Lloyd Tevis - Wells Fargo

Wells Fargo

In May 1868 Tevis joined Darius Ogden Mills, H.D. Bacon, Leland Stanford, Mark Hopkins and Charles Crocker in forming the Pacific Union Express Company. This concern began operating in 1868 between Reno and Virginia City, Nevada, and received a ten-year exclusive contract to operate over the Central Pacific Railroad and Union Pacific Railroad. Stock of Wells Fargo & Company declined in price, Tevis and his associates purchased quantities of it, and by the fall of 1869 he was in a position to control Wells Fargo. Faced with the need to get Tevis' exclusive railroad contract, in the so-called Omaha Conference of October 4, 1869, Wells Fargo accepted Tevis' controlling interest and arranged for the consolidation of Pacific Union Express and Wells Fargo, which occurred in 1870. Tevis was elected vice president and a director of Wells Fargo in 1870.

Elected president of Wells Fargo in 1872, Tevis served in that capacity until 1892. He was also a large shareholder of the Spring Valley Water Company, the Risdon Iron Works, the Occidental & Oriental Steamship Company, and the Sutro Tunnel Company of Virginia City. Tevis was also one of the promoters of the Southern Pacific Railroad, serving briefly as acting president of the company (in place of Stanford) in 1869-70 after its acquisition by the Big Four - Stanford, Hopkins, Crocker and Collis P. Huntington.