Everything about William Fargo totally explained
William George Fargo (
May 20,
1818 -
August 3,
1881), pioneer
American expressman, was born in
Pompey, New York. From the age of thirteen he'd to support himself, obtaining little schooling, and for several years he was a clerk in grocery stores in
Syracuse.
He became a freight agent for the Auburn & Syracuse railway company at
Auburn in
1841, an express messenger between
Albany and
Buffalo a year later, and in
1843 a resident agent in Buffalo.
In
1844 he organized, with
Henry Wells (1805-1878) and Daniel Dunning, the first express company (Wells & Co.; after 1845 Livingston & Fargo) to engage in the carrying business west of Buffalo. The lines of this company (which first operated only to
Detroit, via
Cleveland) were rapidly extended to
Chicago,
St. Louis, and other western points.
In March
1850, when through a consolidation of competing lines the
American Express Company was organized, Wells became president and Fargo secretary. In
1851, with Wells and others, he organized the firm of
Wells, Fargo & Company to conduct an express business between New York and San Francisco by way of the
Isthmus of Panama and on the Pacific coast, where it long had a virtual monopoly.
In
1861 Wells, Fargo & Co. bought and reorganized the Overland Mail Co., which had been formed in
1857 to carry the United States mails, and of which Fargo had been one of the original promoters.
From
1862 to
1866 he was
mayor of Buffalo, and from 1868 to his death in Buffalo, he was president of the
American Express Company, with which in
1868 the
Merchants Union Express Co. was consolidated. He was a director of the New York Central and of the Northern Pacific railways.
William's brother
J.C. Fargo succeeded him as President of
American Express after his death.
Fargo Avenue in Buffalo, and
Fargo, North Dakota are named after him.
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