The removal of the general office of the American Express Company to the corner of Franklin and Hawley Streets, Boston, is an event in the history of a famous corporation. From very small beginnings, the company has built up a business which now extends into nearly every section of the United States and Canada, covering about forty thousand miles of railroad and having between five thousand and six thousand agencies, besides interests in, and connections with many other expresses in various parts of the country. The American Express Company began business in 1847. The United States and Canada Express was founded in 1842, and the Eastern Express in 1854. The American has now absorbed both of the other companies, besides several smaller ones. The company's growth in the last few years has been phenomenally rapid. Only five years ago the company employed only twenty-four horses in Boston, now they have one hundred and twenty-five. Boston now has equal express facilities with New York, and similar rates are established from the two cities to points in the West, a fact which Boston business men may well appreciate. A fast express is run through to the West, which is of great value to shippers of goods and other products requiring speedy delivery in season. Another result of the efforts of this company is seen in the fact that a package may be sent from a point in Maine or New Brunswick to Chicago at no higher rate than was formerly charged to Boston. The new offices in this city occupy three floors fifty by one hundred feet each, arranged with every facility for transacting the large business from this point. The general offices of the company are in New York City, but among its prominent directors is B.P. Cheney, Esq., who is well known as one of New England's ablest financiers and managers. Many business men in Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont are shareholders in the company. The executive departments are ably filled by Mr. James Eggleston, the General Superintendent for New England, assisted in Boston by H.W. Dwight, Superintendent, of Boston; J.W. Baldwin, Office Manager, and O.J. Freeborn, City Superintendent. Outside of Boston, Mr. G.H. Babbitt of Bellows Falls, Vermont, is Assistant General Superintendent of the United States and Canada division; Mr. F.W. Carr of Bangor, Superintendent of Maine and New Brunswick division (Eastern Express Company); J.G. Towne, Boston, Superintendent of Massachusetts division; M.J. Pratt, Concord, New Hampshire, Superintendent of New Hampshire division, and F. Richardson, St. Johnsbury, Vermont, Superintendent of Vermont division, all of whom are gentlemen well and favorably known to the public generally and men of long experience in the express business. =======================================================================