American Express' runaway horse blazes by Fort Loudoun
American Express was still running wagons drawn by horses in 1923. This story involves such a wagon running past the Fort Loudoun Winchester VA site. The driver of that wagon left his wagon to attend business at the Winchester Cold Storage nearby. Some sudden motion catches his eye. He looks back to his wagon to see his horse hooked to his wagon be spooked by something and it bolts. He runs towards his fleeing horse dragging American Express wagon.
Just then a car comes by.
He jumps on the sideboard of this passing car.
"Follow that horse," he implores to the car driver who is willing and able.
They catch up to the horse and wagon right where Fort Loudoun used to be on Fort Hill.
The wagon driver jumps off the sideboard of the car onto the runaway wagon at the top of the hill.
But that didn't stop the horse and wagon.
They were going pell mell down that hill.
He finally brings it to a halt at Piccadilly and Loudoun at the bottom of the hill.
In the Winchester article of 30 July 1923, Fort Hill is where Fort Loudoun used to be.
And Main Street is Loudoun Street.
Only 3 some years after this event, the City Council chooses to officially rename Main Street back to its original name of Loudoun Street in 1926.
Here is the Winchester Star article on that escapade:
Maynard Wisecarver,
driver of the American Express Company’s wagon,
gave a few people on North Main street a thrill not experienced outside of a movie stunt
one day last week
when he captured and stopped
his runaway horse
just as the animal
was dashing down
into Main street
which was filled with vehicular traffic.
He had left the horse and wagon
standing at the
Winchester Cold Storage plant
on North Main street
near the Fairgrounds
while he attended to some business inside.
The animal became scared and ran away.
Jumping on the running board of a passing automobile,
Mr. Wisecarver urged the driver of the car to overtake the runaway.
A neck and neck race along Main Street occurred
until the top of Fort Hill
was reached
when the car gradually drawing closer to the runaway horse,
enabled Wisecarver to spring from the running board
onto the rear end of the express wagon.
He then grasped the reins
and brought the horse to a stop
near the intersection
of Piccadilly and Main street
where the traffic was heaviest.
Winchester Star July 30, 1923
.
That's the Fort Hill
looking towards
the bottom
where Piccadilly intersects.
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That's it.
That's our Lead story.
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Compiled by Jim Moyer 7/31/2023 and updated 8/2/2023 using Priscilla Lehman's find of that article in her series, Out of the Past on Mondays in the Winchester Star 31 July 2023. Updated 10/14/23.
Table of Contents
American Express horse drawn wagons? In 1923?
Main Street = Loudoun Street? Timeline of Street Name Changes
American Express horse drawn wagons?
Early years of the company
When the American Express Company was founded in 1850 it was an “express business”. This meant that it was a private company whose business was to carry money, packages or valuable things from one place to another. The US Postal Service had only recently begun. They delivered letters, but not large parcels. This is why some people started small “express businesses”. An express messenger would carry money in a money bag. He would travel by train or stagecoach. The trains were very slow and often came off the rails. The stagecoaches travelled on terrible roads which were much too bumpy for the horses to trot. It was a time when many people were going to California and other areas in the west of the US. There was a lot of demand for money to be transferred from one part of the country to another. This is why the American Express company was started.
65 Broadway
Two very important people in the express business at the time were Henry Wells and William G. Fargo. They had formed a partnership in 1844. When the American Express was formed its headquarters were in a building in Manhattan, New York. Three other companies merged to form the new company. They soon bought several other buildings nearby to use as stables for their horses. For many years it was the most successful company transporting goods, securities, money etc. (these were called “express shipments”). In 1874 the American Express moved its headquarters to 65 Broadway in the financial district of Manhattan. It has been there ever since.
Move to financial services
Gradually American Express began to focus their attention on banks and other big financial groups because they found the American Express very reliable and paid them good money for their services. The American Express gradually changed to be a financial company. In the late 1890s they started to compete with the banks by issuing money orders. They had big offices in London, Paris, Antwerp, Zurich and Berlin.
By 1890 the company needed a new building, so they pulled down the old building and built a new ten-story building in its place. By 1903, the company had assets of about $28 million. In 1916-17 a new building was constructed. It was made of concrete and steel and was shaped like an H. This building was sold in 1975.
When their director J. C. Fargo travelled to Europe around 1890 he found it very difficult to get cash. He was very annoyed, because he was carrying with him letters of credit, and he felt that, as president of the American Express, it should have been no problem. Fargo went to Marcellus Flemming Berry and asked him to invent a better way getting cash. Berry invented the Traveler's Cheque. The traveler’s cheque was a very safe way of getting cash from a bank when travelling. The American Express Traveller’s Cheque, started in 1891, was to be used worldwide for nearly a century, when credit cards took over. Traveler's cheques made American Express a great international company.
Effects of World War I
In 1914, when World War I started, many people who happened to be travelling could not get at their money, but American Express offices in Europe were among the few companies to honor the letters of credit so that American tourists could get money to travel back home.
The war made American Express enter the travel business. In 1922 they provided a luxury steamship to take tourists round the world. The traveler’s cheque business made them hugely successful for many years.
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Source
Main Street = Loudoun Street
Timeline of Street Name Changes
21 Sept 1758 From the House of Burgess’ Journal : A Petition of James Wood praying, That an Act may pass for enlarging the Town of Winchester by adding 156 Lots already laid off adjoining thereto, was presented to the House and read. Source: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc2.ark:/13960/t8rb7b88h&view=page&format=plaintext&seq=43&skin=2021 2 March 1926 Winchester VA Street Names change back to their original French and Indian War names. From Water Street to Boscawen. From Main Street to Loudoun. From Market Street to Cameron. Wednesday, March 3, 1926 edition of the Winchester Evening Star:
But . . . When did the original street names change? From Boscawen to Water Street? From Loudoun to Main Street? From Cameron to Market Street? We don't know (yet). The plan for the street Boscawen (Water Street) first shows up in 1744 but was submitted to the House of Burgesses by James Wood in 1752. . At that time the street was not named. The plan for the streets, Amherst and Wolfe, were submitted to the House of Burgesses by James Wood in 1758. . All 3 streets were then named in 1758 for the heroes in the “reduction” of Fortress Louisbourg. 4
See Louisbourg story and why the streets of Winchester were named from that event:
Links
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Sad ending to a different runaway horse
Out of the Past article
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