|
|
|
Wells, Fargo and Company Express
Wells,
Fargo & Co. Report of losses from Stagecoach
and Train Robbers 1870 to 1884
ISBN:
9665925-8-1 Published: 2008
Before
1849 express companies were active throughout the east and mid-west but
there was only one small operation on the Pacific coast — C. L. Cady’s
Express was first announced in the Californian on April 24, 1847. The
need for express operations changed dramatically when gold was
discovered at Sutter’s Mill on January 24, 1848. There was an immediate
need for expanded express operations to bring mail to the miners in
isolated gold camps and to bring out the gold to a place from which it
could be shipped. Several express companies sprang up almost overnight
but the Adams Express Company, by 1852, had established itself as the
major express company in California and by 1854 dominated the entire
Pacific coast.
The men behind Wells, Fargo & Company – Henry Wells and William G.
Fargo – carefully watched the situation in California and finally
opened their Pacific express business in 1852.
On
January 1, 1885 Wells, Fargo & Company’s chief detective James B. Hume
and special agent John N. Thacker published a report of the company’s
losses over the previous 14 years. The report gave a listing of crimes
and a detailed description of 188 road agents [18 had died and were
not described]. The report had another purpose, to provide lawmen
throughout the west with a textual “mug book” of potentially
recidivist road agents who might again victimize the company. The
report had inconsistencies in formatting and a number of errors, some
critical, but lacked details of the thrilling robberies, pursuits,
arrests, and trials.
The 125th
Anniversary edition corrects these shortcomings. It gives the details
of over 400 stagecoach and train robberies and a few burglaries where
Wells, Fargo treasure boxes held the plunder. These events take place
in a half dozen wild western states and territories, focusing mainly
on California where the company had its main office and conducted the
greater part of its business.
|
|
The book
is 388 pages, bibliography, indexed, with original sketches of Hume
and Thacker.
|
