Wells Fargo (1852–1998)

Common card · No. 306027

Wells Fargo & Company was an American banking company based in San Francisco, California, that was acquired by Norwest Corporation in 1998. During the California gold rush in early 1848 at Sutter's Mill near Coloma, California, financiers and entrepreneurs from all over North America and the world flocked to California, drawn by the promise of huge profits. Vermont native Henry Wells and New Yorker William G. Fargo watched the California economy boom with keen interest. Before either Wells or Fargo could pursue opportunities offered in the Western United States, however, they had business to attend to in the Eastern United States. Wells, founder of Wells and Company, and Fargo, a partner in Livingston, Fargo, and Company, and mayor of Buffalo, New York, from 1862 to 1863 and again from 1864 to 1865, were major figures in the young and fiercely competitive express industry. In 1849 a new rival, John Warren Butterfield, founder of Butterfield, Wasson & Company, entered the business. Butterfield...

Read on Wikipedia · Image Laimerpramer, CC BY-SA 3.0