Wells Fargo

Wells Fargo, multinational financial services company with headquarters in San Francisco, California. The founders of the original company were Henry Wells (1805–78) and William George Fargo (1818–81), who had earlier helped establish the American Express Company. They and other investors established Wells, Fargo & Company in March 1852 to handle the banking and express business prompted by the California Gold Rush. In California the company handled the purchase, sale, and transport of gold dust, bullion, and specie and other goods that moved from the West to the East Coast by ship, crossing overland via the Isthmus of Panama.

In the decade following 1855, Wells Fargo expanded into the staging business with overland routes from Missouri and the Midwest to the Rockies and the Far West. It operated the western portion of the Pony Express route, from Salt Lake City to San Francisco, during the last six months of that venture’s operation, in 1861. In 1866 a grand consolidation brought almost all Western stagecoach lines under the Wells Fargo name, leaving the company with the largest empire of stagecoaches in the world. Although the days of stagecoaching gradually declined after completion of the first transcontinental railroad in 1869, Wells Fargo coaches continued to serve areas where the railroads did not operate, in some places even into the early 20th century.

But during the heyday of stagecoaching, few names were more well-known than Wells Fargo. Its agents and messengers gained a national reputation for their derring-do—for getting the express through regardless of obstacles—as well as for their professionalism. Henry Wells demanded that courtesy dominate all transactions, and the company served all, regardless of creed, colour, or gender. Tales of the express, not the bank, made the name Wells Fargo famous, and its transcontinental delivery operations gave rise to the company’s most-enduring symbol, the horse-drawn nine-passenger Concord (New Hampshire) stagecoach, a fleet of which the company operated for public events into the 21st century. Of keen interest to highway robbers of the day was the company’s heavy green treasure box stowed under the driver’s seat, where gold bars, coins, financial papers, and the passengers’ valuables were stored. These boxes were fiercely guarded by an armed company agent, as many stagecoach bandits discovered to their detriment; the legendary gunslinger Wyatt Earp was one such guard. To showcase this colourful past, the company later established museums in cities across the United States.

In 1905 Wells Fargo’s banking operations (in California) were separated from its express operations and merged with the Nevada National Bank (founded 1875) to form the Wells Fargo Nevada National Bank. In 1923 this bank merged with the Union Trust Company (founded 1893) to form the Wells Fargo Bank & Union Trust Co., a name that was shortened to Wells Fargo Bank in 1954. In 1960 it merged again, this time with the giant American Trust Company (dating to 1854), to form the Wells Fargo Bank American Trust Company. In 1969 the holding company Wells Fargo & Company came into being; it owned all shares of Wells Fargo Bank, NA, as the bank was renamed. By the early 21st century, Wells Fargo Bank had thousands of retail branches in the United States and had become one of the country’s largest banks, providing services including banking, mortgages, insurance, and financial management. It also established a global presence through subsidiaries, affiliates, and retail branches.

Other companies have also possessed rights to use the Wells Fargo name. Wells Fargo the express carrier eventually disappeared; in 1918 its domestic operations were taken over by American Railway Express Company (reorganized in 1929 as Railway Express Agency, Inc., and fading into bankruptcy in 1975 as REA Express, Inc.). Wells Fargo’s foreign express business continued independently until 1924, when the American Express Company acquired a controlling interest in Wells Fargo stock and absorbed the remaining Wells Fargo express business. During the years under American Express, however, Wells Fargo also developed security services; these, together with rights to the Wells Fargo name, were sold in 1967 to Baker Industries, Inc., and survived through subsidiary Wells Fargo Armored Service Corp., which included Wells Fargo Guard Services and Wells Fargo Alarm Services. The merger of Loomis Armored Inc. and Wells Fargo Armored Service Corp. in 1997 created Loomis, Fargo & Co., a division of Securitas AB, a Swedish company.

Philip L. Fradkin, Stagecoach: Wells Fargo and the American West (2002), focuses on the company’s early history. Noel M. Loomis, Wells Fargo: An Illustrated History (1968), provides a useful chronological history. Robert J. Chandler, Wells Fargo (2006), is a pictorial history.