Filatelic Fact and Fallacies, Page 66
Ja’y – 1895
66
FILATELIC FACT AND FALLACIES
DEPARTMENT OF WESTERN FRANKS AND LOCALS.
Conducted by H. B. Phillips.
All communications for this department should be addressed to the Department Editor, 307 Montgomery Street, San Francisco, California, U. S. A.]
“Whoe’er expects a faultless work to see
Expects what never was, nor is, nor is to be.”
[Criticisms of statements made in this department are invited. It is only by sifting process theat the whole truth can be made plain in many instances.]
Francis & Co.’s Express.
If our readers will refer to a map of California, and locate the city of Marysville, we may then bring to their minds a more lively realization of the scenes of operationof some of the early express companies of the gold producing Feather River watershed region and territory adjecent, embracing Placer, Nevada, Yuba, Sierra, Butte, Plumas and other protions of northern counties of California.
At Marysville, in the early days, the lines of the larger express companies, such as Adams’, Wells Fargo & Co.’s, Gregory’s, Freeman’s and the Pacific, ended. A swarm of smaller concerns were concentrated there, and, connecting with these larger companies, reached out in all directions over this gold producing territory, like the arms of an octopus. Each one of these also acted as a feeder to the main lines.
Their names are seldom heard of nowadays, and specimens of their franks are equally uncommon. Embraced in the list are
| Anthony’s. | Oroville & Quincy. |
| Becker & Co. | Pauley, N. O. |
| Chace’s. | Phillips, Jack and Henry. |
| Cram, Rogers & Co. | Panley & Nohrman’s. |
| Downieville and Howland Flat. | Rhodes & Lusk. |
| Dearing & Co. | Rhodes & Whitney. |
| Evarts, Snell & Co. | Rollins. |
| Greathouse & Slicer. | Rumrill & Co. |
| Hogan & Co. | Taggart’s. |
| Hopkinson’s. | Tinnen & Owen’s. |
| Langton. | Tracy & Co. |
| La Porte. | Wells & Co. |
| Mann & Co. | Whiting’s. |
| McBean & Co. | and many others. |
Marysville in those days was a thriving, bustling town, ranking fourth in size in the State of California, and was pre-eminently and express center.
To indicate the prominence attained by its numerous express enterprises, it boasted of and “Express Hotel,” used as headquarters by many of the express lines and a newspaper called the “California Express,” a tri-weekly, published by J. McElroy & Co., and largely maintained by the advertising patronage of various express companies.
Some of these feeder lines were made up of less important lines, one beginning where the other ended, the whole net-work of express service closely resembling the present-day postal service in its subdivisions of star routes.
