Episode 1 of 2
Founding of Wells Fargo & Company
- When
- March 18, 1852
- Where
- New York City
Henry Wells and William Fargo founded Wells Fargo & Company in New York City in March 1852 to serve California.
The company was established after American Express directors, including John Butterfield, objected to extending operations to California. Wells organized the new firm on March 18, 1852, to provide express and banking services to the gold rush region.
Sources
- Henry Wells Wikipedia, revision of 2026-07-11
- William Fargo Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-29
- Wells Fargo Wikipedia, revision of 2026-10-05
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.