An express company is a business developed in the United States which provides for the speedy transmission of parcels or merchandise of any kind and their safe delivery in good condition.
Money orders also are issued, payable at any of the numerous offices throughout the United States.
Express service had its beginnings in the trip made from Boston to New York by William F. Harnden (1813-45), the first “express-package carrier,” on March 4, 1839.
The plan recommending itself to businessmen, competing companies sprang up rapidly, and express lines were established in all directions.
As railroads extended, the early “pony express” disappeared, and individual companies made contracts with the railroad companies, their business over these routes being held to be entitled to the protection of the courts against any efforts to dispossess them.