This Day in Wall Street History 1850: American Express founded

This day in 1850 marked the founding of one of America's stalwart companies, American Express. The brainchild of Henry Wells and William G. Fargo, American Express was a union of three express transport concerns: Livingston, Fargo & Company, Wells & Co., and Butterfield & Wasson. 

The newly formed, and initially unincorporated, transportation company was a fast hit with the public; by the close of the Civil War, American Express had set up 900 offices in 10 states. 

Success, however, bred competition, and the upstart Merchants Union Express Company, founded in 1866, gave American Express a good run of it for a few years. After two years of furious competition, the companies decided that it would be more profitable to merge than to fight; in late 1868, the American Express and Merchants Union joined together as American Merchants Union Express Company. Fargo took the reigns of the new concern, which, in 1873, adopted its more familiar moniker as the American Express Company. American Express, of course, has since mutated into a giant in the fields of finance and travel, with offices spread across the globe.

-Source: www.history.com