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Wells Fargo History Museum
in the Colorado House
The information on this page is from displays that you will see when you visit the museum.
Colorado House
In the spring of 1851 Cave Johnson Couts opened the Colorado
House as San Diego's first two-story hotel. Offering an elegant billiard table
and the best food and drink this side of San Francisco, many local notables
stayed here.
Couts, an opinionated former army officer, explored the Colorado River in 1849 - which influenced his choice of the hotel name - and surveyed and subdivided San Diego's pueblo lands. Also in 1851, he married Ysidora Bandini, became absorbed in running Rancho Guajome at San Luis Rey, and closed the Colorado House after only nine months. In mid-1853, his brother William Blunt Couts and William Cole reopened the Colorado House, renting the second floor to professional men. Tenante included doctor David B. Hoffman, dentist M. Winter, and journalist J. Judson Ames, publisher of the San Diego Herald. A series of restaurant and hotel keepers followed. Cave Couts complained to the Wells Fargo agent Frank Ames on January 15, 1859; "The proposition made for the 'Colorado House,' I cannot accept. Had better get a bar-keeper & open it myself. The Billiard table itself, if worth anything, is worth $35 a month. The least I can have it for is $45 & the occupant to paint & fix up as he wishes, at his own expense, for 12 months. I would like to sell the property -- whole out fit, for $2500." In 1866, merchants Joseph Mannasse and Marcus Schiller, who owned the neighboring Franklin House, bought the Colorado House for $500. They leased out space until both hotels burned down on April 20, 1872. |
Wells, Fargo & Co.
The Founders
|
Henry Wells and William G. Fargo founded and gave their names to Wells, Fargo
& Co. on March 18, 1852. They were express and banking pioneers, organizing the
American Express Company in 1850.
Henry Wells built the earliest commercial telegraph lines in the United States, and worked for cheap mail delivery. A keen advocate of education for women, he also founded Wells College for women in Aurora, New York, in 1868. Wells came to enjoy San Diego with his family in 1875 and 1876. Though retired, he could not avoid the call of the express business and, during his stay, incorporated the Arizona & New Mexico Express Company for his son. William G. Fargo was a skilled manager, serving as president of Wells, Fargo & Co. from 1870 to 1872, and of the American Express Company from 1868 to 1881. A long-time resident of Buffalo, New York, he was a mayor during the Civil War. He actively directed the Overland Mail Company that sent cross-country stagecoaches through Southern California in the 1850's and similarly was a director of the Northern Pacific Railroad, which traversed the Great Plains in the 1870's. Fargo, North Dakota is named after him. |
Staging in San Diego County
In the 1850s and 1860s, stage-coaches delivered Wells, Fargo and Co.'s Express,
Letter Express and the United States mail throughout the Western United States.
In 1857, when the SAN DIEGO & SAN ANTONIO line successfully established overland
connections to the East, San Diegans cheered. The San Diego Herald reported the
event in bold headlines, while the people gave the stage an "anvil salute" by
placing gun powder between two anvils and firing it. The mules and stages of
the "Jackass Mail" ran over the deserts and mountains of the Southwest through
Vallecito, Fort Yuma, Tucson and El Paso to the terminus at San Antonio. From
there, other stage, steamer and rail lines distributed the express packages and
mails to the eastern cities.
In 1858, Butterfield's Overland Mail Company, supported by Wells Fargo, superseded this southwest route on its run between San Francisco and St. Louis. The Jackass Mail connected with it at Fort Yuma on the Colorado River. After the interruption of the Civil War, the southwestern mail was carried by several independent stage lines. As listed in Bancroft's Travel Guide of 1869, John Capron's SAN DIEGO & TUCSON line covered the western end. Stage lines supplemented steamship connections with Los Angeles and other coast cities. In the late 1860s, Alfred Seeley of Old Town San Diego provided stages to Los Angeles two or three times a week. The trip to Los Angeles took two days, with an overnight stay at San Juan Capistrano, and cost $12. |
Gold and Currency
Miners from the placer diggings on the Colorado River and the hard-rock
mines at Julian brought their gold dust and bars to the Wells, Fargo & Co.
agency in Old Town San Diego. The agent carefully weighed the gold and
packed it for shipment to assayers and the U.S. Mint in San Francisco to
be made into gold coins.
If the miner could not wait for the return steamer to bring the coins, Wells Fargo would estimate the gold's value and make an immediate exchange. To ensure accuracy and keep their good reputations, Company agents had to be familiar with the varying purities of local gold. With this honest and accurate service, Wells Fargo established a tradition that has served it well since 1852. Californians preferred to use coins rather than paper for money, even into the early 20th century. Private mints supplied coins until 1856, when the U.S. Mint in San Francisco began full production. The gold $20 double eagle was the standard coin. $10, $5, and even tiny $1 coins circulated. Westerners also used Mexican silver coins. Wells Fargo and gold are invariably linked together. Wells, Fargo & Co. moved so much of the West's treasure that it compiled the universally accepted statistics on gold and silver production. Treasure shipments were carried in dark green wooden boxes placed in the front boots of stagecoaches. J.Y. Ayer, a San Francisco carpenter, fashioned these sturdy containers from ponderosa pine, strengthening them with an oak rim and iron strapping. Iron safes built under the back seats of stagecoaches, and iron chests on steamboats and railroads provided extra protection for Wells Fargo's larger bullion shipments. Wells Fargo's Instructions to Agents gave complete details for the secure handling of gold and silver. |
Robbery and Reward
Wells Fargo Express
Express
"Send it by Wells Fargo's Express" was a common Gold Rush era request. Speed and convenience was Wells, Fargo & Co.'s business. Steamboats and railroads, with their gleaming brass and burnished steel engines, advanced technology of the nineteenth century, sped Wells, Fargo & Co.'s Express to its destination. Steamers In the 19th Century, coastal steamers carried most of the passengers, mail, express and freight between Northern and Southern California. In the 1850s and 1860s, the California Steam Navigation Company's Senator and Pacific anchored regularly in San Diego's fine harbor. Famed Wells Fargo messengers "Buck" Buchanan and "Chips" Hodgkinsm, as well as San Diegan R. William Laine, traveled on the steamers to guard the express shipments and transact business. "Chips" recorded his travels in a diary, noting a visit to Old Town on October 18, 1870, and a fishing trip in San Diego Bay the following June. |
Telegraph
Money Via Electricity
In 1853 California's first telegraph linked the main cities and then in October 1861, joined the Golden State to New York. Wells Fargo quickly used the new electric network to track valuable shipments, catch robbers and transfer money. This simple instrument used dots (click-click) and dashes (click ---- click) for letters and numbers. Cyphers - short strings of letters and nonsense words - replaced common messages and kept them confidential. |
The Wells Fargo History Museum is located at the Old Town San Diego State Historic Park, San Diego Avenue at Twiggs Street, San Diego. See map. The historical information and photographs of historical artifacts are taken from displays inside the museum. There is much more to be seen in person that is not presented on this webpage. Go See It and enjoy! |
Items of Interest...
Related Links |
Wells Fargo History Museums - wellsfargo.com |
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