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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.

Ryan

Here's an interesting question: What State had the first national bank charter on the Pacific Coast, and what city was it in?

While most people may think the first national bank was in California — and may guess San Francisco as the city — the first national bank on the Pacific Coast was actually chartered in Portland, Oregon. It preceded any California national bank by five years.

On July 4, 1865, a group of merchants and civic-minded Portlanders banded together and applied for a national bank charter under the name "First National Bank of Oregon." After months of waiting, the group found out that the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency  (OCC) had modified their application with a name of "First National Bank of Portland."  The OCC believed the "Oregon" name too general and that it might confuse creditors as to the bank's physical location. Within months, the bank had national bank notes with its name and 1553 charter number on-hand to circulate in the local community. (Remember that the first charter granted to a California institution was #1741 in 1870.)

First National Bank of Portland was the only national bank in Oregon until another was chartered in 1882. Even after competition blossomed, First National grew to be the largest bank in Oregon. It was known as a conservatively run bank, with regional correspondents in nearly all communities throughout the State.

In 1930, First National Bank of Portland became the cornerstone holding of A.P. Giannini's  start at building an interstate banking network — Transamerica  — long before others saw the need. With Giannini's support, First National Bank of Portland continued an amazing growth trend, through acquisitions and new branch openings, even during the depth of the Great Depression. 

In 1981, the old "First National" freshened up its name as First Interstate Bank of Oregon, N.A., part of a uniform banking franchise that spanned eleven western states. Fifteen years later, First Interstate Bank of Oregon would cede its banking charter as part of FIB's merger with Wells Fargo.

Consequently, Wells Fargo has roots not only to the first national bank in California, but also the first national bank on the West Coast!

Trudy

My 2 ½-year old grand-daughter already scrambles up on my lap when I sit down in front of the computer, and asks, "Are you checking your e-mail?"

Even at her young age, she isn't intimidated by technology. Her generation's baby and toddler toys  are geared to emulate or teach or entertain using technology. It stands to reason that today it would not be necessary for a bank to try and "humanize" its automated teller machine by putting a pretty face and cute name on it.

That's because no one is afraid of technology now — except me.

First National Bank of Atlanta , a Wachovia predecessor, was concerned that the relatively new automated teller machine (ATM) it introduced in 1974 would appear cold and difficult to use.

In those days, customers were accustomed to walking inside a bank and chatting with a pleasant teller. So First National named their ATM "Tillie the All Time Teller,"  and put the face of a smiling blonde girl on the front of the machine. "Tillie" looked inviting to customers and suggested that the machine was highly user-friendly.

Did it work? In a word, yes. Tillie launched one of the most successful ATM systems in the banking industry.

In their efforts to promote Tillie, First National hired a blonde actress who wore a red and white polka-dotted dress in TV ads. She sang: "I'm Tillie the All time Teller, I work for First National Bank" as she stood beside the machine. In another Tillie ad, a balding, middle-aged man approached the machine singing, to the tune of the classic "If You Knew Susie": 

Oh, if you knew Tillie like I know Tillie
Oh, oh, oh, what a girl!
She works to please me, to make life easy
Oh, oh, she makes my banking smooth and breezy
Day or nighttime, I don't care
When I need money, I know my all-time teller's there!
If you knew Tillie, like I know Tillie
Oh, oh, oh!

Charles

Ryan Baum is Senior Vice President of Finance in Wells Fargo's Asset Management Group. He joined Wells Fargo in 1992, fresh from graduate school, and participated in Wells Fargo's mergers with First Interstate, Norwest, and now Wachovia. Ryan is also a Supply Corps Reserve Officer in the US Navy, deployed to Kuwait in 2006-07. He is a member of the Wells Fargo Military Veterans Resource Group.

Ryan has collected coins since he was five years old and is a life member of both the American Numismatic Association   and the Carson City Coin Collectors of America.  His fascination with coins, the California gold rush, and Wells Fargo's history brings otherwise dull trivia to life — and makes the past relevant with today. (CR)

Back in November 2007, I attended a coin convention in Santa Clara, California. I was looking for the "usual suspects" —Carson City coins , Indian Head Pennies  and numismatic oddities.  Since it was late in the day and many of the tables had already closed, I stopped by a paper money dealer and searched through his national banknotes. Although I had known a little about national banknotes during my 20 years of coin collecting , I had not paid too much attention to them since they were more esoteric and above my spending limit when I was in high school and college.

The dealer had a bank note from a San Francisco bank that looked interesting. The note was from the First National Bank of San Francisco and had a "P1741" stamped on it. I asked if he knew what became of the bank. He didn't know. Just for fun I bought this note along with a couple of others, and wondered about its history. Little did I know that this purchase would change my collecting interests and unlock a treasure of research and a direct connection to today's Wells Fargo.

Let's now move back in time to trace the history of this note and "P1741...."

Charles

Last week, Benjamin Edwards III passed away at the age of 77. Mr. Edwards was the longtime CEO of A.G. Edwards, Inc.  The company became part of Wachovia Securities  in 2007, and became a part of Wells Fargo last year.

His great-grandfather, Albert Gallatin Edwards, was the founder of the St. Louis-based brokerage firm. Mr. Edwards joined the firm in 1956 after serving in the U.S. Navy. Ten years later, he was the Managing Partner, then President soon after. In 2001, Mr. Edwards stepped down from day-to-day operations and became Chairman Emeritus.

Under Mr. Edwards' leadership, A.G. Edwards  grew to one of the nation's largest investment firms. Equity capital  grew from $3.5 million in 1965 to $1.6 billion in 2001. Over that same 36 years, A.G. Edwards grew from 44 offices to nearly 700; from 300 financial consultants to 7,000.

Mr. Edwards established a culture of "client first" at A.G. Edwards, where the Golden Rule  became a foundation of business policy. Mr. Edwards was a firm believer as well in making the company a positive place to work. Active in community service and in financial industry affairs, he was married for over 50 years, with four children and 11 grandchildren.

In Mr. Edwards' final letter to shareholders in 2001, he wrote: “I couldn't have scripted a better career...May we always put our clients' interests first, and may we always enjoy our work together.”

Christy

Generally when I think of mascots, I think of sports teams, such as Phillie Phanatic  of the Philadelphia Phillies.  Rarely would I think of a bank having a mascot. Yet by working in the Wells Fargo Corporate Archives, I can tell you that many banks have had mascots over the years.

Mascots , by definition, are animals, people or objects that are "charms" thought to bring good luck. The mascot then becomes a symbol of the group that has adopted it. Wells Fargo's early days saw the use of dogs for protection and companionship, which led to Jack the Dog as the Wells Fargo mascot.

Recently I received an email letting me know that we will be acquiring a full-size costume of "Lucky." Lucky is coming to us from our friends in Texarkana , thanks to the recent merger of Century Bank with Wells Fargo.

And what exactly is Lucky? Well, a giant number seven , of course! Lucky was made to represent the seven-day banking service that Century provided. And with a name like that, how could he not provide good fortune?!

Wells Fargo's Corporate Archives has two other full-size costumes and various other products of other mascots within its collections. Both of these costumes come from the Norwest Corporation collection. One is Buddy Bear and the other is Barney the Snowman. As we needed some visuals to go with this post, Barney magically came to life in our offices...

Do you have a favorite mascot? Send me a comment of your tale!

Sue

After spending the last 20 years working in Wachovia's corporate archives, it shouldn't surprise me when I come across historical milestone gems while researching totally unrelated topics. It happened again last week. I probably wouldn't have even noticed this particular 1958 oral history, but since March is Women's History Month, it caught my eye.

Miss Jay Spencer Knapp had no idea just how far ahead of her time she was when she became Atlanta's first female bank officer in 1921. She had come to work for the Lowry National Bank  — a predecessor bank of First Atlanta, and subsequently Wachovia  — in 1904.

Her position was to be the secretary and stenographer for all bank officers at Lowry, including its founder and president, Colonel Robert Lowry. She recalled that "Colonel Lowry was not very interested in letter writing as he was an active man in his early years. Even in his late years, he preferred talking to customers and making contacts to sitting at his desk and handling office routine.";

Miss Knapp handled all banking done by mail, and prepared all of the cashier's checks. At that time, the officers' desks were along the rail that separated the office space from the banking room floor. Her desk was in the middle of this group so she was able to watch the everyday flow of business and take notes when the officers consulted with each other.

Later Miss Knapp became Mr. H. Warner Martin's personal secretary when he became vice president. She remembered that "Mr. Martin was a very quiet and retiring man and not much of a mixer or sociable being. He was very serious about his banking."; Martin had risen through the ranks and became president in 1921.

On the evening before the annual directors meeting in January 1921, Mr. Martin paid Miss Knapp a visit. He told her he was going to nominate her the next day for an officer's post in the bank. Miss Knapp told him if he thought she was qualified to be an assistant cashier, she would be proud to have the job.

She had worked closely with many bankers for years and remembered with pride the letters that flowed in from bankers across the country congratulating her on her election.

Just two years after her election as a bank officer, she became the vice president for the Southern Region in the Association of Bank Women. 

In 1928, Miss Knapp's uncle, who lived in Paris, invited her to visit. She decided that 25 years in the banking business had been long enough. She turned in her letter of resignation, effective March 30, 1929. She reflected on her banking career with a great deal of fondness, recalling her years working in the bank as "a very good connection which was the source of many of my lasting friendships."

We are very proud of the career accomplishments of Miss Jay Spencer Knapp. She was certainly among a very elite group of career women 88 years ago!

Trudy

You will know my age when I reveal that the song "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In,"  flower power  and the Women's Liberation movement   were big news when I was in college. Women were demanding more career options, and the great push to "have it all" was driving 1950s-era stereotypes to the curb.

My generation may tend to think that it broke the glass ceiling  for women, but in reality, the ceiling was at least cracked, decades before us. There were women — and men — who truly got it: We all can make invaluable contributions when provided the opportunity. Wachovia took this progressive viewpoint in an October 1909 issue of its magazine, The Solicitor:

The old story that the place for women is at home, or that they should be queens of households, is an insult to the progress and to the new social age...The absurdity of such an idea is sufficient to cause an acute attack of indigestion.

There is no phase of work or profession that woman has entered today that she has not blessed mankind and raised its standard of conduct...By this office work ladies become more self-reliant, self-supporting, and self-respecting. How supremely more gracious it is to see a lady performing proficiently the work of the bookkeeper or stenographer in a business office, than it is to see her wedged into a "H.M.T." buggy, or hanging on the arm of a moral shark in the ballroom, or fondling a poodle dog or a bull pup with a blue ribbon waving from its tail.

The idler, male or female, is out of place in this age of activity and equal rights. The business woman is by no means the cold, heartless being that a few effeminate men would have you believe she is. She knows a tax receipt from a bank note, a man from a suit of clothes, and a business proposition from a ‘gold-brick' scheme, whether it be in matrimony or barter.

Another astute writer noted in a March 1910 issue that "It often happens that a thrifty woman, unknown to other members of her household, will manage to save a dollar here and there, where a man could not, and many a family has been tided over periods of misfortune by this foresight of a wife or mother."

Sue's post last month described the Ladies Room at Wachovia, where women were encouraged to do their banking in an area set aside just for them. Wachovia knew that women held the purse strings in many homes-- if they were not working themselves. The bank sought them as customers long before they received the right to vote in 1920. 

John Watlington, CEO of Wachovia from 1956 to 1976, oversaw a dramatic increase in the number of female employees in management, policy development and officer positions. Mr. Watlington used to tell a story about Miss Cora Hart, who was the lone woman bookkeeper when he joined Wachovia in 1933. The head of the department had returned from the First World War and found, to his dismay, several women working in his department. He managed to get rid of all of them — except Miss Cora. According to Mr. Watlington, "she was as tough as he was, so she stuck it out."

By 1999, women accounted for 75 percent of Wachovia's work force and were represented at all levels of the company. 52 percent of the bank's officers were women and 151 females were in positions of senior vice president or above.

Clearly, Wachovia appreciated the contributions women made long before the dawning of the Age of Aquarius! 

Trudy

Last Friday, we introduced the first blog by Wachovia's Archivist, Sue Choate. Today, Guided By History introduces her colleague, Trudy Cox. Trudy has worked in the Archives for 16 years, is a former teacher and is active at church. Wells Fargo and Wachovia are very proud of our histories, and this blog is very proud to welcome our friends in Winston-Salem! (CR)

Until I became one, the word "archivist" conjured up an image of a humorless, bespectacled little old lady sitting on a wooden stool, leafing through old leather ledgers as dust particles prompt an occasional cough. Eventually I found out that wooden stools, old ledgers and dust particles don't make you lose your sense of humor.

Not only that, but a Wachovia employee from decades ago provided me proof that laughter is as timeless as good customer service.

Any student of the unusual name "Wachovia" quickly learns that it carried much meaning for the Moravian  settlers of North Carolina. Because the Moravians had such affection for their European benefactor, Count Von Zinzendorf , they chose to purchase land in the Piedmont area  of North Carolina, which reminded them of Zinzendorf's ancestral home in Germany. The beautiful "Der Wachau" valley  beside the Danube River  inspired the Moravians to name their new home "Der Wachau," which eventually became the more easily pronounced "Wachovia."

Being more easily pronounced did not mean that it was more easily spelled, however.

In the 1930s, a bank employee with a keen sense of humor noticed unusual spellings on correspondence coming to the bank. He began keeping a file of envelopes and letters sent to employees of Wachovia Bank where the spelling of Wachovia was, well...anything but Wachovia! It is a tribute to the United States Postal Service  that the letters reached the folks for whom they were intended.

Many letters were addressed to Wachovia in Wachovia, North Carolina. One that reached the bank was sent to Wachovia, Winston-Salem, North Charleston, South Carolina! If only a small portion of the address was correct, it seems that the letter still made its way to someone at the well-respected Wachovia. Indeed, one envelope was addressed to "Leading Bank" and another had a drawn logo on the front of the envelope! We can only hope the writer of another envelope was not planning a trip to Winston-Salem, as the address read "Wicaavia Bank Building, Winston Street, Salem, North Carolina."

Other bank name variations on addresses included: Witcheovia, Wychavoia, Wachtoria, Wacovici, W.A. Chovia, Wahozia, Wacleavia, Washoma, Jachovia, Hachova and Qachovia!

As I continue to research questions about the origin of the name Wachovia and refer to this file, I am always reminded that archiving can be fun, that humor is essential, and that bankers really do know how to laugh.