Latest / Ridiculous History / The Weird, Weird History of Shipping: Part 1

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The Weird, Weird History of Shipping: Part 1 · Ridiculous History

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of I Heart Radio. Ye,
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: welcome to the show Ridiculous Historians. Thank you for tuning in.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: If you are a resident of these United States, you
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: may be familiar with something we call the U. S.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: Postal Service. Uh. There, there's still a big deal. It's
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: a crazy operation when you think about it. And just
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: for a quick statistic, every single day they process and
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: deliver one eight seven point eight million pieces of just
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: first class mail every twenty four hours. Hi, I'm Ben Bullin.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: Hey I'm Noel Brown, And I'll tell you I didn't
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: realize until he dug into this subject, uh, that the U. S.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: Postal Service wasn't even established officially until the seventies. That's correct.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: It's insane to me. I figured it was just something
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: that was around since time immemorial. You hear about Benjamin
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: Franklin being uh, you know, the first official postmaster General. Um,
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: but that they did not have a government body. It
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: was more of like an ad hoc kind of situation. Yeah,
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: it was a department, the post Office department, not the
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: Postal Service. Right, that's right. So we also would be
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: remiss if we didn't send an audible shout out in
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: the I guess the ear mail to our super producer,
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: Casey Pegram And speaking of you know, I like that
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: you bring up the surprising recent origin of this, uh,
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: this modern postal service, because I was thinking about this
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: off air. Is it easier or more difficult to run
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: a postal service today? Because we know that there's this
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: amazing technology, right, we have GPS, we have tracking system
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: school or but we also have many many more people,
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: millions more addresses. Still, I think it's easier to run
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: a postal service or a package service now than it
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: was back in the day. That is our topic for
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: this episode, the weird, weird, weird history of shipping just
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: in general. You know who I was ship, Casey Pegram
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: and Pikachu and that's a that's a fandom reference, it is,
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: That's not what we're talking about today. This is a
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: different kind of shipping, oh, like shipping and receiving. Got it,
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: Casey uh seems to approve of my my shipping choice.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: Do yes, Casey on the case, Casey on the case.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: So let's let's think about it, Like, what's the weirdest
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: thing you guys have ever mailed or received in the mail?
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: You know, I once received a single floor tom drum
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: like a like a like from a Yamaha drum kit,
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: like just the tom, and then I ended up meeting
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: the guy who I bought it from on eBay completely randomly.
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: I was in the market for a single drum, found
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: one to my liking, and then it ended up at
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: a guy from Athens, where I eventually moved, and his
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: name is Taker the drum or the guy, the guy. Okay,
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: what did you name the drum Yamaha with the factory
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: name exactly? Because some people name their instruments. That's the
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: real thing. Yeah, I wonder if you have a drum
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: kit in your drummer, do you name each individual drum
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: or do you give the whole kid a single name? Casey,
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: you're a drummer, what do you think. I think it's
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: more of a kid thing, yeah, than the individual drums.
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: Maybe if you have like a I don't know, special
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: symbol or something, maybe give it a name. But yeah, yeah,
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: like old Zilji or something. Yeah. So the responsive question
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: did I ask? I I have a weird shipping story.
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: It's very short. Uh, it won't take too long. So
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: I used to live out in the hinterlands, very small
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: area in Central America, and I had to get some medication.
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: Ship to medication itself is not unusual. It's you know,
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: it's sent through the post all the time. But I
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  Speaker 1: was so far away from the U West and so
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: far away from regular shipping routes that this had to come.
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: Let's see, picked up at a pharmacy, put in international mail,
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: carried by a private carrier. Once it got in country,
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: and then the last two stops, uh, it went on
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  Speaker 1: the back of a pickup truck. There was a guy
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  Speaker 1: in the back of a pickup truck. It went about
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  Speaker 1: ten miles that way, and then it was handed off
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  Speaker 1: to a courier on a dirt bike. And there wasn't
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: really an address, so I had to go stand in
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  Speaker 1: front of this building, which is like the main drag
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  Speaker 1: of town, and just wait till I see the right
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  Speaker 1: looking guy in the dirt bike. I am the only one,
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: by the way in this scenario who is who looks
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: like I do. So I'm pretty recognized. So but did
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: you flag him down or did he just he his
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: made a bee line right for you. He recognized he
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: saw it from a distance. And I was so weird
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  Speaker 1: because I could see through the stamps and the markings,
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  Speaker 1: how many different kind of systems this had gone through.
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  Speaker 1: And that's that's what I am still baffled by. You know,
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  Speaker 1: when you when you have something very delicate, for instance,
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  Speaker 1: like a drum shipped through the mail, where you have
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  Speaker 1: something even normal shipped through you know, to the ends
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  Speaker 1: of the earth, how can we do that? It's impressive
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: as a species. It's really funny. Been the the situation
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: that you just described is not too far removed for
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: what became the order of the day for shipping. It
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: would be this kind of like going around your asked
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: to get to your elbow situation where uh, steamships would
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: go down to Panama and then they would you know,
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  Speaker 1: transfer the deliveries to horses who would then make a
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  Speaker 1: journey over the very very treacherous isthmus of Panama and
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: then picked up again by new ships and taken up
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: the Pacific coast um. And that that that that was
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  Speaker 1: how it was done until eighteen fifty eight, when over
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: land delivery became much more of a thing and a
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: bidding war ensuit. Or we're getting a little ahead of ourselves,
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  Speaker 1: but I really like your story. It really sets the
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  Speaker 1: tone for this uh this topic now, thanks man, I
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  Speaker 1: mean yours as well. The more things change, right, the
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: more they stay the same. History doesn't repeat, but it
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: tends to rhyme. It's true. I like that you brought
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  Speaker 1: up the phrase ad hawk at the top of the
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  Speaker 1: show because before the eighteen hundreds, what we would call
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: a package a courier delivery service was pretty unorganized. There
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: wasn't a huge central authority. You would say, okay, I
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: need to send uh duke casey pegram a uh not
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: a balustrade. That's too big a loot. For some reason,
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: you're saying you a loot l U t E. Sorry.
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: What is a balustrade? Ben? I've always wondered that it
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: was in an Amy Man song and I never knew
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  Speaker 1: what it was. Is it like a banister, It's a
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: it's a kind of it's a railing, and it's kind
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: of an ornamental thing. Like if you ever drive by
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: an apartment building and you see maybe a nice one
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  Speaker 1: with like a stone railing around one of the balconies,
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  Speaker 1: that is a balustrade. That railing and the things a
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: little stems those are ballusters? Is that right? That is true?
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  Speaker 1: Those would be hard to ship, though those would be
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: hard to ship. Shipping and balustrade at that time seems weird,
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: so we send him a loot instead, l U t E.
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: I would ship a balustrade with Casey pegram. I'm like
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: in the package. Now, you guys are just having a
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: relationship to go oh I with an inanimate object. That
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  Speaker 1: people do that fine, I think so Casey on the case.
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: It is almost after all, lest people be judgmental. But
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  Speaker 1: back to before the mid eighteen hundreds, I would need
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  Speaker 1: to find a courrier of physical person or crew, and
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  Speaker 1: I would say, get this loot to the duke, and
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: then the courrier would say, okay, we're gonna go to
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  Speaker 1: the closest village near you know, the Duke's of the
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  Speaker 1: Duke's palace or his fortress or whatever. And then and
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  Speaker 1: of taking it to a specific address, the corrier would
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  Speaker 1: probably just drop it off in whatever the common area
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  Speaker 1: of town was. And mind you, zero protection for you
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  Speaker 1: as the sender, to the recipient, or to the guaranteed
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  Speaker 1: safety of the goods being transported or the you know,
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  Speaker 1: the message or whatever. This is. This is an advance
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  Speaker 1: of the idea of shipping larger things, which will come
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  Speaker 1: to fruition as a thing called parcel post. But that
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: comes a yeah, and it's a it's a huge trust fall,
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  Speaker 1: right because the courrier could literally disappear, you would never
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  Speaker 1: see your loot again, and your loots will become the
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  Speaker 1: courriers loot. And how funny is it that we've kind
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  Speaker 1: of come full circle to that now where we put
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  Speaker 1: all of our trust in this ride share and just
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  Speaker 1: kind of like sharing economy where we don't really need
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  Speaker 1: guarantees so much as long as they you know, had
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  Speaker 1: the past the test to get on the app, then
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: we sort of trust them or we just aren't really
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  Speaker 1: that concern. It's just kind of interesting. It's a little
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: bit of a full circle. You got stuff like task
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  Speaker 1: Rabbit where people pick up stuff and do it for
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  Speaker 1: you or as if they or you know whatever, all
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  Speaker 1: of those absurdly named uh services. But it's true, Ben,
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  Speaker 1: that is the very definition of ad hawc. You would
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  Speaker 1: hire these individuals, you might get your stuff, you might not.
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  Speaker 1: And it became, you know, there was a gap that
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  Speaker 1: needed to be filled, and that specifically happened during the
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: California Gold Rush in the eighteen sixties when a lot
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  Speaker 1: of folks were settling going west, young young men and women. Um,
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  Speaker 1: and they really wanted to you know that it was
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  Speaker 1: a time of technological boom, the idea of the telegraph,
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  Speaker 1: and you know, being able to get things much more
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  Speaker 1: quickly and by much more quickly. We're talking about you know,
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  Speaker 1: weeks as opposed to months. Right, Yeah, but that still
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  Speaker 1: looks great in comparison, it does. And uh, and you're right,
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  Speaker 1: there's this, there's this what Malcolm Gladwell would call it
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  Speaker 1: tipping point in the eighteen sixties, and it coincides with
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  Speaker 1: the California Gold Rush. Part of it goes back to
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  Speaker 1: the geographical fact that the United States is huge. It's massive,
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  Speaker 1: it's very very wide exactly. And those ad howc methods
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  Speaker 1: of shipping and receiving might have worked in a more
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  Speaker 1: regional setup where you didn't have to travel as far,
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  Speaker 1: but once you start going from sea to shining sea,
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  Speaker 1: that becomes completely, um, just untenable. Um. And and by
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: the way, we're getting a lot of this chronology um
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: from a wonderful article from Atlas Obscura called From Pony
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: Express to Amazon Drone, The Strange History of Delivering Packages
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  Speaker 1: by Dan Nosowitz. That's right, and in this shipping free
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  Speaker 1: in this gap in the series of opportunity, we see
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  Speaker 1: two incredible players emerge. One is called the Pony Express,
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  Speaker 1: the other is called Wells Fargo. And the Pony Express
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  Speaker 1: had a real missed opportunity by not adopting the tagline
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: let those ponies run. That's the Scott Benjamin quote, Scott
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: Benjamin quote at the lifetime let those ponies or ride.
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  Speaker 1: I think he said run. I think it's run. Okay,
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: let him loose. So the Pony Express is what it
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: sounds like. They were, uh, letter transporting cavalry. They would
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: jump on these horses and they would deliver mail and
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: newspapers and important messages through a system like a relay
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: race of different mounted riders. So of course you would say, well,
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  Speaker 1: it's ridiculous that I would write a letter in New
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  Speaker 1: York and then hand it to some guy on a
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  Speaker 1: horse and he would ride across the country. He wouldn't
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: he would ride a certain distance, he would link up
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: with someone else and they would ride along. Yeah, and
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  Speaker 1: what would have taken twenty five days by stagecoach um,
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  Speaker 1: or perhaps many many months on a on a sea
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  Speaker 1: voyage um, the Pony Express could get it done in
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  Speaker 1: about ten days from east coast to west coast, and
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: they operated between the operating between Missouri and California. But
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: they didn't operate that long. It might surprise some people
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: because the Pony Express after it went the way of
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: the Dodo due to the telegraph. The Pony Express was
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  Speaker 1: very romanticized in the American zeitgeist, but it was only
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  Speaker 1: an operation from April third, eighteen sixty two October of
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: eighteen sixty one, so just a little more than a year.
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  Speaker 1: But in those eighteen months of operation, the Pony Express
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: changed history, it changed shipping, and it remains an impressive
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: endeavor today. Wouldn't you say, I absolutely would say, Um,
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: one thing that I didn't know about in that time
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: that it operated that very limited time. It did not
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: turn a profit. And in fact, there was a war
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: between the United States and the Paiute Indians called the
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: Pyramid Lake War that caused a temporary shutdown of the
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: company and cost them seventy five thousand dollars a princely
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: sum at the time. And after that they when they started,
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: all the damage had been done. Um, and they never
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: received a government contract, which as we know, can be
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: very very important for something that requires so much overhead
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: and infrastructure, and it is estimated um according to some sources,
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: including history dot com article entitled ten things you May
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: Not Know about the Pony expressed by Evan Andrews that
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: over the course of that very brief history of the company,
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: it may have lost around two hundred thousand dollars uh
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: and and just a couple of little quick facts from
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: that article as well. I thought this was interesting. The riders.
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: You think of Pony Express writers as being like grizzled
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: kind of cowboy types, but they actually were very slight fellows,
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: weighing between a hundred and hundred twenty five pounds, much
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: more like a jockey, and that's because of weight restrictions.
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: They wanted to keep them as light as possible so
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: they could like increase productivity in terms of like you know, quick,
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: quicker turnaround times. And the is my favorite one, as
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: they received a salary of between a hundred and a
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: hundred and fifty dollars months is a big deal of
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: the time, and they were asked to submit themselves to
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: reading this loyalty oath, which says, I hereby swear before
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: the Great and Living God that during my engagement, and
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: while an employee of Russell Majors in Waddell, which is
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: the partners in the endeavor, this was a private company. Exactly,
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: I will, under no circumstances use profane language. That I
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: will drink no intoxicating liquors. That I will not quarrel
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: or fight with any other employee of the firm. And
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: then in every respect, I will conduct myself honestly, be
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: faithful to my duties, and so direct all my acts
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: as to win the confidence of my employers. So help
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: me God. I want to add to that excerpt with
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: a fascinating classified advertisement. This is an alleged advertisement wanted
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: young skinny, wiry fellows not over eighteen, must be expert writers.
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: WILLI to risk death daily? Orphans preferred? No orphans? Yeah,
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: that's I mean, because that's enticing when you think about
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: the age that they're trying to get to feel like
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna live dangerously No, And it's like, you know,
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: you better not have anybody that's gonna miss you because
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: you might get an arrow through the throat or something.
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: I don't know if there's any number of ways you
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: could have died on those treacherous journeys because the West,
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: you know, the areas between that frontier very treacherous in
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: terms of terrain, in terms of potential, you know, ways
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: of just falling to your death. There's any number of
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: ways you could die. That's right. If Oregon Trail taught
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: me anything, it's that any time you travel with a
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: group of six or more people in that time, one
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: of you is going to get dysenterry, one of you
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: is going to break a leg and uh, you know
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: you might lose some ox oxen, but not break a leg.
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: And like a doing well in a you know, high
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: school musical kind of like a compound fracture with a
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: bone sticking out and stuff. You guys remember Oregon Trail?
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: Did you play? Are your fans? Yeah? Totally remember Fording
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: the River Dying of dysentery. Yeah. I actually have a
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: card game version of it that came out pretty recently.
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: That's quite a lot of fun. I recommended if you
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: if you if you haven't seen that, should they update
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: the diseases? No, it's it's literally just a card game
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: version of Oregon Trail has a neat mechanic to the
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: way you play it. I I really it's all that's cool,
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: but I'd like to check it out. Yeah, yeah, we
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: should have a bring it to the next office game night.
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: It sounds like a plan. If you want to participate
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: in the Pony Express, there's kind of way you can
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: do it today. You can follow their footsteps or should
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: I say hoof prints by visiting the Pony Express National
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: Historic Trail. It goes through a ton of different land jurisdictions.
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: It has several sites that are open to public visitation,
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: and there are a couple of places where they've got
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: automobile access. It's it's a piece of living history. It's
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: worth it, and it is indeed history. The Pony Express
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: is no or because in while it was only an
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: operation for that eighteen month period, in eighteen sixty six, Uh,
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: the owner of the time sold the assets for Pony
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: Express to outfit named Wells Fargo, and he sold it
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: for one point five million dollars in eighteen sixty six.
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: You know that's a ton, right, and Wells Fargo, you
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: might be saying, or you probably said earlier in the episode,
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: you said Wells Fargo. Uh, Holy moly, Stars and Garters.
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: Isn't that a bank? Well? Yeah, now, but you may
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: have seen their iconic logo, which is a horse drawn
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: stage coach um with the what do you call it?
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: A captain, pilot, rainsman, what do you call a driver?
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: Just the driver boom, there you go to do little,
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: the one who speaks to the hors that guy. And
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: that is because while the pony expressed largely was known
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: for delivering letters, Wells Fargo uh kind of had the
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: market corner on delivering larger things packages. Coachman, I bet
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: you it's a coach It's a coachman. I think you
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: can do driver as well, but coachman is much more appropriate.
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: I love that. And before they made their real money
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: in banking, Wells Fargo was absolutely the end all be
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: all of package delivery, as you can tell by this
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: very very absurdly catchy little ditty I warn you in
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: advance from the nineteen sixty two film version of the
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: nineteen fifty seven Broadway musical The Music Man by Meredith Wilson.
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: Have a listen how the Wells Fargo wagon as a
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: called and down the streets. All please let it be
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: far me hole. The Weld's Fargo wagon is a calm
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: and down the street. I wish I wish I knew
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: what it could be. I got a box with me
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: for sugar wargos in March, I got a great Medican
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: Montgomery Awards sent me across a bathtub and a cross
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: cut saw. Uh there was there was shipping, all kinds
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: of stuff, that's right. And it was literally all kinds
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: of stuff. Because the folks are teamed up. They're on
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: the East Coast in New York to create Wells Fargo
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: wanted to dominate shipping across the contiguous United States and beyond.
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: They wanted a monopoly, and there were a bunch of
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: East Coast shipping concerns at the time. But Wells Fargo
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: is different. It was the creation or the result of
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: a supergroup team up between three different people. Henry Wells,
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: William G. Fargo, those are the names we know. And
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: then another one you may not have heard of, a
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: guy named John Butterfield. On their own, these dudes each
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: had shipping company. But uh, they when they joined forces
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: in eighteen fifty, they created something. This is a trick question.
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: What do you think they created? Way to not Wells
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: far ago? Right, that's correct, I'm I'm thinking some other
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: legacy brand. Let's see they called they called the package
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: shipping industry at the time, the express industry. Wait a minute,
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: and these activities were taking place in America. Let's see.
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: I like what, I like where we're going with this,
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: United Express, American Eagle, State Express, Packaged Postal Eagle, America
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: un Canada Mail in a hurry. Okay, I like all
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: of those, and those did not make it out of
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: the pitch meeting that ultimately settled on, um, you guessed it,
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: maybe American Express. Yes, I hope, we hope we left
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: enough breadcrumbs there. And this is probably obvious to everyone,
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: but I think it's so interesting how the biggest banks
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: and credit card companies always got their start like in
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: the gold Rush and like you know, occupying some niche
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: and then just kind of like ballooning from there. And
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: now we have our you know, our Wells Fargoes and
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: our you know big banks of the world which are giant, right,
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: So these guys joined forces in eighteen fifty they make
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: American Express. Fast forward two years. American Expresses primarily an
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: East coast operation, but they want to they want to
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: get in on the growing West Coast market, or at
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: least some members of American Express to you see, Henry
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: Wells and William Fargo are gassed about it. They're super excited.
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: But the Board of American Expresses, it's like, well, why
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: are we gonna do this California thing? We got, we
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: got a pretty nice operation here on the East coast.
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: It ain't broke, don't fix it, Fargo, And they said, wells, no,
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: they didn't say that. They they started their own company.
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: They kind of, uh, they took what they learned from
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: the American Express operation and they just moved it to
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: the West coast and they changed the name. Yeah, and
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: and again early on they their biggest service was delivery
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: of valuable goods, um, you know, jewels and gold, and
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: then eventually kind of more you know home goods that
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: that that folks that actually had a little money to
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: spend from like catalogs, ship and shipments and stuff like
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: that could could lutes, balustrades, all of that stuff. Um.
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: And they were very clever in their marketing and did
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: a good job of endearing themselves to the news media
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: by including free newspapers along with any packages that you
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: would ship through their their service. And this is great
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: because everybody enjoys being plugged in getting the latest news.
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: And we have to remember this is before television. This
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: is a time in an age where information is a
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: little tougher to come by, so getting a free newspaper
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: is a great value. Add things get a little weird
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: when the company starts directly delivering gold as well. Right,
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: that's where it becomes a little bit more than a
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: postage service, It's true, and that you know, we we
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: we'll find out and as we as we know based
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: on what we know Wells Fargo as today, that became
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: much more of their bread and butter. But because they
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: were handling so much of this precious material that was
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: coming out of the gold rush, um, they it made
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: just perfect sense to them to set up a situation
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: where they could you know, invest and hold onto people's
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: assets for them. And they did such a good job
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: and uh, you know, did it so quickly that folks
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: were very comfortable with them. And then you know, like
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: that was sort of one of the early days of
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: folks having money that had been formerly you know, destitute,
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: and they needed to trust somebody and they trusted Wells Fargo.
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: So um. And a really good point in this Atlas
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: Obscure article is every new settlement gold mining colony that
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: was set up. You'd have yourself a saloon, and you'd
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: have yourself a Wells Fargo. Yeah, absolutely, maybe a church
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: to who knows. Definitely a Wells Fargo. And earlier we
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: had walked through this strange and inconvenient Rube Goldberg esque
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: shipping system that companies like Wells Fargo would use. They
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: would send the steamships down to Panama, the horses over
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: the smith which was a dangerous, uh and at times
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: deadly trip, and then they would send ships up the
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: Pacific coast. In eighteen fifty eight, they create the first
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: of what we described as overland delivery service, named in
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: a burst of creativity, the Overland Mail Company. And this
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: is where Wells Fargo really kind of took that shipping
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: to the next level because they a um started getting
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: a little bit of assistance from Congress UH and that
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: a bidding war began to establish much more of a
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: nationwide postal system. And that company, that offshoot was and
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: the running and won the contract. And so the Overland
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: Mail Company, and it's by now very experienced owners take
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: a step forward. There there's still a private company, but
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: now they're very closely working with the government, and they
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: are carrying all official mail. We know a little bit
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: about their original contract. They cracked a deal with Uncle
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: Sam and they said, okay, mail is never gonna take
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: longer than twenty five days. But despite what it said
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: on paper, the reality was much different, you know, And
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: there was still a lot of wilderness in the West.
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: There's still a lot of intervening variables. So you could
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: you could trust that Overland and Wells Fargo and these
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: kinds of outfits would do their best to get the
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: mail to you at some point, which you wouldn't really
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: be able to safely predict it all the time. Eventually,
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: Butterfield resigns and Wells Fargo as the company, takes over
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: the board of Overland Mail in eighteen sixty and then
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: they buy the company straight out in eighteen sixty six.
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: And then everything changed when in eighteen sixty nine, the
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: very first transcontinental railroad system came into existence, which was
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: a network um of various rail lines that were connected
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: um through some very forward thinking individuals that started the
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: Central Pacific Railroad Company. Yeah, and so imagine all the
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: machinations of Wells Fargo, of Henry Henry Wells and William Fargo.
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: Imagine it like a very beautifully constructed palace of cards
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: in a windy room. Because as soon as all these
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: regional railroad systems are connected, this house of shipping cards
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: that Wells Fargo has built just rushes through the windows. Uh.
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: The owners of Central Pacific in almost a single stroke,
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: render everything Wells Fargo has worked on all all of
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: its monopolistic infrastructure outdated, if not obsolete. Right, But they
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: were quick to hop on the train. That's that's not
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: even a pun. That's just I thought it works. Just
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: laziness as Farllows and Wells Fargo. Um, they they knew
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: what the score was, and the Central Pacific Railroad Company
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: was actually kind of jerking them around a bit, like
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: playing a little bit of like a cat batting around
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: some sort of you know, um hand knitted mouse toy.
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: And they created an express company themselves, and that is
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: when um Wells Fargo purchased that company from Central Pacific
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: so they could get in on shipping their goods through
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: the railroad system. And that's what got them in the door. Yes, yeah,
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: do you know what I have to be honest here,
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: this is way more fascinating than I thought it would
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: have been. Uh, you know, before I started researching this,
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: what do you think? Well, then, first of all, I
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: hope you always feel that you can be honest with
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: me and the listeners, and I think you do. I agree, though,
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: I was surprised at how the history of shipping and
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: receiving and mail and packages, all things that sound a
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: little dry on the surface actually pretty fascinating. And there's
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: a lot of adventure and the Pony Express. Who knew
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: we're not even halfway done with this? Well we're okay, officially,
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: we're halfway done with the story. We're going to We're
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: going to conclude, and we hope you tune in for
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: our follow up on the weird, weird, weird history of
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: shipping stuff. In the meantime, you can continue the conversation.
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: We want to hear your shipping war stories or your
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: your strange anecdotes. You can find us on Facebook, you
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: can find us on Instagram. You can find us on Twitter,
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: not just as a show, but as individuals. Can find
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: me exclusively on Instagram at how now Noel Brown, Um
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: where I get into various adventures and misadventures, and you know,
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: you can see me hanging out and doing cute stuff
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: with my kid and going to concerts and eating delicious foods.
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: And you can join my various global Shenanigant and see
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: me get kicked into and out of different places, communities
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: and countries on Instagram at Ben Boland or on Twitter
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: at Ben Boland hs W. Thanks as always the super
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: producer Casey Peperam, Thanks to Alex Williams who composed our theme.
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: Christopher Hasiota is here in spirit as always, thanks of
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: course to Gabe Lousier, Thanks to Eve's Jeff Coat. Thanks
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: to and Noel. I appreciate you. I appreciate you reluctantly
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: co signing me on this part. But thanks to Jonathan Strickland,
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: ak that twister a k A young Quizzles a k
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: a uh Stricka poo, he would hate that one, Mr Quister,
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: there we go. I like the rhyd their sister, sister,
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: twisted sister, the twisted Quister. I like that. Um yeah,
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: I think okay, reluctant thanks to to Jonathan Strickland and
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: absolute wholehearted um from the bottom of my heart thanks
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: to super producer Casey Pegram. Did you already say that
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: even if you did. I'm adding another one because we
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: just love the crap out of that guy. Uh and
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: thanks to you, Ben. I like your hat today, sir,
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: thanks so much so I got it in the mail
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: oddly enough. How do you like that? See you next time, folks.
• 30:44
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• 30:47
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• 30:50
  Speaker 1: your favorite shows.