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People (May 2005)

On March 18, 2005, Wells Fargo & Company celebrated its 153rd anniversary. The company was founded by two innovative business men, Henry Wells and William Fargo. They realized the need for their express services on the western frontier, with the discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill. What started out as an express business, Wells Fargo & Company has developed into one of the leading financial institutions in the world.

(Source: www.wellsfargo.com and www.famousamericans.net)

Henry Wells (1805-1878). The Easterner who dreamed of the West.

"This is a great country and a greater people!" - Henry Wells wrote these words in a letter from San Francisco in 1853 -- less than a year after the founding of Wells, Fargo & Co. And he meant what he said. For even though an Easterner, born and raised, he always looked beyond the horizon. "Westward, ever westward" was a motto he was to live by all his life.

Born in Thetford, Vermont in 1805, Henry Wells was the son of a Congregationalist clergyman who moved to New York when Henry was eight. At 22 -- because he was a stutterer himself -- Henry opened a school for the treatment of speech defects. But the country was on the move and Henry Wells wanted to be part of the adventure. In 1836 he went to work as a freight agent on the Erie Canal. By the 1840s, he had his own express company that brought the rapid movement of valuables to the West of his youth -- all the way from Albany to distant St. Louis.

In 1841 he also met William Fargo. It was an historical get-together. With other visionaries, the two men formed the American Express Company in 1850. Wells was elected president -- a position he held until 1868.

Now both Wells and Fargo had the same dream of expanding westward. Gold had been discovered in California. There was an insatiable need for express and banking services in the West. And when they were unable to convince American Express to join the rush to California, the two men and their associates formed Wells, Fargo & Co. -- a company that was soon busy buying gold dust, selling drafts and doing a general banking and express business throughout the West. And Henry Wells' vision paid off. When he made his historic visit to California in 1853, he was able to proudly say about his new company, "We are now after 7 months operation making money here." Wells and Fargo continued to bring financial backing and delivery service to thousands of men and women across the young nation. Wells went on the build the first commercial telegraph lines in the United States. He worked for cheap mail delivery. And after a long and distinguished business career, established Wells College for women.

William Fargo (1818-1881). The man who could see from coast to coast.

William Fargo could envision the future better than most men of his time. The co-founder of Wells, Fargo & Co., he saw the nation's approaching need for better shipping and transportation systems. For improved communications. For faster delivery of news. So he made it his job to bring the country closer together.

The eldest of twelve children, William Fargo was born in Pompey, New York. As a boy he worked on his father's farm and attended school in the winter. At thirteen -- as a mail carrier in his home town --he had already started working toward his goals.

In the 1841 Fargo became the first freight agent of Auburn, New York. His business abilities attracted the attention of Henry Wells -- the owner of the express service -- who hired him. First a messenger for Wells, then a partner, he ran express operations west of Buffalo.

Both men helped organize the American Express Company. And Fargo served as the company's president from 1868 until his death. After the discovery of gold in California, Wells and Fargo saw the desperate need of Westerners for expanded banking and express facilities. American Express was happy to stay in the East. So Fargo made his historic decision with Wells to found Wells Fargo & Co.-- a company that was soon busy buying gold dust, selling drafts and doing a general banking and express business.

The two entrepreneurs also built a stagecoaching empire that spanned the West. In fact, in 1863 Fargo came to California overland by stagecoach. He made good use of his stay. While in the Golden State, Fargo worked with the Sacramento Valley Railroad in an attempt to build a railroad across the Sierra Nevada. He also laid the foundation for the Grand Consolidation of 1866 that gave Wells Fargo responsibility for all overland staging west of the Missouri River.

President of Wells, Fargo & Co. from 1870 to 1872, Fargo never lost interest in people and the need to communicate. He was the Democratic mayor of Buffalo during the Civil War and a director of the Northern Pacific Railroad, which named one of their railroad towns for him -- Fargo, North Dakota.