AMERICAN EXPRESS SHARE CERTIFICATE 1859. ORIGINAL UNCANCELLED + COMPLETE INK SIGNATURES OF. William Fargo was born on May 20, 1818, in Pompey, N. The eldest of 12 children. 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. 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 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 CERTIFICATE WAS NEVER TRANSFERRED. ONWARDS TO A NEXT OWNER. HERE IT SAVED THE SIGNATURES FROM CANCELLATION. THERE ARE VARIOUS PRINTING PLATES KNOWN FOR THIS EARLIEST “LOKOMOTIVE” VIGNETTED. THE MAIN DIFFERENCE CAN BE FOUND IN THE PRESENCE OR ABSENCE OF TELEGRAPH POLES. THE TELEGRAPH POLES SOMETIMES CARRY DIFFERING NUMBERS OF. THE VERSION OFFERED HERE HAS NO TELEGRAPH POLES AT ALL AND WAS USED ONLY FOR A SHORT. ALL AUTHENTIC AND ORIGINAL. The item “AMERICAN EXPRESS SHARE CERTIFICATE 1859 WILLIAM FARGO + J. BUTTERFIELD SIGNED” is in sale since Thursday, December 19, 2019. This item is in the category “Coins & Paper Money\Stocks & Bonds, Scripophily\Financial Institutions”. The seller is “scripomundo” and is located in Mettlach. This item can be shipped worldwide.