Show WILLIAM G FARGO famous in the annals of the west la Is the name of wells forgo fargo tho the men who mode made it thus were henry wells born in new hampshire december 12 1805 and william george forgo fargo born in new york may 20 1818 wells got his start in the express business as lin an agent for william F Har harraden riden and in 1841 formed a partnership with george pomeroy to operate on an express business between albany and buffalo the venture was not a success and suspended operations for a time then it was resumed with the assistance of crawford livingston under the name of borne and companas Comp anys albany and buffalo express in 1842 william G fargo became a messenger for this company and that marked the beginning of the association of the two men which was destined to td make both of them famous after a number of reorganizations gani i ns and consolidations of the various express companies then in existence wells fargo and company emerged in 1852 to operate between new york and san francisco carrying gold and sliver silver out of the west and taking supplies into the gold regions since there were no railroads then in that part of the west wells fargo carried their valur able parcels on stagecoaches stage coaches and these treasure conches coaches soon be came the prey of highwaymen who inaugurated the stagecoach holdup hold up which has become such a Q familiar wild west tradition in 1857 the united states government asked for proposals from the express companies to transport the malls across the continent and wells k 04 7 fargo organized the overland mail company which carried I 1 mail express T matter and passengers by stage from sti st louis through now new mexico and arizona to los ani geles and san ti n VV 11 russell francisco then came the discovery of gold in colorado from the missouri river 2000 miles westward to california was a stretch of almost unknown wilderness without a single permanent settlement except the newly founded mormon colony in utah and a few posts established establish cd by the united states army but where gold was men supplies and news must go so a stage line called the central overland california and pikes peak express company was established by the freighting company of russell M majors vors sl and waddell to operate be tween st joseph mo and denver colo at that time W there was a mah route from Saram sacramento nto to salt lake city operated by ben holladay and another bebe ben holladay ay tween sacramento and salt lake run at infrequent intervals by john hockaday both of these enterprises were absorbed by the new express company which un der the leadership of W H russell conceived the daring idea of es establishing a regular fast mail route over the entire 2000 miles between st joseph and california californi Call for ni thus was the famous pony express born when the overland telegraph company was completed in 1862 1802 the usefulness of the pony E express x was at an end meanwhile its success and the threat of war had caused wells fargo to transfer its overland mail compa company from the southern route to the central route so wells walls fargo bought up three stage lines be tween salt lake city and sac and consolidated thein all into one from 1860 to 1869 it continued to run a stagecoach mail express and passenger service from st joseph to sacramento despite the perils of bliz zard and hostile indians when the union pacific rall rail road and the central pacific cacir ia met at promontory point utah in 1869 to form a transcontinental railroad wells fargo sold out its stagecoach business and reverted to ki its former role of express anti and banking company and in 1870 became eb the dominant express company in all the western territory |