Wichita eagle., 1889-03-23
A GREAT BUSINESS.
Wond erful: Growth Of Thorough
ly American Enterprise.
Perfection of the Express System of To-
day-A Business Full Of Romance as
Well as Reaiity-The First Ex-
pressman in the United States.
, TCb,eapo Herald -

VI lHo Ilcnuess o. MS pelQulslbeS, was Ins
forerunner of the express. Following hin
was the bank messenger, employed to
carry money and notes for collection from
city to city to city, but the first express.
! man was a small, delicately built, san.
guine-looking young man named W. F
Harnden, who was first seen on board thu
| Providence and New York steamers il
1898, with a carpet-bag of a half bushe
capacity in his hand. He lad begun Il
make regular business of carrying let
ters, parcels, bank notes, etc. between
New York and Boston. He was the pic.
neer of the thousands of messen'
/ gers and railway cars, the tens Of
! thousands of horses, the thirty thousand
express Offices of 1886. Soon his valist
was found to be too small. Other valises
were added, then trunk, and finally g
huge crate holding parcels. The expires:
| business was growing. Young Harnder
! took in a partner, and was happy lad
| when his profits reached twenty dollars a
| day. But, alas, for the bright and active
youth, success was not the only word tc
be read in his face. Consumption was
also there, and he lived only three years
hardly long enough to be able to foresee
the vastness of the traffic Ia which he was
the pioneer.
An early-day rival to Harnden was a
young Vermonter named Alvin Adams.
Having lost all the money he had in the
produce business he decided to try ex-
pressing. The merchants looked upon him
as an interloper in Harnden's territory,
and gave him little encouragement For
three years he made regular trips between
/ New York and Boston, earning barely
enough to pay his fare and expenses, but
at length his courage and enterprise
were rewarded. Fortune began to smile
upon him. From carrying ell of his par
GELS in his hat, and acting as his own mes
senger, clerk, cashier and porter, he be-
came the employer of many men. In 1851
or 1852 the Adams Express Company was
organized, and rapidly extended over the
country. Forty mill ions of dollars are
words which will give an idea Of the pres
ent value of the business which the young
Vermonter so pluckily established.
In 1S41 Henry Wells was agent for
Harnden at Albany. Wells wanted his
employer to extend his operations to the
West, but Harnden said the country was
too sparsely settled. Just before his death
he started gigantic immigration scheme
to people the West and fit it for the opera
tons of his business. He sent agents to
Europe and actually brought to this coun-
try 100000 European laborers, consigned
to W. F. Harnden & Co. At that time
the Government was charging twenty
latt i,,t ba lie
gan carrying letters for six cents apiece,
and did big business. Six-cent postage
was popular, and the people held public
meetings denouncing the Government and
encouraging Wells. The Government ar
rested the expressman and tried to crush
out the opposition, and finally passed
law requiring every letter sent by express
TO bear a Government stamp. To this
day express companies can not carry let
tiers unless two-cent stamps are affixed to
them. The letter business helped to make
Wells, and in 1915 man named C. w.
Fargo went into the business, came West
and built up the system in this region. But
terrified, an old stage-driver, who at one
time owned all of the stage lines in West
ern New York, and Livingston, another
expressman, had rival companies. But
terrified finally proposed a consolidation
of the three companies. The result was
the American Express Company. A dis
tinct organization, under the title OF
Wells, Fargo & Co., took possession of the
Pacific coast territory, supplanting the
Overland or Pony express. Talking about
expresses, that was a wonderful organiza-
ton. It's machinery had to be planted
over two thousand miles of prairie coun-
try, largely occupied by hostiles. The
route was from st. Joseph, Mo-, to San
Francisco, and the distance was covered
in ten days. Passenger trains consume
nearly four days. There were relays of
ponies every twenty five miles, and the
charge from Missouri river to the ocean
was s. in gold per quarter ounce. The
Pony Express Company lost 500, 900, and
finally quit the business. The stories that
are told of adventures and Incidents con-
nected with that enterprise would fill
big book.
The history of the express is full of re-
citals which read like romances. The
business is almost romance in itself
There was the Panama messenger, sailing
between San Francisco and New York
and carrying each trip millions of OIL
lars in gold. This messenger was chosen
for his nerve. fidelity and integrity. He
was watch dog from over the range, a
bad man to fool with. and shooter who
could split bullet over a razor blade at
twenty PAGES. Never dollar of all the
millions that were carried was lost on the
Panama route.
On the coast Wells, Fargo & Co. be-
came great institution. They beat the
Government carrying letters to and from
the mining camps, and sold stamped en-
velopes for this service at six cents apiece,
the Government getting the three cents on
every letter. The overland or stage-coach
express, too, had its adventures with In
dians and highwaymen. No better speci-
mems of honest, courageous, ron-nerved
manhood can be found IN this world than
among the men who for years have car
led the treasures of dust, Sullion and cur
'ency entrusted to the express company of (
he coast and overland. Wells, Fargo &
%. used TO take fifteen hundred bullion
tricks from the Comstock lode every week
Zach brick weighing forty pounds in gold
and silver. They never lost q brick.
Now, let me tell you one thing" he .
avs, with his favorite Introductory ex-
preston, ''we had lively old whirl of it 4
n the war times. That's what we did.
y ork? Why, I've gone two weeks at
tretch without having my clothes off.
doney to pay the soldiers with: Why,
,oy. I've seen fifteen millions of dollars in
right new ereenbacks handled on one
I'm TO the front"
The Farlor's hun.