CHAPTER XI.

THE AMERICAN EXPRESS IN MICHIGAN. CHARLES FARGO'S ENTERPRISE. WONDERFUL GROWTH IN THE STATE, AND DETROIT.

The history of the American Express Company in Michigan, and the present condition of its business in that thriving State, is creditable to all concerned.

I can "speak by the card," because, for many years (between 1850 and 1877), I had numerous business transactions in a great many of the smaller towns and new settlements, and occasion to observe, almost constantly, their steady growth under the fostering facilities of the American and United States Express Companies.

Charles Fargo began Express business in Detroit, in June, 1851, and in January, 1853, was transferred by the American Express Co. to their Toledo, O., office, as agent, and he remained there three years, then returned to Detroit as agent.

The very efficient aid rendered by Express companies in attracting to sparsely settled States intelligent business population, must be admitted by every careful observer. We claim, however, that very few, even of the multitude of Express employees themselves, realize how this has been done. The most of them only know that "somehow or other" new settlements have been created everywhere on their lines, and have grown (some very rapidly) into communities that contribute materially to the traffic of the world.

Was this achieved by that great public accommodation, the United States Government Post-office Department? Or by mere railroad facilities? No; the post-office, as a department of Government service, would be superfluous, if the Express companies could have the same opportunity of competing for mail matter conveyance that the post-office department has for carrying small parcels of merchandise in opposition to the Express. The fact is, that neither postal nor railroad service can fill the place of the Express. In its origin, the Express was the special agent of every customer

between the points on the roads over which its messengers traveled and its agents operated. It was the next thing to the merchant's going, himself, all that distance to attend to his errand, his payment, his purchase, or whatever it might be.

We could name several States which owe their growth to these facilities, but we will cite only one, and that is Michigan. It can be demonstrated that its wonderful development into its present condition, as the largest contributor west of New York to the wealth and comfort of the northwestern States, is attributable in no small measure to the local Express companies; most notably to the American.

The enterprise of William G. Fargo initiated it, and it was fostered by James C., his brother, nearly thirty years ago; but we love to ascribe to Charles Fargo (the junior of both) the most thorough and permanent agency in making Michigan's marketing the means of so much emolument to herself and her neighbors, as it is.

His predecessor had labored wisely and well to encourage production, not through any department of agriculture, or any bucolic suggestions, but in his legitimate sphere of finding a market for their fruits and vegetables, and securing for them prompt sales and returns of the proceeds in good money.

Fargo encouraged mercantile men to go into new settlements with stocks of goods either large or small-anything to start a business. And then came to the aid of the impecunious dealer the C. O. D. accommodation, through which he could replenish, at half a day's notice, his often emptied shelves as frequently as was necessary, and no thanks to any mercantile agency for a credit. But credit rarely failed to follow a few promptly paid C. O. D.'s, and so the petty vender grew to be a small merchant, and in a few years the small but thrifty merchant became a rich one; and, by the same token, the halfdozen retailers in a growing town became wholesale men, making way for a score of younger and less able dealers, in a small way, to work their way up from the foot of the ladder in their turn.

Where there were no railroads there were stage lines, and the expressman made use of them. In case both of these failed him, there were, between many lake shore points, very

useful boats and propellers, and where these were lacking he encouraged their construction and use, and, in winter, the establishment of stage or wagon lines as a substitute.

Any one acquainted with Charles Fargo in his business sphere, will readily understand how his restless energy must have infused some of its life into all whom he employed or who came within the range of its influence. It was as a spur to every enterprise in Michigan, aiming, in that early railroad era, to increase and improve the transportation of products and merchandise. True to the policy of the company, he sought day by day, year in and year out, to increase the number and productiveness of settlements that should yield them busi

ness.

He encouraged the cultivation of those fruits for which he could find for the producer a ready and remunerative market in the adjoining States, and which, from their perishable nature, could be more safely transported by Express. While this afforded the Express a profit, it put money into the purse of the shipper the more promptly, because the cash was returned by the same medium by which the fruit had found a market.

As the result of this beneficent service, co-operating with a kindly soil, Michigan is, to-day, the greatest fruit State in the Union. Wells, Fargo & Co.'s policy in California, though many years later, has been similar, and that field of their invaluable service is already famous for its wealth of orchards, vineyards, and orange groves; but probably, the total amount of these products of the Golden Gate available for use in other States (notwithstanding it is a very large and most welcome addition to the table luxuries in other sections of the Union), falls far short of the marketable yield of Michigan.

CHARLES FARGO'S LAKE SUPERIOR EXPRESS.-In 1858, as editor of my newspaper, The Express Messenger, I had been for some years a somewhat careful observer of the effect of Express operations in promoting the growth of embryo settlements, and creating trade where there was none before, when I received a letter from Charles Fargo, whose headquarters were at Detroit, directing the insertion of an advertisement of

his "Lake Superior Express," an enterprise which he had just began "on his own hook."

It was not, in the outset, an "all-the-year-round" Express, being limited to the navigable season, and conveyance by steamboats the most of the distance.

Even with those limitations it was a laborious undertaking, and attended with many difficulties, especially between the sparsely populated and semi-civilized settlements on the shores of that remote northern lake; and his messengers (he himself sometimes serving in that capacity at the outset), could spin many a yarn of experiences, rough and tough, and occasionally very ludicrous, in the transportation and delivery, or collection of Express packages, in that unpromising land of the red-man, the half-breed, the lumberers and the copperminers.

The shifts which they had to resort to for conveyance; the perils by land and water; their exposure to the hard storms of that region; the many unusual methods which the adventurous "pioneer" messenger was compelled to resort to, in his mission to afford "the heathen" the facilities of a regular weekly, or semi-weekly communication and trade with the civilised world (whose capital the barbarians believed to be Detroit), and the innumerable amusing anecdotes there anent, illustrating the strange peculiarities of their half-civilised customers, would fill a good-sized volume.

Suffice it to say that the pioneer " Lake Superior Express' was no child's play at the start, and, even for several years after, it was as hard as plowing on a side-hill rich only in rocks and blackberry vines.

"But patience, perseverance and sweet oil,

Make all things work agreeably to Hoyle," as the poet says, and at length Fargo's new enterprise was rewarded with such success and promise of future importance, that his proprietary interest in it was purchased, in 1863, by the American Express managers, and consolidated in the stock of that company.

By reason of early investments by Boston capitalists in the development of the Lake Superior copper mines, that city had obtained, even sooner than New York, some lucrative trade in

that great mineral region. I remember seeing, as long ago as 1846, a magnificent specimen of pure copper ore, weighing not less than a ton, exhibited in the Merchants' Reading Room in Boston, whose lessee in those days was E. P. Whipple, the essayist, reviewer and lecturer.

MICHIGAN AND ONTARIO.-Who shall say how much the sagacious and persevering labors of the Fargo brothers (first William G., after him James C., and, last and longest, their younger associate) in Michigan, accomplished in arousing the old French city of Detroit from the almost torpid routine and chronic dullness of its daily life, and stimulating it into action, business progress and internal improvement?

In 1866, when the American Express Company appointed him as the successor of his older brother, James C., in the general supervision of their business in the entire northwest, with his headquarters in the rapidly-developed metropolis, Chicago, his hold upon the esteem of the business men in all sections of the State, where he had labored so efficiently, was so strong that the directors deemed it best that Charles Fargo should still retain the superintendence of their business in Michigan.

His appointment of J. S. Hubbard to take the more immediate charge in that State was a most judicious one.

A gentleman by instinct, Mr. Hubbard had, nevertheless, (like Sloan and others whom we shall name in this history), risen from the ranks, step by step, and was now in charge of a State division of which he might well be proud. Clear-headed, self-educated, thoroughly familiar with the duties of every employee, and giving all possible attention to his great work, in all its details, he was a fit successor to the two superintendents who had preceded him.

C. S. Higgins, for some three or four years a very useful assistant general superintendent of the southwestern and eastern departments, deceased in 1869.

Edwin Hayden, the "ancient and honorable," of whom we shall speak more fully on another page, having resigned the charge of the Ontario division, in 1877, Mr. J. S. Hubbard took the superintendence of that also. But this "Ossa upon Pe