William G. Fargo was born on May 20, 1818, in Pompey, New York, the eldest of twelve children of William C. Fargo and Stacy Chappel Strong, and the descendant of Welsh ancestors, who settled in Connecticut between 1670 and 1680, and lived there for five generations.
Fargo's education consisted only of the rudiments taught in a country school as he left school at the age of 13 to carry the mail in Pompey and help support his family.
At thirteen, twice a week Fargo rode a mail route of thirty miles. For the next eleven years he helped in a village inn, worked in a grocery store, failed as a grocery owner himself, and was the first freight agent at Auburn on the newly completed Auburn & Syracuse Railroad.
In 1842 Fargo became messenger for Pomeroy & Company, the express firm between Albany and Buffalo, and the next year was their agent in Buffalo.
In 1844 he became messenger for Wells & Company, of which he was one of the three owners, the first express concern west of Buffalo. This western service joined, in 1850, with two firms operating between Albany and Buffalo to form the American Express Company, with Wells as president and Fargo as secretary. The service had already been extended to Chicago, Milwaukee, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Galena, and Dubuque.
In 1852, to meet the demand for transportation to and from the gold diggings, Wells, Fargo & Company was organized for express business to California. Through its friendly relations with the American Express Company, the new firm could offer quick transportation to New York and Boston and to Europe.
The Adams Company, which some years earlier had established service between California and the Gulf, succumbed to financial difficulties in 1853 and left Wells, Fargo & Company in control of the field. Their expresses carried golddust, mail, packages, and passengers and conducted the necessary banking business for the community. The profit realized in the express business during the Civil War led to the organization of competing companies, and in the post-war period, several combinations resulted.
In the West, in 1866, a general consolidation of mail stages and express companies from the Missouri to the Pacific was effected by the California legislature and incorporated as Wells, Fargo & Company, but the business showed no profits, and with the completion of the Union Pacific Railroad, the stage lines were dropped.
In 1869 a merger of Wells, Fargo & Company with the newly organized Pacific Express Company, a relic of the Adams interest in California, led to over-capitalization at $15, 000, 000, later reduced to $5, 000, 000.
Meanwhile, in the East, the Merchants Union Express Company, one of the new organizations, became so powerful that in 1868 the American Express Company was compelled to incorporate with it on equal terms in the American Merchants Union Express Company of which Fargo became the president. In 1873 the name was changed to the American Express Company again. The task of retrenchment in a period of post-war deflation and comparative stagnation of business was a challenge to Fargo, and its accomplishment was a tribute to his ability.
Fargo had some part in the local politics of Buffalo, which was his residence until his death. He was the Democratic war mayor of his city, serving two terms, 1862 - 1866, but was defeated as candidate for the state Senate in 1871. William Fargo died on August 3, 1881, after battling an illness for several months. After his funeral on August 7, 1881, he was buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery, Buffalo, New York.
William George Fargo was a pioneer expressman, who helped found the modern day financial firms of American Express Company and Wells Fargo. He was also the 27th Mayor of Buffalo, serving from 1862 until 1866 during the U. S. Civil War. Fargo Avenue in Buffalo; the Fargo Quadrangle at the University at Buffalo; and Fargo, North Dakota are named after him. The Fargo Estate Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2016.
In 1861, William Fargo was elected mayor of Buffalo, serving from 1862 to 1866, as he was elected to a second term in 1863. During his term as mayor, the Buffalo riot of 1862 took place.
Fargo was a lifelong Democrat and stood against secession. He supported the Union during the Civil War by paying a part of the salary of his employees that were drafted.
William Fargo seems to have been a man of commanding presence, genial, popular, conciliatory, interested in his employees and evoking devotion from them.
In January 1840, William G. Fargo married Anna H. Williams, daughter of Nathan Williams, one of the proprietors of Pompey, with whom he had eight children.
Henry Wells was an American businessman important in the history of both the American Express Company and Wells Fargo & Company.
James Congdell Strong Fargo was an American entrepreneur, who served as the president of the American Express Company for 30 years, an American multinational financial services corporation headquartered in Three World Financial Center in New York City.
