Wells, Fargo & Company records, 1839-1911, bulk 1883-1906

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Summary

Creators:
Wells, Fargo & Company
Abstract:
This collection consists mainly of letters to and from Wells, Fargo & Company official Hosmer B. (Buckingham) Parsons (1846-1908), who joined the company in 1867 and later became president of its bank in New York. The papers deal with company business and company's relationships with railroad lines and competing express firms. Some of the papers relate to the personal business affairs of Hosmer B. Parsons, including his investments in Mexico.
Extent:
42 Linear Feet (35 boxes, 11 volumes)
Language:
Materials are in English.
Preferred citation:

[Identification of item]. Wells, Fargo & Company Records, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

Background

Scope and content:

The collection consists mainly of letters to and from Hosmer B. (Buckingham) Parsons (1846-1908), who joined Wells, Fargo & Company in 1867 and successively held the positions of cashier, assistant secretary, vice-president, and president of the company bank in New York. The papers deal chiefly with the express business: relationships with competing express companies such as American Express, Pacific Express, Northern Pacific Express, Texas Express, etc.; with railroad companies including Northern Pacific Railroad Company, Denver and Rio Grande Railway Company, Kansas City, St. Joseph & Council Bluffs Railroad Company, and others; as well as matters of shipments, rates, and routes. There are also papers that relate to the personal business affairs of Hosmer B. Parsons.

Includes original letters, press copies and press copy letter books, and duplicated copies of letters.

Persons represented by 50 letters or more:

  1. Hancock, W. J. (325 pieces)
  2. Parsons, Hosmer B. (52 pieces + 11 letter books)
  3. Tevis, Lloyd (127 pieces)
  4. Valentine, John Joseph (1,071 pieces)

Some notable items include: one to three letters each from Marcus Daly, James Ben Ali Haggin, George Hearst (plus 9 stock orders), Phoebe Apperson Hearst (plus scattered letters addressed to her in the letter books beginning in 1891), James Heron, and Collis Potter Huntington.

Biographical / historical:

Wells, Fargo & Company was founded in New York in 1852 through the amalgamation of several companies by Henry Wells (1805-1878) and William George Fargo (1818-1881). It was expanded in the wake of the Gold Rush to handle the growing express business in the West. Henry Wells is not represented in the collection, nor is William G. Fargo, but there are a few letters from or about his brothers James Congdell Fargo and Charles Fargo who were active in Wells, Fargo & Company and the American Express Company. In 1872, Lloyd Tevis (1824-1899) became president of Wells, Fargo & Company followed in 1892 by John Joseph Valentine (1840-1901).

Acquisition information:
Purchased from William P. Wreden, May 1961.
Processing information:

Processed by Huntington Library staff in May 1985. In 2000 Brooke Dykman Dockter and Diann Benti revised and encoded the finding aid.

Arrangement:

Arranged in four series: 1. General correspondence (Boxes 1-33); 2. Investments in Mexico (Box 34); 3. Business papers of Hosmer B. Parsons, photographs, ephemera, printed items (Box 35); 4. 11 letter books.

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

Open for use by qualified researchers and by appointment. Please contact Reader Services at the Huntington Library for more information.

Terms of access:

The Huntington Library does not require that researchers request permission to quote from or publish images of this material, nor does it charge fees for such activities. The responsibility for identifying the copyright holder, if there is one, and obtaining necessary permissions rests with the researcher.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item]. Wells, Fargo & Company Records, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

Location of this collection:
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108, US
Contact:
(626) 405-2191
reference@huntington.org
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