OYSTERS AND HANDCUFFS

     Anytime you think your job is tough, consider what a Wells Fargo agent had to do back in the Old West:  Waking up at 4 am to prepare the treasure box for an outbound stagecoach.  Opening the office after a fire with nothing but a smoldering vault and a hand-painted sign.  Taking responsibility for a 150 pound shipment of gold.  It was not a cushy job.

      "What I have to do is quite confining," wrote Wells Fargo Agent John Q. Jackson to his father in the early 1850's, "staying in my office all day till 10 at night, buying dust, forwarding & receiving packages of every kind, to and from everywhere, filling out drafts for the Eastern Mail for all sorts or sums...were it not for this feeling of responsibility and trust, I would be lighthearted as a bird."  Both men and women agents carried equally heavy loads.  And some agents, like Alonzo Delano, had to carry hot ones, too.

No job was too hot to handle for agent Delano

     No one in Grass Valley, California, would ever forget the night of September 13, 1855.  Within minutes, a fire raced through the town scorching everything in its path.  Virtually nothing was left except some charred wood planks and the Wells Fargo brick vault.  Would the money still be in there?  As the townspeople gathered around it they saw agent Delano in the distance dragging one of the few remaining shacks down main street.  He propped up his makeshift office next to the still smoldering vault and then began to unlock the vault door.  Every cent was in there.  As the crowd cheered, Delano painted a burnt piece of wood declaring Wells Fargo open for business.

Sometimes the best man for a job was a woman

     Wells Fargo was one of the first large businesses on the frontier to employ women in positions of responsibility.  By 1880, women had joined the head office auditing department in San Francisco and made up two percent of Wells Fargo's agents.  Like their male counterparts, they worked long hours and many even held down other jobs such as presiding over a post office or general store, or acting as a telegraph operator.

     Cassie Hill was such an example.  She took over the Wells Fargo office in Roseville, California, when her husband died leaving her with 5 babies to take care of.  Not only did she serve as the Well Fargo agent for the next 23 years, she also worked as the agent for the Southern Pacific Railroad, the manager of the depot, and the operator for Western Union Telegraph. In her spare time, she even ran the grain warehouse that she owned.  She worked just as hard (if not harder) as a man.  And so did her sister Wells Fargo agents.

A bass drum, oysters, and handcuffs

     You name it, agents Lucy Miller and Julia Jones received it.  As the Express agents of the town of Mariposa, near Yosemite, they linked the town to the outside world.  In addition to shipping out the heavy gold produced by the neighboring mines, they also received all the shipments that came into the town -- everything from eggs and oysters, to bass drums and handcuffs.  In addition steady shipments of yeast came through the office, which enabled the creation of a new business in town: a bakery.  Thanks to Wells Fargo, baking partners Ah Hee and Earland Saarinen, were able to offer freshly baked bread to the people of Mariposa.

     To insure that Mariposans received their holiday packages, Miller and Jones even kept their Wells Fargo office open on Christmas Day.  Their dedication to the town, however, went beyond serving as agents.  These two also held down other jobs.  Miller was the postmaster and Jones became the county superintendent of schools -- a position she was elected to, despite not even having the right to vote herself (women's suffrage would come over 20 years later).

     Night or day, the women and men of Wells Fargo were always dedicated to getting the job done.

(Story is used courtesy of Wells Fargo.com)