Merchants Union Express Co. - Gorgeous Express Stock Certificate

Stock. Important early affiliate of American Express. A little bit rough condition. In 1866, upon the resignation of Henry Wells and American Express' merger with the Merchants Union Express Company, Fargo was elected President of the American Express Company. He was the company's president until his death in 1881, at which point his brother, J. C. Fargo, assumed the presidency, holding the post until 1914. Read more at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Fargo

Key Dates:

1841: Henry Wells founds Wells & Co.
1850: Wells, William G. Fargo, and John Butterfield form the American Express Company.
1852: Wells Fargo & Company is founded.
1868: American Express Company merges with Merchants Union to form the American Merchants Union Express Co.; Henry Wells retires.
1881: William Fargo dies.
1891: The American Express Traveler's Cheque is introduced.
1910: Mann-Elkins Act makes express companies subject to the scrutiny of the Interstate Commerce Commission.
1914: George C. Taylor becomes company president.
1915: American Express opens its Travel Department.
1919: The American Express Co. is established to expand the company's international banking operations.
1958: The American Express travel-and-entertainment card (the 'green card') is introduced.
1981: American Express acquires Shearson Loeb Rhoades Inc.
1982: American Express is reorganized under American Express Corp.
1987: The Optima Card is introduced.
1993: Harvey Golub becomes CEO; American Express wins federal government's travel and transportation system contract.
1999: American Express launches Blue, the first 'smart card' offered in the United States. 

Key Dates above from company-histories.com

American Express Company, a multibillion-dollar holding company whose subsidiaries provide travel and financial services worldwide, traces its roots to a New York express business founded by Henry Wells in 1841. From the safe transport of valuables it grew naturally into money orders and traveler's checks; from there its travel service operations, including its credit card services, also grew naturally. In the 1980s, American Express expanded into financial planning through Investors Diversified Services, Inc. (IDS) to merger and acquisition advice from Shearson Lehman Hutton. Faced with intensifying competition and poor public relations in the early 1990s, American Express divested itself from many of the businesses it had acquired in the previous decade. Throughout its history, American Express has enjoyed a reputation for innovation, profitability, and integrity.

Henry Wells began his expressman career as an agent for William Harnden, who had founded the first express company in the United States in 1839. Express companies were in the business of transporting money and other valuables safely. Wells was an ambitious man who repeatedly proposed expanding the business westward&mdashø Buffalo, New York; the Midwest; and the far West. When Harnden refused to leave the East Coast, Wells struck out on his own, organizing Wells & Co. in 1841. Read more at https://www.referenceforbusiness.com/history2/67/American-Express-Company.html

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