AMERICAN EXPRESS SHARE CERTIFICATE 1859 - WILLIAM FARGO + J. BUTTERFIELD SIGNED

Description

AMERICAN EXPRESS SHARE CERTIFICATE 1859
ORIGINAL
UNCANCELLED
+ COMPLETE INK SIGNATURES OF:
WILLIAM G. FARGO
William Fargo was born on May 20, 1818, in Pompey, N.Y., the eldest of 12 children. His formal education ended at 13, when he began carrying mail over a 30-mile circuit for a local contractor. He subsequently worked in the grocery business, as a baker, and in a village inn. In 1840 he married Anna H. Williams; they had three children.
In 1842 Fargo became a messenger for an express firm operating between Albany and Buffalo. Soon he was appointed agent of Pomeroy and Company in Buffalo. Through his association with Wells and Company (which operated the first express company west of Buffalo), Fargo became one of the founders of the American Express Company, which quickly became the largest express concern in the United States.
In 1852 Fargo and some associates formed
Wells, Fargo and Company
to bring the services of an express company to the gold fields of California. American Express and Wells, Fargo combined facilities to provide rapid transportation of goods, gold and communications between California, the Atlantic coast, Europe, and points in between.
After an 1855 financial panic drove its most formidable rival into bankruptcy, Wells, Fargo was the dominant express company in the West, with hundreds of employees, thousands of head of stock, and hundreds of thousands of dollars in capital invested. For the vast population then moving into the territory west of the Rocky Mountains, it provided unrivaled banking, express, and mail services. In 1857 Fargo and some of his associates from American Express established the Overland Mail, the first transcontinental stage line. It served the West until the coming of the railroad in 1869.
After the Civil War, the exemplary success of Wells, Fargo brought other concerns into the field, and in 1869 Wells, Fargo merged with the Pacific Express Company, which had contracted for the express business on the new transcontinental railroad.
American Express
was involved in similar mergers in the East.
JOHN BUTTERFIELD
John Butterfield was a transportation pioneer in the mid-19th century in the American Northwest and Southwest. He founded many companies, including American Express that is still in operation today. The Butterfield Overland Mail Company was the longest stage line in the world.
PLEASE NOTE:
- THE CERTIFICATE WAS NEVER TRANSFERRED
ONWARDS TO A NEXT OWNER
.
THIS IS UNUSUAL. HERE IT
SAVED THE SIGNATURES FROM CANCELLATION.
- THERE ARE VARIOUS PRINTING PLATES KNOWN FOR THIS EARLIEST "LOKOMOTIVE" VIGNETTED
STOCK FORM USED.
THE MAIN DIFFERENCE CAN BE FOUND IN THE
PRESENCE
OR
ABSENCE
OF TELEGRAPH POLES
ALONG THE RR-TRACK. THE TELEGRAPH POLES SOMETIMES CARRY DIFFERING NUMBERS OF
TELEGRAPH WIRES TOO.
THE VERSION OFFERED HERE HAS
NO TELEGRAPH POLES AT ALL
AND WAS USED ONLY FOR A SHORT
PERIOD.
ALL AUTHENTIC AND ORIGINAL