Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1875-07-14
NO. 165.
ORIGIN OF THE EXPRESS BUSINESS.

Travellers on the Long Island Sound of
| about thirty-seven years ago might have
observed on board the steamer then RIM.
ming between Providence and New York
an understood, delicately built, sanguine-
looking young man who accompanied the
vessel on alternate trips, and constantly
carried in his hand small carpet-bap Of
half bushel capacity. He was William
+. Harnden, and his bag contained the be-
ginnings of the express forwarding bust
ness of the United States, which, with the
exception OF the railways and telegraphs,
now surpasses all other private enterprises
in the world.
Born at Reading. Massachusetts, in 1912.
he was employed as conductor of the first
passenger train that ran in New England,
and was afterward promoted to the posi-
ton of ticket agent on the Boston and
Worcester Railway. The sedentary desk
work did not suit him. however, and in
1887 he came to New York in search of
more congenial employment. At the cor
ner of Wall and Pearl streets stood the old
Iontine Coffee-house, a famous resort for
the merchants and ship owners of those
days, and in connection with it there was
an admirable news-room-a sort of Lloyd's
or Garraway's-conducted by James w.
Hale. local celebrity, who afterward ex-
tended his fame by promoting cheap
postal system in opposition to the govern
ment. Mr.. Hale was man of varied ex.
perience and genial disposition. He
was one OF the most active men of his day,
and Harnden went to him for advice in
seeking employment. Hale became inter-
ested in him, and in the course of few
days advised him to establish himself as
an expressman between New York and
Boston-a business never before transacted
and a name never before assumed.
As there have been other claimants to the
honor of having originated the enterprise,
and as Mr. Hale is still living, viii re-
peat a statement which he made to me in
July last. There was never a day, he
said, that inquiries were not made at the
news-room for some person going to Bos-
ton or Providence. Some wanted to send
small parcels to their friends, others let
ters or circulars; but the most frequent
applicants were money-brokers, who
wanted to forward packages of Eastern
bank-notes to Boston Tor redemption. If
an acquaintance was found on the boat,
he was pounced upon without ceremony,
and burdened with the packages. which
were sometimes worth many thousand
dollars. But if friend did not appear,
the things were often entrusted to entire
strangers, with the modest request that
they would deliver them immedl ately after
their arrival. Merchants and brokers
seeking gratutous transportation for their
letters contributed largely to the excite
ment attending the departure of the steam
er, and many persons will remember the
nights of anxiety they have passed on the
Sound, when such unexpected wealth has
been temporarily thrust upon them.
when Harnden called upon me for ad-
vice." Mr.. Hale stated, 81 thought of the
daily inquiries made at my Office, DO you
know anybody going to Boston this even
ing?' and l Immediately advised him to
travel between the two cities and do er-
rands for the business men. l also sug-
gusted that the new enterprise should be
called The Express which gave the idea
of speed, promptitude, and fidelity"
Harnden hesitated for several days,
doubling whether the scheme would be
profitable, but eventually, he decided to
try it, and bought the historic travelling
bag, which is still preserved in Boston.
A small slate for orders was hung in the
news-room, and the patrons of that insti-
tuition were Harnden's chiefpatrons. The
old merchants had become so accustomed
to transportation of smaller articles with
out cost that they did not readily observe
the advantages 1.-The express" offered. and
at the end of two months Harnden found
all his capital absorbed. His receipts
were less than his expenses, and he would
have discontinued the service had not
some friends procured free passage for
him on an opposition steamboat. With
the passage-money as a subsidy, 1.-THE ex-
press prospered, and the business so in
creased that Harnden soon engaged an as
sistant.-W. II. Rideing, in Harper's Mag.
d:ine for AuguI.