin America. The steamers called at Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan and Acapulco, where Wells Fargo agents served the growing Pacific Coast communities.

Wells Fargo established a Mexican subsidiary in 1860, Wells Fargo y Compañía Express, S.A. (Sociedad Mexicana). Offices were opened in grocery and department stores, hotels, drug stores and real estate offices.

Wells Fargo's business in Mexico (pdf) grew with the expansion of railroads in the last half of the 19th century. Wells Fargo provided rapid delivery and was the only U.S. express company offering direct service. By the turn of the century, la Compañía had over 300 offices, and fully ninety-eight percent of employees were Mexican.

Wells Fargo's first General Agent in El Salvador was J.C. Ybarra (pdf) in 1913. He oversaw thirteen agents and their offices, five messengers and seven other workers. Ybarra was an eyewitness to Wells Fargo's role in the economic stability of that era. He wrote that he and his staff had the "honor of being employees of a Company which has enlarged, in the commercial history of the New World, the era of progress and prosperity." In Cuba, (pdf) Wells Fargo had regularly scheduled business via steamships since the late 1800s. Wells Fargo handled money orders and traveler's checks for Cubans and tourists, and expanded steamship services to various destinations from the island.

We all personally celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month because we Historians are keenly aware that Hispanics have been a critical part of Wells Fargo's presence since the very beginning.

Phyllis

You might be a Wells Fargo History Museum Buff IF…

1. You can tell the difference between a Concord coach and a Celerity wagon. 
2. You never refer to stagecoach drivers as cowboys.
3. Your Netflix list includes "Stagecoach,"  "Winds of the Wasteland"  and "Wells Fargo."
4. Your idea of work clothes means petticoats or sleeve garters.
5. You know more about the history of Wells College  than about your own alma mater.
6. You write more blog entries for Guided by History than you do for your own blog.
7. Your vacation plans include visiting other Wells Fargo History Museums.
8. Your kids have their pictures taken in the replica stagecoach at least once a year.
9. Your coworkers from other departments think you have the coolest job at Wells Fargo.
10. You agree with them!

Bob

"The finest vehicles in the world without any dispute are stagecoaches," a Boston paper trumpeted in 1825. After all, these democratic vehicles, the first public transportation, carried "the young and old, the rich and the poor, the great and small, male and female, of all ranks and conditions."

Coming out of the Revolutionary War, the young United States had a constitutional mandate to "promote the general welfare."  The Post Office encouraged swift delivery of the mails, ordered the construction of post roads  and designed "United States Mail Stages." A growing network of mail coaches from New England to Washington, D.C., George Washington declared, was "an establishment, which I had conceived to be of great importance." By the 1780s, papers advertised "The Flying Stage Coaches" of the "Swiftsure Line."  (Scroll down to "III. Stage Coaches")

However, until the great turnpike movement of the early nineteenth century transformed the rocky trails of the Northeast into decent roads, "The Shake Gut Line" could have applied to all stagecoaching. Relay or Swing stations were about 12 miles apart, while cozy taverns providing warm meals, beds, and usually the post office, were 40 miles distant.

Key man was the driver, usually a wiry New Englander, who ruled route, riders, and coach. Since a kid, he had practiced with six lines on a reining rig, learning to manipulate them all simultaneously. Only a light touch told a horse what to do, keeping its mouth uncalloused and "sweet" — often a verbal command did the job. The loud popping of a whip impressed passengers.

Rough roads brought forth the driver's skill. Passengers complained of "reckless speed," but the mail had to go through — or the company paid the government $1 per each delay of a half hour! Passengers who wished greater speed paid one-third more to be among the "limited," going day and night with the mails. Others who wished a more leisurely journey accepted the "accommodation" service.

One noted "whip" was elegantly-dressed Charlie Parkhurst, usually seen dashing around Providence, Rhode Island, with a team of matched grays. Parkhurst became one of those who made the transition West, guiding a coach and six out of Sacramento into the Gold Country when Wells Fargo opened in 1852. Thirty years later, death revealed that Charlie had made another transition: He was a SHE!

By the late 1820s, the mail coach had evolved — first at Albany, the jumping off point for the West, and nearby Troy, New York. James Reeside , who owned so many he was called the "Land Admiral," advertised his "Splendid Red Coaches" of Troy manufacture on his lines from Baltimore to Pittsburgh and Philadelphia to New York.

Coach design reached its peak at the stagecoach center of Concord, New Hampshire. There, Lewis Downing and J. Stephen Abbot used Yankee craftsmen to fashion iron, ash, oak, and other woods into strong, egg-shaped coach bodies, suspended on rocking bull-hide leather thoroughbraces. That Connecticut Yankee, Mark Twain, described the Concord coach as "an imposing cradle on wheels."

Most of Wells Fargo's current fleet of historic Concord coaches saw long service in the East, from the White Mountains of New Hampshire, to the bluegrass region of Kentucky. Of course, Concords moved West. In 1867, Wells Fargo ordered 30 from Abbot-Downing — its largest order ever — made extra sturdy and roomier. Wells Fargo paid $1,100 each for classy coaches with red bodies and straw carriages. From New Hampshire to California, Concords spanned the nation.

Ileana

Our tour season is certainly under way here in the Los Angeles museum. Every year, February through June is the time when most schools decide to come visit us. Something that came to mind recently, as I was doing one of my 4th grade tours, is how much things have really changed for women in the last 150 years, and how truly glad I am to be living in this century!

It came about as I was telling my students the story of Charlie Parkhurst.  Charlie was a renowned and skilled stage driver in his day — one of the best. He drove for almost 20 years here in California. He was short, slim, and kind of quiet, perhaps because of his high-pitched voice. When Charlie passed away and they were preparing his body for burial, they realized he had kept a huge secret his whole life.

To what that secret was, there are some very entertaining guesses from creative 4th graders:

"He was a robot?" 
"He was actually a thief?"
"He had a golden eye?" 

Someone always hits the bulls-eye: "He was a girl?"

Yes.

Her name was Charlotte. Of course, the reaction to this is usually a roomful of laughing kids. So what strikes me is how silly it seems to a child today that a woman should have to live as something she’s not.

And why? So we come upon a "vocab" word: discrimination. Despite the Delia Rawsons and Mary Fieldses  of those days, women were not readily hired by stage lines to be drivers. Women did not have the same rights or privileges  as men in the 19th century, or before. This is something we adults recognize, but it's a pretty new idea for these children.

What's interesting to me is how, as recently as 50 years ago , a 4th grade girl would have seen her world  in a very different light than one of my 4th grade girls today, who laughs at the thought of having to dress up as a man in order to do what you want to do in life. In order to be treated the same. In order to vote, as Charlie did in 1868.

And I wonder: Would I have had the courage to be a "Charlie?" Would you have seen a short, slim, quiet museum curator with a secret around 150 years ago?

Well, I'm glad that I — and these 4th grade girls — won't have to make a decision like that!

Charles

Rachelle Stewart works in Southern California for Wells Fargo, helping Team members develop their customer service skills. Rachelle is also a United States Marine. I asked Rachelle to give us a personal history that contributes to GBH's recognition of Women's History Month. Rachelle is a great banker and a great American, as her story reveals. But her story also demonstrates that one person doesn't just watch history roll past — she actively creates it. (CR)

As a proud United States Marine  and also a dedicated Wells Fargo team member, I was excited to learn of our company's commitment to honoring Women's History Month.

I enlisted at the young age of 17. As a former pageant queen and cheerleader of a small Southern town in east Tennessee, I entered into service to our country and continued that journey for 8 years, achieving the rank of Staff Sergeant. During my years of service from 1998-2006, I supported numerous training exercises in North America, Australia, Denmark, Norway, and Japan. My occupational specialty was Aircraft Maintenance for rotary and fixed wing.

While serving, I was very fortunate to receive the Montgomery G.I. Bill , along with academic scholarships, and complete my Bachelor's degree in Clinical Psychology  with an emphasis on Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder due to combat , from Middle Tennessee State University  in 2002. I was activated from the Reserves after 9/11, to support Operation Enduring Freedom  and Operation Iraqi Freedom  from coast to coast across the United States. Had it not been for an unexpected diagnosis of a chronic heart condition, I would still be in the fight for democracy and protection of the American way of life.

The Marine Corps is known as "The Few, The Proud."  Just how few women Marines there are may not be quite as well known. Females make up only 6% of the entire fleet. That is approximately 11,500 women contributing to the overall strength of what has become known as "America's 911," the United States Marine Corps. As the only branch of service to segregate by gender during boot camp, the Corps establishes the foundation of the core values — Honor, Courage, and Commitment  — while maintaining equality among all Marines. Women are forged into leaders, disciplined in the traditions of 234 years of God, Corps, and Country and remain Semper Fidelis  (Latin for "Always Faithful," the Marine Corps motto) to our mission and purpose.

Terms like "Devil Dog,"  "Leatherneck"  and "Jarhead"  are just as endearing to us females as to our male counterparts, because those names must be earned. Honor causes women Marines to hold themselves to the highest standards of excellence, ethically and morally. We define courage as the ability to face and overcome fear. It will steady you in times of stress, carry you through every challenge and aid you when facing the unknown. A spirit of determination and dedication is the commitment one finds in every female Marine. It is what compels her to serve and to seek excellence in everything she does.

These are the attributes I brought with me to Wells Fargo nearly 5 years ago while still serving in the Corps, then as a Reservist. I came to our company with a desire to exceed expectations and share my leadership abilities within a prosperous and highly developed organization that is deeply rooted in its history....

Terry Keir

In the nineteenth century, the sight of galloping horses pulling a stagecoach brought people to Wells Fargo for mail, packages, and news. Today the sight of two large, white horses in front of a stagecoach brings people — especially children — into the Wells Fargo History Museum in Minneapolis.

Located on the skyway level of the Wells Fargo building in Minneapolis , people walk past the museum every day. But since last December, the two horses keep catching people's attention and drawing them inside — both children and adults want to look at and touch them.

Seems everyone's fascinated by our large stuffed animals.

These large plush ponies have been petted and hugged. There are requests to sit on them ( not allowed — sorry!). The horses have been featured in many photographs over the past few months — people love having their picture taken with the horses. They attract many visitors to the museum, and though some only come in to see how soft the horses are or to take a picture with them, many stay longer to experience the rest of the museum.

There is also one interesting response from many children. As they pat the horses, it's fairly common for children to insert a finger in one of the horse's nostrils.

One day, we were commenting on this phenomenon and wondering what the kids were looking for as they "picked" the horse's nose. We thought it might be amusing to place something in a horse's nostril, and see how long it would take a visiting child to discover it . So we hid a Wells Fargo "gold" coin in a nostril one evening and wondered when it would be found.

Amazingly, the first child that came in the next morning went over to the horses, patted one's nose — and stuck her finger up the nostril containing the coin! It was quite funny, but the look of amazement on the little girl's face was the highlight of the day.

Our ponies are wonderful ambassadors for Wells Fargo. Perhaps they also contributed to Twin Cities Metro Magazine's Skyway Guide naming the Wells Fargo History Museum as "Best Place to Take the Kids." We won by a nose!

Charles

At the age of 14, Delia Hackett Rawson was the first — and perhaps the youngest — girl stage driver ever to carry the U.S. mail in California. She drove for her father's stage line on the hilly route from Ukiah to Lakeport, California. Delia Rawson's last regular run was in 1885, some 9 years after her first stage run.

What we know of Delia Rawson comes from a passage in some long-forgotten, unidentified newspaper article. We learned she delighted Mendocino County concertgoers with her singing talent. Delia was also the only woman to ever belong to the Pioneer Stage Drivers of California, and she served as its vice president. Eventually she moved to Southern California to grow oranges.

Delia Rawson was never specifically employed by Wells Fargo — that we know, anyway. She drove a stagecoach for a line that carried Wells Fargo & Co's Express, something most stagecoaches did after the era when Wells Fargo owned stagecoaches. In a nutshell, Wells Fargo had a vast stagecoach empire across the West from 1858 through the 1860s, but divested ownership of these coaches and routes. Wells Fargo then contracted with railroads and independently-owned stagecoach lines to continue carrying its express. Delia Rawson drove for one of these independently owned stagecoach lines.

By this account, Delia Rawson was talented and energetic. She lived her life and made her own history — part of which intersected with Wells Fargo's history. We won't try to take credit for her greatness, but we do thank her for sharing some of that greatness with us for a while.

Bob

Riding a stagecoach was an experience, whether going West overland, or just getting around locally, back East. One traveler was going 70 miles from Rome, Georgia , to Blue Mountain, Alabama, near Anniston.  His destination, through the Appalachian Mountains , was the railhead of the Alabama & Tennessee River Railroad.  After the trip, he concluded, "This was the most fantastic travelling of all my experience but I contrived to extract considerable from it that was 'funny.'"

We can chuckle along with his daughter, to whom he wrote:

Jan.19, 1868. Dear Lyra; I will write you my experience riding in a Stage from Rome Ga. to Blue Mountain, Alabama. We had a very dilapidated old creaking Stage coach loaded down ...

At each farm house as we came along in the afternoon we found somebody out in the road with a lot of chickens with their legs tied together in bunches of about six, and a basket of eggs, or a pail of butter for sale. The driver bought them all. He paid 25 cents a piece for the chickens, 25 cents per pound for the butter, and 15 cents a dozen for eggs. He piled the chickens on the top of the stage, the baskets of eggs inside, the butter in the boot of the stage, until at last we had about 6 dozen live chickens, five baskets and one box of eggs, several pails of butter, one can of oil, and a long cross cut saw.

The road was very rough with many streams of water without bridges. As we came along the old Stage creaked, the saw and boxes and pails clattered, the egg baskets tumbled about, the chicks crawled under the railing and hung with their heads down all around the top of the stage, and squalled and squawked; others on top to which their legs were tied, flopped their wings and cackled; one of the women was sea sick, their babies cried at the top of their voices, and (another passenger) wondered "how much furder' we got to go?" The sight was ludicrous enough.

We met an old lady on a pony and frightened the pony nearly to death. One of the passengers had to get out and lead the pony off into the woods till we passed. After dusk we arrived at the home of the driver, where it turned out that he kept a Boarding House for a gang of men who were building a Railroad and his purchases were to supply the table. Love to all

PAPA

Charles

Casey's 20-odd-day trip across the West re-created the first Overland stagecoach journey in 1858. All the while he was out there, Casey and his traveling partners photographed, videoed, interviewed, presented, shook hands and made friends. Oh yeah — they fought a hurricane, too.

The trip ended on October 10th as Casey rolled into San Francisco to a noisy celebration. We all celebrated Casey's feat, the legacy of the stagecoach and a job well done. Guided By History is proud to be part of Casey's magnificent journey. Welcome home, old friend! (CR)