Just found this in Wikipedia about Adams Express:
History
In 1839,
Alvin Adams, a produce merchant ruined by the
Panic of 1837, began carrying letters, small packages and valuables for patrons between
Boston and
Worcester, Massachusetts. He had at first a partner named Burke, who soon withdrew, and as
Adams & Company, Adams rapidly extended his territory to
New York City,
Philadelphia and other eastern cities. By 1847, he had penetrated deeply into the South, and by 1850 he was shipping by rail and
stagecoach to
St. Louis.
Adams Express was used by abolitionist groups in the 1840s to deliver anti-slavery newspapers from northern publishers to southern states; in 1849, a Richmond, Virginia slave named
Henry "Box" Brown shipped himself north to Philadelphia and freedom via Adams Express.
[1] In 1855, the company was reorganized as the
Adams Express Company.
A subsidiary,
Adams & Company of California, had been organized in 1850 and offer express service throughout the
Pacific Coast. The enterprise was led by Isaiah C. Woods. Not being under Adams' personal management, Woods badly handled it, and it failed on February 23, 1855.
Child messengers, Norfolk, Virginia, 1911
By the time the
Civil War started in 1861, Adams had operations throughout the American South, operating as Southern Express, led by
Henry B. Plant. The company served as paymaster for both the Union and Confederate sides.
The
parent company held a strong position from
New England and the mid-Atlantic coast to the far
Western plains. In 1910, it was the second largest stockholder in the
Pennsylvania Railroad and the third largest in the
New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad, besides owning large blocks of
American Express,
Norfolk & Western Railroad and other shares.
The company's
antebellum employment of
Allan Pinkerton to solve its
robbery problems was a large factor in building up the noted
Pinkerton National Detective Agency. Along with the other express shipping companies, Adams' shipping interests were forcibly merged by President
Woodrow Wilson into the American Railway Express Company, which later became the
Railway Express Agency.
Since 1929, Adams Express has operated as a
closed-end fund, (
NYSE:
ADX), located in
Baltimore, Maryland. As of 2015, it had paid a dividend every year for 80 years (since 1935).
[2] Effective March 31, 2015, the company changed its name to
Adams Diversified Equity Fund[3] in recognition of the fact that its express activities had long ended; it continues to operate as a closed-end fund traded on the New York Stock Exchange under its previous symbol.