Word: expression
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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That was the first recorded hold-up of a California expressman. It started an illustrious series, which as much as any other factor contributed to the astounding do-or-die spirit which characterized the growth of Far Western transport. Last week this spirit found fitting record in Treasure Express, Epic Days of the Wells Fargo, a lusty book by a San Francisco advertising man named Neill C. Wilson...
Henry Wells and William George Fargo were two bearded New Yorkers who banded together in 1844 to combat the powerful express business of Boston's Alvin Adams. Before the fight had gone far, there came the Gold Rush of '49. To Daniel Hale Haskell, an Adams Express clerk, this was a great enticement, which soon led him off to start a California branch. In June 1852, Samuel P. Carter arrived in San Francisco to be general agent for Wells, Fargo & Co. There followed a rip-roaring battle between the two express companies. From it, Writer Wilson has neatly...
Long before Black Bart's time, Wells Fargo was supreme in Western Express, Adams having gone under in financial collapse in 1855. Thereafter, Wells Fargo had only to contend with bandits, did so tooth & nail with great success. Then, with horrible suddenness, it succumbed to a group of bandits who held up, not the stages, but Wells Fargo itself...
Wells Fargo had found little trouble in getting its hands on Butterfield's Overland Mail line in 1861 or on its successor, the Pony Express. But in 1869 it was caught napping while the first transcontinental railroad pushed through. When Wells Fargo put in a bid for the rail express contract, it found that an upstart named Pacific Union Express already had it. Simultaneously, it discovered the same concern had beaten down Wells Fargo stock from $100 to $13, then bought in, acquired control. In 1872, following a vast shuffle of officers, Lloyd Tevis of San Francisco became president...
...railroad did not at once kill the old stage express. For 20 years more it did duty on minor routes, fighting highwaymen to the very end. Nor did the name Wells Fargo vanish with the last Concord. Today San Francisco's Wells Fargo Bank & Union Trust Co. is third largest in that city...