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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

Joycee Wong is Curator at Wells Fargo's San Francisco History Museum. (Her previous blog is here!) For Hispanic Heritage Month, Joycee reflects on the common sense we all have of celebrating family and life, whether we hail from Oaxaca or Hong Kong. (CR)

Recently, I went to the memorial park to pay respects to my dearest mom on the 4th anniversary of her death, lugging 2 large handle bags. In them were some flowers and vases, a thermos of tea and a freshly made scone, a camera (to capture the visit and share with out-of-town family later), a few old letters (to reminisce) and some tissues (for the inevitable tears). All this was my paraphernalia for a visitation to my mother's columbarium where her ashes are kept in a peaceful sanctuary.

I am reminded of the similarities between cultures when I saw a flyer a few days earlier about "Day of the Dead"  celebrations that will take place this month among many Hispanic families.

If you've never heard of it, "Day of the Dead" (El Día de los Muertos)  isn't some macabre Halloween game, but a time-honored tradition going back almost 3000 years. This holiday focuses on gatherings of families and friends, for prayer and to remember friends and family who have died. Traditions include building private altars, making sugar skulls, displaying marigolds and serving the favorite foods and beverages of the departed. Everyone visits graves with these gifts.

As a Chinese-American, I grew up with light touches of traditions on the multitude of Chinese holidays and celebrations, including those honoring our deceased loved ones. Growing up in Hong Kong, I remember periodic excursions to the cemetery where my parents and sisters — saddled with armloads of food, flowers, and cleaning supplies — spent a few hours with my paternal grandmother who was buried there. Honoring the dead according to Chinese customs require certain rituals, which our family followed to some degree....

Ileana

Picture this: It's 1886, you're a restaurant owner in Aguascalientes, Mexico, and you need a new refrigerator. (Yes, they had them! Not your Frigidaire  or anything, but they had them.) You would especially like one of the latest, most efficient models, but can't find one anywhere. What do you do?

Wells Fargo has you covered.

We're currently celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month, and I found it the perfect time to share one of my favorite artifacts at our L.A. museum. We call it the Guia. The whole name is quite a mouthful: "The "Guide for the Department of Sales and Commissions of Wells Fargo: Where and How to Buy American-Manufactured Items." This Spanish-language guide was printed in 1886, and it's basically a guide Mexican consumers and business owners could use to purchase a variety of items from the U.S. Wells Fargo had many offices in Mexico and would ship all over the country. The company had guides like this handy for customers. Agents would have samples of products and prices, and they took orders.

The introduction to the guide states that gone are the days of "taking advantage of friends and acquaintances who travel" by asking them to get you so-and-so item during their visit abroad (I think many of us are occasionally guilty of this even today, though) or entrusting such orders to strangers.

Wells Fargo's Express was easier, faster and more reliable. You just placed your order at an office, and you could get American-made items delivered to you from hundreds of miles away!

The items offered in the Guia were ones that were difficult to find or not found at all in Mexican markets. Making it convenient for people to order all sorts of items certainly helped the development of modern commerce in Mexico.

This guide is definitely a fun "read." It has any kind of item you can think of: shoes, carriages, farming equipment, dentist tools, cookies, music boxes, dried coconut...you name it!

And yes, refrigerators.

Charles

It’s a long career path from bank teller to Treasurer of the United States .

Katherine Davalos Ortega was Treasurer of the United States during the administrations of Presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush, (1983-1989) As Treasurer, Davalos Ortega’s signature appeared on millions of dollars of U.S. currency. But her first job in finance was as a teller at the community bank in her rural hometown of Tularosa, New Mexico .

While in high school, Davalos Ortega worked at Otero County State Bank to earn money for college. This bank, where the future Treasurer of the United States began her career, became a part of Wells Fargo in 1999. While in school, Davalos Ortega aspired to become a teacher, but she learned she likely would not be hired for a teaching position. In those years, prior to the huge movement for Civil Rights , routine discrimination plauged women and minorities. Davalos Ortega entered the accounting field instead, climbing steadily in accounting and financial services firms. In 1975 she became chief executive of Santa Ana State Bank, and the first woman bank president in California.

As her influence expanded, Davalos Ortega had become active in politics. She served on several federal commissions and advisory councils, and in 1983, was nominated as Treasurer by President Reagan. Davalos Ortega was the tenth woman and second Latina to hold the post. As Treasurer of the United States, Ortega oversaw production of coins and currency and the United States Savings Bond program. She also raised $40 million, through commemorative coin sales, to restore the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Davalos Ortega gave the keynote speech at the 1984 Republican National Convention, the first woman of Hispanic descent to deliver a keynote at a national political convention.

Treasurer Davalos Ortega left her post, and Washington, in 1989. She returned to her family’s financial business in New Mexico, where she served on several corporate boards. In recognition of her lifetime achievements and rise from humble beginnings to the highest levels of public service, she received the Horatio Alger Award  in 2002.

Treasurer Davalos Ortega acknowledged her heritage at her swearing-in  in 1983. "And so," she said, "it is with a deep sense of honor and pride that I shall serve as our country's 38th Treasurer. And following the Hispanic tradition, I have chosen to have my name appear on our currency as Katherine Davalos Ortega. For in doing so, I will be honoring my father as well as my mother. Thank you."

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!

Charles

Amanda Hopper is an interpreter at the Old Sacramento History Museum, where she presents Wells Fargo's history to visitors. This is her second post for Guided by History. (CR)

A few days ago I was looking in a box on our desk that is filled with index cards   that explain all the items in our museum. One card refers to a photograph of a man leaning against a pile of silver bars in our "safe room.". The caption to the image reads: "In 1877, Madison Larkin guarded silver from Arizona's Tip Top  Mine."

The index card for the image reads, "Larkin's tenure as Wells Fargo Agent was fairly short but dramatic. He is the bold, alert fellow with the double-barrel shotgun cradled in his left arm; often pictured guarding a Wells Fargo treasure box and a huge pile of silver bullion." The information comes from the book Wells Fargo in Arizona Territory  by John and Lillian Theobald. (Tempe, Ariz. 1978)

This card really sparked my interest. I wanted to know what happened to Madison Larkin. Was he killed? What was so dramatic about his time with Wells Fargo?

I began looking through all the books in our "cave" (our nickname for the backroom) and searched the blog to see if anyone had written about him. I asked Martha, who works with me here, if she knew anything about him. (Martha is the one who made all the index cards in the first place — plus, she knows EVERYTHING.)

After a little searching, she was able to answer all my questions about Mr. Larkin....

Charles

In August, 1774, Meriwether Lewis was born. Four years earlier in August, William Clark was born. (Both in Virginia.) In August, 1803, Lewis and Clark's Corps of Discovery  was moving its way up the Missouri River. A year after that, the men prepared to meet with the Shoshone  people of Sacagawea , their guide.

I am reading Stephen Ambrose's Undaunted Courage:  Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West. (New York: 1996) Ambrose is a fine storyteller, arguably the most important attribute for an Historian (Social Sciences strictures  notwithstanding).

Now, I'm also reading Blue Highways: A Journey into America  by William Least Heat-Moon (Boston: 1982) and David M. Kennedy's Freedom from Fear:  The American People in Depression and War, 1929-1945  (New York: 1999). The three have in common a talent for narrative — the way these writers tell the story is as compelling as what they are telling.

Anyway, Lewis  and Clark  took their Corps across the continent and back, over a three-year journey that mapped waterways, noted terrain and encountered original Americans. The expedition hunted a lot — I mean both often and in volume. The 30 or so people on the trek seemed to bring down several deer in several hunting parties. Either they ate a lot or wasted a lot, I can't be sure.

The expedition spent 4-month winters in camp, but moved as soon as possible and kept on till the last possible day. The Corps kept volumes of journals , accumulated a grand amount of scientific specimens, and sent the lot of it back East regularly. When they ended up in Oregon, watching the Columbia River meet the Pacific, they were as awestruck in that moment as you hope they'd be.

I remember learning of Lewis and Clark in elementary school. They are surely names in the American canon, and everyone knows they explored the country way back when, before the U.S. got further than Pennsylvania.

What we find out, though, with a little historical investigation — I just went to the library for a half hour — is that the Lewis and Clark expedition was a really big deal. They found out everything that people in 1805 wanted to know, in order to start rushing west and cutting down forests. The expedition took years, and they walked the whole way.

And they consumed venison like nobody's business.

Casey

As any fan of "Antiques Roadshow"  knows, there are two moments that we all relish. One, when someone brings an item that they purchased at a yard sale for $1.50 to find that it's worth $10,500. The stunned looks, the shaking, the "Are you kidding me?!" — all priceless.

The other is that moment when a person finds out that great-grandma's vase, supposedly purchased from Tiffany , was actually purchased at Woolworth's.  The stunned looks, the shaking, the "Are you kidding me?!"— priceless.

Well, just the other day I had my own "Antiques Roadshow" Moment. Since my great-grandmother never claimed to have purchased anything from Tiffany, I was not the receiver of bad news, but the giver.

A gentleman came into the museum in Old Town San Diego, proudly holding a belt buckle in his hand. He walked up to me and said quite confidently, "I have this brass buckle from Wells Fargo Express. Says 'Made in England' on it and has the royal seal. Can you tell me about it?"

I took a deep breath, knowing what I had to do.

I said, "Unfortunately, sir, it's not an antique Wells Fargo belt buckle."

You see, Wells Fargo & Co.'s Express never made nor commissioned belt buckles.  Wells Fargo Bank did make belt buckles in the 1970s as gift items, but these are clearly marked as "commemorative." Apparently someone in the UK, operating with the name "Tiffany's of London" made tens of thousands of buckles in the late 1960s and early 1970s. For decades, hundreds of dealers have pawned them off as "authentic," antique Wells Fargo Express belt buckles. One story has it that these buckles were worn by Wells Fargo agents.

The only problem is: There were never tens of thousands of agents.

Charles

On this day in 1969, astronauts first walked on the moon. 

I was a little kid when it happened. (No age jokes — I'll hit you with my cane!) My parents roused my brothers and sisters and me from our sleep and plopped us in front of the TV. It was a Sunday night during summer vacation, so we'd be able to sleep in the next day. (So would Mom. Dad was not so lucky.)

Bleary-eyed, we watched the event, and I remember my Mom and sister wept softly.

I was too dumb to be overwhelmed with emotion. As a kid, the event was like a TV show to me, and the picture was lousy.

Also, news bulletins about the mission were interrupting everything on TV and radio that whole week. To a kid, that's simply unfair.

On the other hand, I was fully stocked with G.I. Joe  and Major Matt Mason  stuff, so I had all the tools to play out the events as they happened.

I remember two things about my consciousness of that moment: my inability to fully wake up, and the sense that the images on our Zenith of men on the moon were a whole lot bigger than the Tigers' World Series win  the previous fall.

We watched the events that whole week on CBS. We were a Cronkite household. (My wife grew up in a NBC, Huntley-Brinkley  household. Neither of us can even imagine anything different.)

Last week, Walter Cronkite passed away  and the tributes to him include his round-the-clock coverage of Apollo 11.

It was a labor of love: Cronkite really dug space exploration work. They keep showing that clip of Cronkite rubbing his hands with happiness , beaming unashamedly, as the mission landed on the surface. It's fitting that he and Apollo 11 dominated weekend TV.

Just as they did 40 years ago.

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...."