Yahoo Weather

You are here

American Express operated a Boone office starting in 1865

Founded as a joint stock company in March of 1850 by Henry Wells, William G. Fargo and John Warren Butterfield, the American Express Company was formed from three existing rival express companies—Wells and Company; Livingston, Fargo and Company; and Butterfield, Wasson and Company—to consolidate forces and to eliminate potentially destructive competition. Initially, it carried express mail between Buffalo, New York, and New York City. Soon it was hauling personal effects, securities and other light freight throughout New York State. Only a few months later, the company had grown into the major express company in the eastern US. Expansion across the entire country became a major goal.

After consolidating its business in the east, American Express contracted with existing railroads and steamship lines in 1851 to extend its express services into the midwest including Iowa, but Henry Wells and William Fargo also set their sights on California. They realized that the California gold rush of 1848 opened new business opportunities for establishing efficient transport services from the west coast to markets in New York City. In 1852, Wells and Fargo proposed expanding American Express operations to California. When Butterfield and other board members objected, Wells and Fargo formed a new joint stock company, called Wells Fargo, to provide express and banking services to California. Banking services were organized near the gold fields and messenger and express routes were established to transport valuable commodities back to the East.

Through the sub-contracting of express services to other western express companies, the new company quickly established a nationwide network of freight and messenger routes, which by 1857 included the Overland Mail Company and the Pony Express. In 1866, Wells Fargo consolidated overland mail routes and stagecoach lines from the Missouri River to California. Because Wells Fargo and American Express were linked by their founders, board members and common business goals and interests, the two companies formed a mutually beneficial business relationship, which resulted in the first transcontinental express service.

About the time the American Express and Wells Fargo companies were created, efforts to establish a transcontinental railroad increased in intensity. Eastern and mid-western railroads were rapidly developing, spurred on between 1861 and 1865 by the need to carry troops and supplies during the Civil War. Although railroads had reached Iowa in the late 1840s, they remained in the eastern part of the state throughout the 1850s. By the early 1860s, however, John Insley Blair become the driving force behind the establishment of an east-west railroad line across the state.

In January of 1862, that line, the Cedar Rapids and Missouri River Railroad, reached Marshalltown; and a little more than a year later it reached Nevada. The railroad, which later became the Chicago & Northwestern, arrived in Boone County during the summer of 1865, and the town of Montana (Boone) was platted by Blair around the railroad station, which was called Boone Station. Blair continued building his railroad across Iowa until it reached Council Bluffs and Omaha in 1867. It was the first railroad across Iowa and became an important link in the transcontinental railroad.

A series of congressional acts, called the Pacific Railroad acts, between 1862 and 1864, further propelled the development of the transcontinental railroad. These acts enabled construction of western portions of the railroad. On November 17, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln declared that Omaha would be the eastern terminus of that railroad. Tracks began to be laid in 1865 for the new railroad, the Union Pacific, west from Council Bluffs, Iowa, and Omaha, Nebraska. The Union Pacific connected on the east with the railroad across Iowa at Council Bluffs and Omaha. On May 10, 1869, it linked with two California railroad lines, the Western Pacific and Central Pacific Railroad, at Promontory Point Utah, creating the first transcontinental railroad.

The year the railroad reached Montana/Boone, American Express also became a presence in Montana. The company already had a contract with the railroad to handle its express needs. Located mid-way across the state, Montana quickly became a railroad destination. For a few months in 1865, the new town was the westernmost terminus of any US railroad. Even after the railroad reached Omaha, trains and their crews were switched at Montana. A round house was in place by 1868 and hotels and other facilities to handle freight and travelers were proliferating.

In 1865, according to the 1911 History of Linn County Iowa by Luther A. Brewer and Barthinius L. Wick, Thomas Adams, division superintendent for the American Express Company in Iowa, approached William Fred Reiner, a German immigrant and stage driver for the Western Stage Company between Marion and Cedar Rapids, with a proposition. Adams asked Reiner “if he would be willing to take a position as express messenger on the western end of the Northwestern [then called the Cedar Rapids and Missouri River Railroad] at the time nearing the City of Boone [Montana].” The American Express Company was setting up an office in the new town and would handle express on the route whether it was transported by horseback, stagecoach, or railroad. Reiner accepted Adams’ offer and “on November 7, 1865, after forty-eight hours of almost continuous riding, he carried the first express by ever hauled by the American Express company into the city of Omaha.” The Linn County History describes Reiner’s arrival:

“Early in the morning of the last day a stop had been made at Council Bluffs for breakfast, and when Mr. Reiner was ready to continue the regular stage had gone. The local agent hustled around and found a carriage which he turned over to Mr. Reiner, so that the first express which the American Express ever took into Omaha did not go by stage, but by carriage.”

Reiner was born in Germany in 1835 and immigrated to the United States at the age of 18. He arrived in Columbus, Ohio, in 1853 and a year later moved to Iowa City, Iowa. He became a stage driver for the Western Stage Company. Since stage routes connected with rail lines, Reiner became acquainted with railroad conductors and express line personnel. He took a brief break from driving stage to farm in Cedar County, but soon he was back driving a stagecoach, this time between Iowa City and Cedar Rapids. The Linn County History recounts the manner in which he received his next assignment:

“One day while on his route he met at Solon the proprietor of the stage company coming from Iowa City with a four-horse stage. The new stage drew up along where Mr. Reiner was, and the proprietor called, ‘Fred, I want you and your team.’ Wondering what was going to happen, Mr. Reiner immediately unhitched his horses, and the driver of the leadhorses on the other stage had also unhitched his. Mr. Reiner’s team was put on as the leadhorses, and he was told to get on the stage. While coming into this city [Cedar Rapids] the proprietor informed him that he was to run the new stage from this city to Springville, at that time the end of the Dubuque and Southwestern Railroad.”

Reiner continued to drive for the Western Stage Company, although his route grew shorter as the Dubuque and Southwestern reached Marion in 1863 and Cedar Rapids in 1865. It was during this period that he began to carry express in an unconventional manner. “One of the express messengers who ran into the county seat and whose home was at that place [Marion], had to accompany the express down to this city each night on the stage. There being no return stage until morning, he was compelled to spend the night in Cedar Rapids. He would very often ask Mr. Reiner to take charge of the express at Marion and bring it to this city.”

The opportunity to become the American Express messenger for the Montana to Omaha route was a fortuitous one for Reiner, but it was also a difficult one. “There was nothing delicate or easy in the route assigned to the new messenger. He left Boone [Montana} on Tuesday afternoon. The stage by changing horses at regular intervals, went steadily on during the afternoon and night, and all the next day and night. Early Thursday morning it would pull into Council Bluffs, where a stop for breakfast was made. The trip was then continued to Omaha, which was reached in the forenoon. Leaving Omaha that same afternoon at four o’clock, the return trip was commenced and kept up until Boone [Montana] was reached at nine o’clock Saturday morning.”

Stagecoaches had to run in all kinds of weather, through many difficult terrains and face the prospect of accidents and hold-ups. They carried passengers as well as mail, light freight, securities, species, cash payrolls, bank transfers and even precious metals such as gold and silver. The express messenger did not drive the stagecoach but rode inside guarding his valuables, equipped with firearms for that purpose. Because Reiner had himself been a stage driver, during his twenty-five years as a messenger for American Express, he often rode “upon the seat with the driver. Thus he was exposed the same as the driver was. Through all kinds of weather, the blizzards of winter and stifling heat of the summer, these trips were made with greatest regularly.”

On one occasion, he spent the night alone in the stagecoach when it became mired in mud. “‘I remember one time,’ said Mr. Reiner, ‘it was in the spring of the year and the roads were in terrible condition. From Panora to Boone there was one slough after another. We were driving along one night, I was on the box with the driver, when we came to a wide slough. There were tracks where others had driven through, but of course, we could not go across in the same place for fear of cutting through. But the slough looked all right, so we started in a new place. We had got into the center when suddenly the wheels cut through the sod and the stage sank into the water-soaked ground clear up to the axels. The four horses began floundering around in a most dangerous manner. Both the driver and I jumped from our seats down into the mud and water, and as soon as possible unhitched the horses.’”

The stagecoach was stuck fast and there were nine passengers in the coach, including one woman. Reiner and the driver instructed the passengers to wade out of the slough and to follow the road for about three miles where they would find lodging. One of the men carried the woman to safety and the driver mounted one of the stage horses to go for help. Reiner was left by himself to protect his precious cargo in the stage: “‘I was left there alone. In the stage coach was my express containing some very valuable property which I did not dare to leave under any circumstances. There was but one thing for me to do, and that was to wade back to the stage coach and climb in and stay there until help should arrive. This I did. I wrapped myself in my buffalo robe which was the best I could do, but it was far from comfortable.’” Help came in the morning and the coach was pulled from the mud and supplied with fresh horses. The passengers had spent a warm and comfortable night and enjoyed a satisfactory breakfast. Reiner had only a cup of coffee before he resumed his trip. In wet clothes he rode on for the next day and night without rest.

Stagecoach lore is filled with romantic and bloody tales of hold-ups and bandits. Reiner never lost a cent for the American Express in the twenty-five years he worked for the company, but he came close on a couple of occasions. “‘There was one experience,’ he remarked, ‘that I remember well, and which came as near being a hold-up as I ever had. It was the same week that an additional express messenger had been put on the route between Boone and Omaha, and our routes had been altered accordingly.’” Reiner’s stagecoach left Boone on a Monday afternoon instead of the usual Tuesday. The night was bright and “the horses were jogging along a good gait.” Near Denison, the coach was surprised by robbers.

“‘Suddenly ahead the driver saw two men crouched by the roadside. As we drew near they both sprang out into the road and began firing at us rapidly. One of the first shots struck and killed the rear horse on the left side. The other three animals sprang forward with such force that they fairly jerked the harness off the animal which had been shot. They circled to the right and the wheels of the coach ran over the fallen animal. The animals continued their circling until they completely reversed the coach, then they turned and ran down the road along which we had just come. It was always believed that the highwaymen did not know of this change, and thought the stage carried express as before. But the fact was I had left Boone on Monday instead of Tuesday.’”

Reiner went on to say that the driver “was cussed most roundly [by the thieves] for not stopping the team, but he insisted that the shooting the robbers had done so frightened the horses that they became unmanageable.’” The thieves proceeded to search the driver for what they could find. “‘He gave them his pocketbook, which, he said contained forty dollars. That, by the way, was more money than I ever saw him have at one time, and considerably more than stage drivers usually carried. The hold-up men took the money and gave the pocketbook back to him, as it contained some papers he wished to save and which were of no value to the robbers.’”

On another occasion a possible robbery was averted by Reiner’s quick thinking and action. Again, it was at night. Reiner was riding in the coach with his revolvers beside him when the driver stopped and informed him that a man was crouched down on the road ahead. “We were out on the prairie some miles from a station. I went forward, with no feeling of pleasure, to investigate. The man came forward also and I recognized him as a fellow who had been lying around one of the stations for several days. I asked him what he wanted and he replied that he wished to get in and ride for a ways. Although the night was cold I could not let him in for fear that he had companions farther up the road and was only getting inside to get the lay of the land. The express was unusually valuable that night. The fellow ran along behind the coach for some time, but the horses gradually outdistanced him, and that was the last we ever saw of him.’”

Reiner’s career as a stage driver and express messenger was closely linked to the history of Iowa railroads. As railroads crossed the state, stage routes became shorter and Reiner eventually became an express messenger for American Express on the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad. Reiner lived in Boone for ten years. After a reorganization of routes, he returned to Cedar Rapids and continued to work for the company for another fifteen years. Ill health and age prompted his retirement around 1890. “Then, if a private company ever did a good and wise thing,’ the Linn County History reported, “the American Express company did it. They said they realized the value that Mr. Reiner had been to them when they were getting established in Iowa and running their route through to Omaha, and they would not forget his efficient services now that he was getting old.”

Reiner died in 1917 and is buried in the Murdoch-Linwood Cemetery in Cedar Rapids.