CHAPTER XXXVII ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE EXPRESS SERVICE Parcels transportation before organization of express service-Early express companies-Harnden-Adams-Wells, Fargo-American -United States-Other companies-Mileage of leading companies. BEFORE the advent of steam railroads a simple express service was rendered by the stage driver and steamboat captain, and later parcels were frequently accepted for delivery by train conductors. "Three times as many parcels, however," says Mr. A. L. Stimson, an early express man, "went by private hands without cost. Merchants and others, now living (1881), who used to travel in those days between New York and Boston, will remember how they used to be burdened, by their friends and acquaintances, with money, packages, and bundles to deliver upon their arrival. If a person was going to New York, it was usually known a week or two beforehand, and his friends and acquaintances would not only send their own bundles by him, but indicate him to others as a man who would accommodate them also. To such extremes was this practice carried that strangers even were expected to afford the like favor."'1 The possibility of relieving this situation by establisli 1 A. L. Stimson, "History of the Express Business," p. 31. ing a regular express service appealed to one William F. Harnden, of Boston. About 1839, he obtained the first express contract ever issued in America from the Boston & Providence Railroad, and began to receive and carry parcels between Boston and New York. For several months a hand valise served to carry the articles intrusted to him. But it soon became necessary to arrange for additional office space and special facilities on the railways and steamboats, and to send out express messengers. In 1840 he extended his service to Philadelphia and to England. Mr. Harnden died in 1845, but Harnden & Company's express business was, in 1850, further extended into the South. "The Harnden Express was regarded as a great institution in the Southern States as well as north and east.”1 Meanwhile, however, the success of Harnden & Company had induced the formation of other express companies. As early as 1840 Alvin Adams, the founder of the Adams Express Company,2 began to compete for the New York and New England business. For some time the entire business of Mr. Adams was handled by three or four individuals. In the late 40's, however, Adams & Company became prosperous, by 1850 or 1851 its service was extended into the Southern States, and it established offices as far west as the mining camps of California. It was in active competition with various other companies, and the result was one of the early express consolidations. In 1854 Adams & Company, Harnden & Company, Thompson & Company, and Kinsley & Company were consolidated into the present "Adams Express Company." 3 By 1850 another of the large express companies had 1 Ibid., p. 50. 2 E. R. Johnson, "American Railway Transportation,” p. 162 (1908). 3 A. L. Stimson, p. 258. emerged from the competitive field. In 1841 a company later known as Livingston, Wells & Company began to operate between Albany and Buffalo. It was founded by two express pioneers-Crawford Livingston and Henry Wells. Four years later another company, known as Wells & Company, was organized by Mr. Wells, William G. Fargo, and Daniel Dunning to operate west of Buffalo over a steamboat and wagon route. Letters were carried by this "Western Express" in competition with the United States Government over a field extending from Chicago to Bangor, Me. In 1850 a third competitor, Butterfield, Wasson & Company, began operation over the New York Central Railroad. A movement then arose for consolidation, and in the same year" The American Express Company came into existence. The field that most appealed to Henry Wells, William C. Fargo, and their associates was the far West. The abovementioned Livingston, Wells & Company had previously made an ineffective beginning in California, and in 1852 these men founded "Wells, Fargo & Company." stage coach and ponies were the favorite means of transporting its packages until seventeen years later, when the first transcontinental railroad was completed. Adams & Company withdrew from California in 1854, and the company to whom it relinquished its interests, after several years of competition, sold out to Wells, Fargo & Company. In 1854 the United States Express Company organized to do an express business in the central West, and the Southern Express Company" was organized in 1886 to operate throughout the South. Numerous smaller companies appeared during these years of organization. Among the most prominent lesser concerns is the National Express Company, operating northward from New York, 66 was |
