Wells Fargo Bank has just been fined $185 million for fraudulently opening credit card and checking accounts in the names of people who were not aware and did not approve. The original Wells, Fargo & Company provided express delivery and banking services in California. In 1905 the company separated its delivery and banking services, followed by the merger of the bank with the Nevada Bank which was operated by Isaias W. Hellman, forming the Wells Fargo Nevada National Bank. Following additional mergers and name changes, the bank became the Wells Fargo Bank in 1954. How did Isaias Hellman, a Jewish immigrant from Bavaria, become a banker in the first place?
Wells Fargo Stagecoach by FotoGuy 49057 is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
A. Hellman’s father was a banker in Bavaria, and Hellman began working in the bank as a young man. The family fled Germany in 1839 following a pogrom in their town in which the Hellman Bank was broken into, robbed, and set on fire. When the family arrived in California in 1840, Isaias Hellman and his father borrowed money from the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society and established a bank in Los Angeles.
B. Isaias W. Hellman had emigrated from Germany in the mid-1800’s with his family and they settled in California. Every month the Hellman family and all of their neighbors would await the arrival of the Wells Fargo wagon, delivering packages to the residents. In December 1853, the Wells Fargo Wagon was a-comin’ down the street. One resident got a delivery of a box of maple sugar on his birthday. Another got a gray mackinaw, while a third got some grapefruit from Tampa and a fourth person got a bathtub and a cross-cut saw from Montgom’ry Ward. Little Isaias got a present that his father had ordered for Chanukkah–a piggie bank. Isaias told his father that this present was “thump’n thpethyul just for me,” and it became his inspiration to eventually become a banker.
C. Isaias Hellman had immigrated to Los Angeles in the mid-1800’s, where he established a dry goods store. His store was located in an area that was largely populated by Mexicans, the majority of whom were members of the Catholic church. Hellman was approached by the local bishop and asked if he would consider providing loans for the members of the church, as church rules forbid the charging of interest on loans by Catholics. Hellman consented to do so, and eventually opened a bank next door to his store, the first official bank to be opened in Los Angeles.
D. Mayer Amschel Rothschild established a banking business in Frankfurt, Germany in the 1760’s, and this bank went on to become an international banking institution as members of the family established Rothschild Banks throughout Europe. Isaias Hellman worked for the Rothschild Bank in Bavaria in the mid-1800’s, before deciding to emigrate to America. Upon arriving in California, Hellman partnered with Francisco Temple to established Hellman, Temple and Co., Los Angeles’s first official bank, with funding from the Rothschild family.
E. Hellman arrived in California in 1859 and worked as a clerk in his cousin’s dry goods store. He eventually opened his own store, where as a courtesy he would store his customers’ valuables in the store safe. One customer who kept gold in the safe would often come in while drunk and withdraw some of his gold. At one point, this customer went to retrieve some of the gold when he was sober, and upon discovering much of the gold gone, he wrongly accused Hellman of theft and attacked him. Hellman realized that this informal storage system was not a good idea, so he printed business cards reading “I.W. Hellman, Banker” and began providing deposit books to customers.