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Wells retired from the board of Wells Fargo in 1867. He also retired as president of American Express in 1868 when it was merged with the Merchants Union Express Company under the presidency of William Fargo.
Henry Wells (born December 12, 1805, Thetford, Vermont, U.S.—died December 10, 1878, Glasgow, Scotland) was a pioneering American businessman who was one of the founders of the American Express Company and of Wells Fargo & Company.
- Drawn to Shipping
- Wells and Fargo Form American Express
- Later Success
- For More Information
Henry Wells was born in Vermont, where he spent the first eight years of his life before his family moved to New York. As a youngster Wells worked on a farm until he was old enough to apprentice with a tanning and shoemaking firm called Jessup & Palmer. He eventually abandoned shoemaking to work in shipping on the Erie Canal, which ran from Pennsyl...
While working at his messenger service, Wells met another like-minded young man named William G. Fargo. The two soon began an express partnership of their own that ran between New York and Michigan. Similar shipping businesses had popped up all over the East Coast and into the Midwest, and the competition soon became fierce. In order to survive and...
By the 1860s, Wells had become a well-known and very successful businessman. Both of his companies, American Express and Wells, Fargo & Company, thrived. The two firms worked together on occasion, creating new businesses and always keeping a constant eye on the growing competition. Wells continually looked for ways to make shipping and communicatio...
Books
Grossman, Peter Z. American Express: An Unauthorized History.New York: Crown Publishing, 1987. Hatch, Alden. American Express: A Century of Service.Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1950. Reed, Ralph Thomas. American Express: Its Origin and Growth. New York: Newcomen Society in North America, 1952.
Periodicals
Kramp, Allison. "Recovery in the Cards: American Express Comes Back After 2001." Barron's(April 29, 2002): p.T6. Polyak, Ilana. "Sweetening a Stinker: American Express Makes a Bold Attempt to Turn Around a Dysfunctional Fund Family." Money(April 1, 2002): p. 41+.
Web Sites
American Express Company. [On-line] http://www.americanexpress.com(accessed on August 15, 2002). Wells Fargo. [On-line] http://www.wellsfargo.com(accessed on August 15, 2002).
Wells served on the board from 1852 to 1866. Fargo served on the board from 1852 to 1881, the year he died. He also served as president of Wells Fargo from 1870 to 1872 and president of American Express from 1868 to 1881.
Jun 5, 2011 · One of whom was Henry Wells, a former freight agent for the Erie Canal who had formed his own company and competed successfully against the US Post Office by carrying mail at less than the government rate.
Henry Wells was an influential American businessman and entrepreneur known for co-founding the Wells Fargo & Company and American Express, both of which played crucial roles in the development of financial services and logistics during the 19th century.
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In 1852, with $300,000 in financial backing, Wells and Fargo created Wells, Fargo & Company for the purpose of providing express services to western cities. The company was based in New York and Edwin B. Morgan served as the first president.
