Wells Fargo is a name that appears in many strange and
wonderful stories about the days when people were
rushing to the West for gold. Yet none of the stories
about this company is more wonderful than its real history.
In 1849, gold was discovered in California. As soon as news
of this discovery reached the rest of the country, thousands of
people rushed out to the western hills to look for gold.
Harry Well of New York went west, too. But he soon returned to the
East with his own idea for becoming a rich man. On his trip to the mines,
Wells had seen his chance to start a business.
The U.S. mail service was not reaching the far off mines in the California
hills. In the new tows, miners were feeling a deep need for mail from
home. In 1982, Wells and his friend William Fargo of Vermont formed an
express company. Wells Fargo soon had more than 60 offices near the
mining towns. The company carried letters over roads that were rocky, deep
in snow, or washed out by rains.
The Wells Fargo drivers became friends with the men at the mines,
and could find them even when they had moved to some other mine miles
away.
But Wells Fargo did more than bring the miner his only news of home.
It also measured his “dust” and told him the true weight of the gold that he
had found.
And it carried his gold all the way to the East. If the gold did not
arrive safely, the company paid for the loss. No one ever lost one dollar
that was put in Wells Fargo’s care. The miners learned to trust Well Fargo.
Later the government wanted the right to carry all the mail. Thousands
of miner rioted to show the wanted Wells Fargo to continuo carrying their
mail. The government agreed. So the mail boxes of Wells Fargo stayed on
the streets of big cities in California, beside the boxes of the U.S. mail.
Soon everybody knew that Wells Fargo was both safe and fast. All
Wells Fargo men felt deep pride in the service that the company gave.
The company used a special kind of stagecoach that was built
for mountain roads.
Strong and brightly painted, it was pulled by
four or six fine horses.
With the horses, each Stagecoach cost about $6,000.
That was a great deal of money in those days. A Wells Fargo
stagecoach could carry nine people inside and several more outside.
One of the men on the outside was the driver, and another was the
shotgun rider. The shotgun rider guarded the valuable box that rode under
the seat.
“The Green Box”Many stories of the old West are stories about that green Wells Fargo
box. It might be filled with thousands of dollars in gold, as the highwaymen
all knew. One of the most daring of the highwaymen was “Black Bart.” For
years he made trouble for the California stagecoach drivers.
He used to appear suddenly from nowhere in a long white coat, with a
white bag over his head. Fearless, sure of himself, standing behind one of
the stagecoach horses to guard his body from shots, he would aim at the
driver, demanding and shouting: “Throw down that box”
Many shots were aimed at Black Bart, and some wounded him. But he
always appeared again. While detective were looking for him in one part of
California, he might be a hundred miles away, robbing another stagecoach.
He traveled fast and far. “Wells Fargo Never Forgets” was the motto of
the company’s detectives. The detectives kept trying to catch
Bart, but without success. Finally, a handkerchief had a
laundry mark on it. After trying 91 laundries, the detectives
found the one that had washed Black Bart’s clothes.
There they learned that the handkerchief belonged to a man named
Charles E. Bolton. They learned that Bolton was a quiet gentleman who
was often away on long “business trips.”
The detectives finally found Bolton. They found, too, that Bolton’s body
had too many gunshot scars for a person leading a peaceful life. At last
Black Bart was put in prison for six really quiet years.
Highwaymen were not the only interesting people in the history of Wells
Fargo. The company’s own drivers were daring, too.
“Old Charlie” Parkhurst was probably the best driver the company ever
had. He could drive his stagecoach along the hilly roads at night as a dog
can follow a trail with his nose.
He loved to tell wild stories of highwaymen and of stagecoaches falling
down the sides of mountains. As for himself, Charlie said, when he felt a
little bit afraid, he just “chewed more tobacco.” But no highwayman ever
took a Wells Fargo box fro Charlie’s stagecoach. And no stagecoach of his
ever turned over. When Charlie Parkhust was too old
to drive stagecoaches, he stopped working and spent
his last years in peace. And when he died, people
finally discovered that Charlie was a woman!
“Using the Trains”But the company did not go out of business. Instead, Wells Fargo
decided to pay for the right to use the railway. Wells Fargo began to use
the railway, and the highwaymen started to stop trains instead of
stagecoaches, adding more wild stories to the history of the West.
