1-155-765 - Ann Ronan Picture Library/Heritage-Images

A Wells Fargo messenger from their Express Delivery service via the Isthmus of Panama, 1875. Wells Fargo & Co was founded in 1852 by Henry Wells (1805-1878) and William George Fargo (1818-1881). Initially the company's business lay in the transport of gold from the west to the east coast of the US after the Californian Gold Rush, but Wells Fargo also moved into banking and developed a stagecoach network which held a virtual monopoly of business in the West by 1866. . From Harper's New Monthly Magazine. (New York, 1875).