Vintage Wells Fargo & Co Express Porcelain Enamel Sign

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Vintage Wells Fargo & Co Express Porcelain Enamel Sign

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Sold Date: 10/03/2007
Channel: Online Auction
Source: eBay
Category: Advertising

~~ VINTAGE ~~

WELLS FARGO & CO

EXPRESS

You Are Bidding On A Very Rare Condition!

Porcelain Enamel Advertising Sign

Bottom Reads: Railroad Supplies Co.

California St. S.F.

Condition: Near Mint~ Has Some very Light Wear

by Bolt Holes Has almost no Scrathes Small One

Just left of "W" In Wells Contains Very Nice Gloss Finish!

100% ORIGINAL!!

This Is A KEEPER!

Will Ship Anyw In the U.S.A.!

A Little History:

Wells Fargo was the brain child of Henry Wells and William G. Fargo. Henry Wells was born in Thetford, Vermont in 1805. He moved to New York when he was eight. When he was 22, he opened a school for curing speech defects in Rochester, possibly because of his own stammer. He married Sarah Daggett. At some point, he went to work for William F. Harnden, who is considered the "father of the express." In 1842, he met William G. Fargo, from Onondaga County, New York. He had been an agent for a railroad and an express company.

In 1845, they formed a joint company that provided express services to Cincinnati, St. Louis, and Chicago. Wells sold his interest to Fargo a short time later and moved to New York City w he formed Livingston, Wells & Co. Meanwhile, Fargo had formed Livingston, Fargo & Co. Livingston died in 1847. So in 1850, the two companies merged with John Butterfield's company, Butterfield, Wasson & Co. since they realized that competing against each other would only drive them all out of business. They were now called the Americans Express Company. Wells was the first president. Fargo was the secretary. John Butterfield was the line superintendent.

They had been interested in going west and the gold rush seemed to be the impetus for it. But they waited a big to make sure the rush wasn't just a flash in the pan. Wells Fargo Co. organized in New York in March 1852. They made their first announcement advertising transportation between New York and San Francisco. They arrived in San Francisco in July 1852. Reuben W. Washburn and Samuel P. Carter set up an office t on Montgomery Street. After that they made a deal with Hurtado and Brothers for quick ocean express through Panama. By 1854, they had 24 offices in California. They struggled against the competition from Adams & Co. and Page, Bacon & Co. Then t was a depression in 1855 and both companies folded. Then Wells Fargo had a monopoly on all the business west of the Rockies.

The first vehicles they used were the Concord stages, shipped around the Horn and landed at San Francisco. It cost about $1,500 for the stage, another $1,500 for the harnesses, and $3,000 for three good horses. The coaches were made by hand, no assembly lines, by Abbot and Downing. They were painted red with yellow and black trim. The age weighed a little over 2,000 lbs. It was designed to carry 15 passengers and their baggage.

San Francisco was their headquarters, but Sacramento was their base of operations, on route to all the major gold camps. In 1857, $43 million was taken out of California mines, most of it carried by Wells Fargo. By that time, they had 87 express offices, mostly in California. That year they tried an experiment. They shipped the first ice to Los Angeles.

Fires were a problem for them too. An example is the Grass Valley fire of 1855. The agent Delano was asleep in their building when the alarm went off, and the building was already on fire. The entire town of 300 buildings was burned to the ground that day.

By 1861, shipping perishable foodstuffs such as oysters and butter to mining camps. They once delivered, a fire engine pumper from Baltimore to Sacramento. It had even taken over the Pony Express in its last days in 1861. Before the Comstock boom, Wells Fargo had been strictly in the express banking business, and most of the material they transported was sent on stages owned by someone else. Just in time, they bought a stage line running straight from the Washoe to Sacramento via Placervi...