Express, under the style of the "NATIONAL EXPRESS COMPANY;" capital stock, $250,000; D. N. Barney, president.

The general manager of the New York terminus was J. A. Pullen; the agent, here, W. P. Janes. E. H. Virgil, of Troy, was superintendent of the routes.

D. N. Barney had not been educated by experience as an Expressman, but as a banker. It is true, that he was president of the joint-stock Express known as Wells, Fargo & Co., but it was rather because of his large experience and position as a banker and capitalist, that he became the head of two or three of those companies, whose history we now have under consideration. The Express proprietary interests, grown to jointstock corporations, had assumed a financial phase not at all comprehended in Express routine, and it was well, perhaps, to bring to their aid, under these circumstances, a kind of talent and ability never before demanded by the exigences of the business.

This Express now had contracts for the best facilities which could be afforded by the Hudson River Railroad; the Troy and Boston Railroad; the Saratoga and Whitehall Railroad; Rutland and Washington, Western Vermont Railroads; Rutland and Burlington Railroad, and Champlain and St. Lawrence Railroad.

In the winter, they made use of stages from Burlington, Vt., to Keeseville, N. Y.; in the spring, summer and fall, the steamers, and the Plattsburgh and Montreal Railroad, via Rouse's Point.

In Canada, the operations of the National Express Company were very important. Not the least part of their service was the attention which they gave to the Custom House business.

THOMPSON & Co.'s (Boston) WESTERN EXPRESS.-This Ex- . press was commenced in 1841, by William F. Harnden. Its route was from Boston to Albany, via Springfield, Mass. Henry Wells was its original agent in Albany, James M. Thompson, its agent at Springfield (1842), had been a clerk in the Boston office. These facts, with the more pertinent one, that in 1844 Harnden & Co. sold this western Express to J.

M. Thompson, we have already related in our history of Harnden's enterprise. The new proprietor was shrewd, systematic and persevering, regular in his habits and very gentlemanly, though rather reserved in his address. His social position has always been superior, and his word has been considered as good as his bond. The good effect of his management of the Boston, Springfield and Albany Express became manifest almost immediately. Order, promptness, fidelity, and a spirit of accommodation characterized all his offices. At the outset he had no partner, nevertheless his Express made use of the style of "Thompson & Co." as at present.

E. Lamb Stone, Thompson's earliest agent in Albany, was succeeded, in the autumn of 1844, by Robert L. Johnson, then only 17 years of age. This smart, enterprising, and faithful young man-since so successful in this kind of business-had been for a year or two a clerk for Pomeroy & Co.'s Express (a daily line to New York, and semi-monthly to Buffalo); and when, in May, 1845, Thompson & Co. and Pomeroy & Co. occupied the same premises in Albany, he acted as agent for both.

In 1844, J. M. Thompson started an Express by stage and boat from Springfield to Hartford, and by stage from Springfield to Northampton, Greenfield, and Brattleboro', Vt. When the railroads were completed, these Expresses were conveyed upon them, and long continued in successful operation.

In 1846, William N. Melcher, formerly of Harnden & Co.'s Express, became a clerk for Thompson in the Boston office, at No. 8 Court street. There never was a more quiet, yet careful and efficient agent than Melcher. Some years later he became a partner with his employer.

In 1847, R. L. Johnson, the Albany agent, started an Express between Albany and Troy, over the Troy and Greenbush Railroad; running as his own messenger, and making the bank exchanges between the two cities the main part of his busi

ness.

He continued in this service until the spring of 1853, when he had the good fortune to be taken into the copartnership of Thompson & Co. We say good fortune, because that Express was doing a very remunerative business, and it has been materially augmented since that time, by reason of judi

cious management, superior agents, and the growing prosperity of the communities which it serves.

Thompson & Co. connected with the Adams Express Co. at Worcester and Springfield, where they had large and commodious offices; at Albany, with the American Express Co.; and at Boston with the eastern Expresses. The excellent agent in Worcester, J. H. Osgood, had the supervision of the general express agency in that flourishing interior city, and acted equally for the Adams Express Co., Thompson & Co., and Fiske & Co.

Thompson resided in Springfield, and the business there was under his immediate supervision. When he first began the business there, he occupied a space of only 15 feet by 7 feet, in the lobby of the post-office, and did all the work himself. Later he built a commodious office, 65 feet by 50 feet, and gave employment to 13 men and 4 horses, at that point. It was our purpose to say something in this connection, in reference to the remarkable growth of Springfield since the origin of the Express; but want of space will not admit of it. We will venture to say, however, that not one of its numerous important business establishments has contributed more to its prosperity than the liberal, enterprising, and public-spirited James M. Thompson.

Thompson & Co. had offices also in Boston, Albany, Palmer, Westfield, Springfield, North Adams, Chicopee, Holyoke, Northampton, Greenfield, Keene, N. H., Brattleboro' and Bellows Falls.

THE EASTERN EXPRESS COMPANY was founded in May, 1857, with a capital of $100,000. It was a Boston joint-stock concern-a consolidation of the Express enterprises of Carpenter & Co., Winslow & Co., and Hodgman, Carr & Co. Carpenter & Co. were for about ten years in the Express business between Boston and the towns on the Kennebec river. Winslow & Co. (J. R. Hall, Boston manager) succeeded in 1850, or not long afterwards, to a business between Boston, Portland and Waterville, Me., once operated by Longley & Co. F. W. Carr had been in the Maine Express line. Some years ago became a partner with Hodgman & Co., and the style was

he

changed to Hodgman, Carr & Co. Their Express business was between Boston and the towns on the Penobscot river, and he the best Carr on the road.

John R. Hall, the superintendent of the Eastern Express Company, had been an expressman ever since the days of Harnden's Original Express. The associate managers and proprietors were J. R. Hall and F. W. Carr, Boston; J. N. Winslow, Portland; C. S. Carpenter, Augusta ; and F. H. Hodgman, Bangor. Upon their different routes they had about 570 miles of steamboating, and 380 miles of railroad travel, and employed upwards of eighty agents and messengers, and from fifteen to twenty drivers.

Mr. Tucker, in their Boston office, had been an express clerk for many years.

During the forty-two years since the origin of the express business, wonderful changes have taken place in New England.

Before taking a final leave of the subject of the transportation business during the latter days of the stage-coach lines, and while the earlier railroads were only in embryo, I will quote two or three facts, for the accuracy of which I have the authority of the Boston Daily Advertiser:

"In 1827, when careful inquiries for ascertaining the amount of travel and transportation were made on the Providence and Western routes, preparatory to a determination of the question of the practicability of maintaining railroads, it was reported that the number of passengers conveyed in that year between Boston and Providence, by the commercial and citizens' daily line of stage-coaches, was 24,100; and that in the same year 1,706 tons of merchandise were transported between the two cities in baggage wagons, and 3,400 tons in sea vessels passing round Cape Cod, a distance of 210 miles-the distance by the turnpike road being but 42 miles. Subsequently to the date of the opening of the Providence Railroad, the travel and transportation on the line were a good deal increased beyond the above amounts. Much of the journeying throughout the commonwealth was performed at that period in private carriages, instead of stage-coaches, and a great part of the transportation of merchandise was done by teams specially employed for each job. The only inland navigation in the State was that of the Middlesex Canal, on which was a packet boat, which left Charlestown for Chelmsford every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, and returned on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays; and at certain seasons considerable boating of heavy merchandise on the Connecticut river."

WELLS, FARGO & Co.-The very extensive California Express establishment, now so well known throughout the civilized world as Wells, Fargo & Co., was commenced in New York in the spring of 1852, by Henry Wells, W. G. Fargo, Johnston Livingston, A. Reynolds, and E. B. Morgan. It was a joint-stock company; capital $300,000, subsequently increased from time to time to $600,000. Its original managers were E. B. Morgan, of Aurora, N. Y., president; James McKay, secretary; Johnston Livingston, treasurer. The other directors were A. Reynolds, Wm. G. Fargo, Henry Wells, and E. P. Williams. Several of these gentlemen were prominent managers of the American Express Company, and the numerous offices of the latter Express were made use of to facilitate the business of Wells, Fargo & Co.-a very great advantage, and calculated to place the new California Express upon the footing of a long-established concern. Wells, Fargo & Co. began by reducing the price of express freight from this port to San Francisco, from sixty cents to forty cents per pound, and their competitors (who had been paid in 1849 and 1850, as high as seventy-five cents per pound) were compelled to do the same.

The managers of the new company being energetic men, well known in New York for their responsibility, and familiar with "all the ropes," soon succeeded in obtaining a large patronage in the city. Add to this what was sent in from the American Express offices in the west, and the reader will readily conceive that Wells, Fargo & Co. made a very prosperous beginning. About that time Adams & Co. removed to their present quarters, and Wells, Fargo & Co. located themselves in the old express premises, No. 16 Wall street. J. McKay was the agent there; S. P. Carter and R. W. Washburn were the San Francisco agents. The latter gentleman, formerly a bank cashier in Syracuse, N. Y., now has charge of the exchange department of the company in San Francisco. Wells, Fargo & Co. remained in Wall street several years, and then removed to No. 82 Broadway.

The original board of direction was succeeded by the following, viz. D. N. Barney, president; T. M. Janes, treasurer; D. N. Barney, W. G. Fargo, Henry Wells, E. P. Williams, J. Livingston, Benj. P. Cheney, N. H. Stockwell, T. M. Janes,