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"We cross the prairie as of old Our fathers crossed the sea, To make the West as they the East The homestead of the free."  WHITTIER.
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CHAPTER I. THE OVERLAND MAIL.
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HE
discovery of gold on the Pacific coast in the latter '40's
fairly set the country wild with excitement, and led to the
rapid settlement of California with people from every state
and territory in the Union. In fact, the rush was
cosmopolitan, representing almost every nationality of the
civilized globe. For a period of nearly nine years following
the discovery of the precious metal, there was no time that
the mail was received from the East in San Francisco more
frequently than twice a month, and then by steamer, via the
Isthmus.
Lake City. Trips were made over the route once a month, but at times they were very irregular; hence the service could not always be depended upon. On July 1, 1854, service was begun on a contract for carrying this mail monthly, as originally, for four years, by W. M. F. McGraw, of Maryland, the price being $13,500 a year. It continued to grow, and afterwards became an important mail route. Some time later it was necessary to pack the mail across the plains on the backs of three mules. Three men in charge of the mail went together, each riding a separate mule. The riders were dressed in buckskin suits, much like the cowboys of the present time. It took over a month to make the trip from Independence to the Mormon capital. McGraw, on taking possession, while so many were going overland to the Pacific, expected to make the route pay from passengers, at $180 to Salt Lake City and $300 to California, but could not do it, and failed in 1856. The line was then let for the residue of the contract to a Mormon firm--Kimball & Co.--who ran it until the Mormon trouble of 1857, when the department rescinded the contract. Matters looked extremely war-like in the summer of 1857, and Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston (who was afterward commander-in-chief of the Confederate army, and killed at Shiloh), was sent by the Government to Utah. On his way he met with obstacles that forced him to spend the winter of 1857-'58 at Fort Bridger. Most of the time for conveying the mail to General Johnston's army the stages were hauled by mule teams. It was a long and hard pull; for over 1200 miles there were but three stations for changes of teams on the route. The line was started via the South Pass, the route taken by the Mormons across the Rockies, and some of the first California gold seekers in 1849-'50. It supplied Forts Kearney, Laramie and Bridger with mail. There was also the same kind of service on the route between Sacramento and Salt Lake, via Carson Valley. During the first few years the service on this overland route was said to have been very irregular at times and far from satisfactory. The next contract for conveying the mail on this route between the Missouri river and Utah was let in 1858, to John M. Hockaday, of Missouri. General Johnston's army of 5000 men at the time were marching from their winter quarters at Fort Bridger to the Salt Lake valley. The mail was still being carried once a |
month, but this was deemed not often enough for "Uncle Sam" to keep advised of the army's movements; hence a contract, was let for transporting the mail from the Missouri river to Utah once week. For this service Hockaday was paid at the rate of $190,000 per annum ($15,833.33 a month). For operating this mail route--St. Joseph to Salt Lake and Salt Lake to Sacramento--the Government paid for the service $620,000, while the annual receipts from it amounted to only $5412.03. Some time during the year 1859 Hockaday disposed of the entire mail, passenger and express outfit to the well-known transportation firm of Russell, Majors & Waddell, largely interested in the "Leavenworth and Pike's Peak Express." The new firm, after taking possession, consolidated the two stage lines and changed the name to the "Central Overland California and Pike's Peak Express," uniting with the route already in operation between California and Salt Lake, thus making a continuous line between the Missouri river and the California terminus. Russell, Majors & Waddell operated this line until April, 1861, when there was a change; Gen. Bela M. Hughes, a distinguished lawyer of St. Joseph, was elected president of the company and assumed the sole management of it. While the line was operated by Russell, Majors & Waddell, they abandoned St. Joseph and transferred the starting points to Leavenworth and Atchison, at which places they had large real-estate interests. By act of Congress, August 3, 1854, a mail route was established from Neosho, Mo., to Albuquerque, N. M.; and, on March 3, 1855, a route was established from Independence, Mo., via Albuquerque, to Stockton, Cal. The amount paid for carrying the mail once a month from Neosho to Albuquerque and back was $17,000 per annum; and for that from Independence and Kansas City, by Albuquerque, to Stockton, monthly, the sum of $80,000 per annum was paid. Independence was an old point, and it became a prominent town in the early days of the overland mail--one of the most important cities in the state outside of St. Louis. Since 1830 it had been the outfitting point and departure for long ox-train caravans hauling merchandise to Santa Fe and Chihuahua, and for a long time it was the best-known town in western Missouri. It was also the point of departure of Col. John C. Fremont upon a number of his exploring expeditions in the great West. While |
it was recognized by the pioneers as the great outfitting point for the immense trains that followed the "Old Santa Fe Trail," it was the eastern starting-point for the frontier mail routes that had just begun to reach out across the prairies and the plains to the great West and Southwest. The first stage line to start out with the mail from this old town, standing on the high ground which overlooks the Missouri river, was in May, 1849. It was a monthly line and ran to Santa Fe, the New Mexican capital. In the library of the Kansas State Historical Society is an extract from a stray copy of the Missouri Commonwealth, a newspaper published at Independence a half-century ago. The extract bears date July, 1850, and gives valuable information concerning the first stage line across the plains, as follows: "The stages are got up in elegant style, and are each arranged to convey eight passengers. The bodies are beautifully painted, and made water-tight, with a view of using them as boats in ferrying streams. The team consists of six mules to each coach. The mail is guarded by eight men, armed as follows: Each man has at his side, fastened in the stage, one of Colt's revolving rifles, in a holster below one of Colt's long revolvers, and in his belt a small Colt's revolver, besides a hunting knife; so that these eight men are ready, in case of attack, to discharge 136 shots without having to reload. This is equal to a small army armed as in the ancient times, and from the looks of this escort, ready as they are either for offensive or defensive warfare with the savages, we have no fears for the safety of the mails. "The accommodating contractors have established a sort of base of refitting at Council Grove, a distance of 150 miles from this city, and have sent out a blacksmith, and a number of men to cut and cure hay, with a quantity of animals, grain, and provisions; and we understand they intend to make a sort of traveling station there, and to commence a farm. They also, we believe, intend to make a similar settlement at Walnut Creek next season. Two of their stages will start from here the first of every month." There was an important mail route in 1854 between Independence and Santa Fe. The distance between the two places is about 850 miles, and the time occupied in making the trip was a month each way. An annual compensation of $10,990 was paid by the Government for carrying this important mail. The route was |
along the "Old Santa Fe Trail," through the Indian country, and, at times, portions of the way were infested by hostile bands of Apaches, Arapahoes, Cheyennes, Comanches, Kiowas, and Pawnees, making it extremely difficult to travel it in safety. The price paid for carrying this mail was said to have been wholly inadequate for the service then performed. On this route it appears there was little or no protection by the Government for hundreds of miles, the only military post on the line being Fort Union, New Mexico, and it was inadequate to the task of keeping in subjection the numerous Indians occupying so vast an extent of country. The contractor complained to the department that he was carrying the mail at a great pecuniary sacrifice, on account of the hostility of the savages, and made several requests of the Postmaster-general to be released from his contract. Each request was denied. A new contract was subsequently made, however, giving him the sum of $25,000 for transporting this mail, although it was shown that it had cost him more than $30,000 per annum to carry it. It was a terrible task to perform this work. The contractor was obliged to employ several armed men to accompany each mail train going through; and was also forced to secure more mules, more provender, more provisions, arms, and equipment. In spite of this, obstacles were met on every side. Every train that passed over the route was forced to pay toll at several places, and each was obliged to submit to whatever exaction might be levied, whilst the stealing of oxen, mules and horses was a frequent occurrence. In 1859, up to the 30th of June, there were no less than six different routes for conveying the mails to and from California and our other Pacific possessions. The cost to the Government for operating these six routes aggregated the enormous sum of $2,184,697, while the total receipts from them amounted to $339,747.34. The highest price paid on any route was by ocean steamer from New York and New Orleans to San Francisco for a semimonthly service, the amount being $738,250, from which the annual receipts were $229,979.69. The most singular thing about the mail route between Independence (Kansas City) and Stockton, Cal.--which was costing the Government $80,000 a year--is that the receipts from it amounted to only $1255; but, after being in operation nine |
months, the route was discontinued July 1, 1859. While it was continued--singular as it may appear--there were but four arrivals of through mails at Kansas City and but two at Stockton. The contractor, it appears, was not overburdened with the weight of the mail. The entire mail matter received at Stockton during the nine months consisted of but two letters and twenty-six newspapers. From the returns at the department, it appears that but a single letter reached Stockton from Kansas City. One of the peculiarities of this service was, that "between Westport and Santa Fe--a distance of 825 miles--the route was directly along the line of another route," and it is supposed "the contractor, who was getting some $80,000 a year for carrying this light and unimportant mail, hired it carried for a trifling compensation." The mail route between Independence and Salt Lake, owing to the threatened rebellion of the Mormons, in 1857-'58, seemed, at the time, an important route--and it was, looking at it from a military standpoint; still the income from it was little more than $5000 a year. The anticipated "war" with the Mormons having been averted, in the eyes of the department there no longer seemed a necessity for a weekly mail over this route to supply the few Government troops in camp near Salt Lake City and the three military posts on the way; hence, on the 30th of June, 1859, after reducing the service and making a very liberal allowance to the contractors, there was still a saving to the department of over $100,000 per annum. During the winter of 1856-`57 no regular mail service was performed on the Salt Lake and Independence route, on account of the severity of the season. The postmaster at Salt Lake City contracted, however, with Messrs. Little and Hanks to carry a mail to Independence for $1500. They made the trip in seventy-eight days, having suffered severely from cold and hunger. A vigorous shaking up was given the various Pacific mail routes by the postal powers in 1859, in consequence of which the annual expenditures were diminished nearly one million dollars. The compensation for the ocean service between the Atlantic and Pacific coasts was, by the terms of the act of Congress, June 15, 1860, limited to the postages received on the mails conveyed. The steamships then plying between New York and San Francisco, and which had been carrying the mails, via the Isthmus of |
Panama, peremptorily refused to accept such compensation. The main reason was that, in consequence of the diversion of a large part of the letter mail to the overland route, the postages would afford a wholly inadequate remuneration. In the meantime Congress had adjourned without taking any action on the matter. Steadily the mails to the Pacific--then consisting of over ten tons of matter each trip--were increasing and becoming more important. It was at the time an impossibility to carry it overland. The department was not a little puzzled to know what to do. Finally, Cornelius Vanderbilt came to the aid of the Government, and agreed to convey the mails by steamer until the 4th of March following, with the express assurance, however, "that the President would recommend to Congress to make to him such further allowance, over and above the postages, as would constitute a fair and adequate compensation for the service." So the bulk of the mail continued to go by the ocean route. The rush to the new gold-mines in California went steadily forward by steamer, while more than 100,000 men, since the discoveries, had made the trip across the plains by the end of 1852. With the rapid strides the new El Dorado was then making--a progress unprecedented in the annals of civilization and with only two mails a month from New York and the outside world, it was not to be wondered at that there should have been a persistent clamor for a direct overland mail. The idea was talked of by prominent officials all over the country; every Californian urged it; the subject was agitated by most of the leading newspapers at the time, as it had been for several years before. Finally, the subject was pressed so vigorously that an act relative to the "Overland California Mail," passed Congress in the closing hours of the session which terminated the administration of Franklin Pierce, March 3, 1857. Under that act the Postmaster-general advertised for bids until June 30, 1857, "for the conveyance of the entire letter mail from such point on the Mississippi river as the contractors may select to San Francisco, Cal., for six years, at a cost not exceeding $300,000 per annum for semimonthly, $450,000 for weekly, or $600,000 for semiweekly service; to be performed semimonthly, weekly, or semiweekly, at the option of the Postmaster-general." The bids were opened on the 1st of July, 1857. In all, there were nine bids received from various parties, each naming the |
 Overland Mail on Southern Route to San Francisco, Page 10. |
routes over which they proposed carrying the mail. Most of the bids named St. Louis as the starting-point; thence in a southwesterly direction across the country. Some of the bids, however, were on a more northerly route, via Albuquerque, N. M. The department, it was evident, favored and would listen to nothing but a "southern route." After carefully examining the bids, a few "observations" were submitted by the department officials in relation to the reasons which induced a preference for a southern route, which was selected. The trip was to be made within twenty-five days, in four-horse coaches, suitable for the conveyance of passengers as well as the safety and security of the mails. The "northern route" proposed in one of the bids was for carrying the mail from St. Louis, by Independence, Fort Laramie, Salt Lake, etc. This route was not favorably considered by the post-office officials at Washington. The department had the recorded experience of many years against the practicability of procuring anything like a regular and certain service on this route. The Government had had a mail carried for years over it, and the result on file at the department then showed the most conclusive facts against its selection. As an example, it was shown that the mails for November, 1850, did not arrive until March, 1851. It was noticeable that the winter months of 1851-'52 were also very severe. It was reported by the carrier and postmaster that they started on time, but "on account of severe storms had to turn back." For February, March, and December, 1853, "the mails were impeded by deep snows." The service was also interfered with by "deep snow" during January and February, 1854, the unusual depth of snow keeping the mails back until the following April. From the various reports submitted by the department it was shown that there had been no improvement in the service even down to the November mail of 1856, which left Independence November 1, and, on account of the "deep snow," was obliged to winter in the mountains. For four months of the year, it appears from the reports, snow caused almost an entire failure in the transportation of the mails across the plains and mountains. These actual experiments, made for six successive years since 1850, without referring to the concurring testimony of explorers and travelers, naturally put this route entirely out of the question for the transportation of the mail overland. From the best |
and most reliable information obtained at that time, it was the belief of the Postmaster-general that there was no other all-the-year route between the Mississippi and the Pacific than the one chosen by the department. The Albuquerque route, like the one still further north via Independence, it appeared to the postal department, at that early day, was impracticable. Little was apparently done by the department until July 2, 1857, when the Postmaster-general, after full and mature consideration, made the following order in relation to the route selected and the bid accepted: "12,587. From St. Louis, Mo., and from Memphis, Tenn., converging at Little Rock, Ark.; thence via Preston, Tex., or as nearly as may be found advisable, to the best point of crossing the Rio Grande above El Paso, and not far from Fort Fillmore; thence, along the new road being opened and constructed under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, to Fort Yuma, Cal.; thence, through the best passes and along the best valleys for safe and expeditious staging, to San Francisco." In the judgment of the Postmaster-general, the foregoing route was selected as combining more advantages and fewer disadvantages than any other. Among the various bids presented, it appears there was none that referred to this particular route. However, all the bidders had consented that their bids might be held and considered as extending and applying to said route. The contract was accordingly let, on July 2, and signed September 15, 1857. It was not until a year after the contract was signed, however, that everything was in readiness--the line equipped, stations built, and all things arranged for beginning operations. The great enterprise--then believed to be one of the most important in the country--was known as the "Butterfield Overland Mail Company." The act, as passed by Congress, provided for a compensation not exceeding $600,000 per annum for semiweekly service for a term of six years. The successful bidders were John Butterfield, Wm. B. Dinsmore, Wm. G. Fargo, D. N. Barney, Hamilton Spencer and some half a dozen other prominent citizens of the State of New York. The length of the through overland stage route--the one the company was finally obliged to accept and travel, in the form of a semicircle from St. Louis and San Francisco--was 2729 miles. The most southerly point touched on the route was 600 miles |
below South Pass, or nearly four degrees farther south than there was really any need of going, thereby making at least two and one-half days of extra travel. On September 15, 1858--just one year, to a day, from the time the contract was signed--the overland letter mail, in four- and six-horse and mule Concord coaches, left St. Louis and San Francisco simultaneously on their long trip across the country between the "Father of Waters" and the "Golden Gate." The schedule time was twenty-five days, or about three days ahead of the ocean steamer. The mail matter transported overland was composed almost exclusively of letters--postage ten cents on each half-ounce--but, through the courtesy of the mail company, a limited number of St. Louis, San Francisco and other leading dailies of the country were carried, and furnished the press as well as a few prominent officials at the eastern and western termini. The line during those early days was splendidly equipped, having over 100 of the very best Concord stage-coaches, 1000 horses, 500 mules, and 750 men, of whom about 150 were employed as drivers. The fare across the continent by stage was $100 in gold. On each of the first coaches that departed from either end of the line was a correspondent of one of the great New York dailies of that time. The coach going east from San Francisco made the trip through to St. Louis in a half-hour less than twenty-four days. The first stage west made the distance in an hour or two less time. Both coaches, however, were a day ahead of the schedule. The arrival of the initial stage at either end of the route, on October 9, 1858, was hailed with delight. It was proof that the long-talked-of "overland mail" was no longer a myth, but a genuine reality--in every respect a fixed fact--and the event was celebrated in a fitting manner. Six passengers came through to St. Louis on the first "overland mail" coach from San Francisco. The occasion of the arrival was considered an event so important that a number of speeches were made, and the first mails over the new line were escorted from the Missouri Pacific railroad depot on Seventh street to the post-office by a long procession, led by brass bands discoursing stirring music. The arrival in St. Louis of the first overland mail from San |
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Arrival of First Overland Stage Coach in San Francisco, Page 13. |
Francisco was also the occasion of a dispatch from Mr. Butterfield to the President of the United States, as follows:
The President, in answer, sent the following:
At San Francisco the exercises planned
for celebrating the important event were on a gigantic
scale. Nothing was spared to make the occasion a grand and
imposing one. It was one of the proudest days in the history
of the far-western metropolis. An immense crowd of people,
representing almost every kind of business and profession
and nearly every nationality, turned out to rejoice over the
glorious occurrence. Nearly all business was suspended. The
result was an immense meeting, which was held October 11,
1858, when the consummation of the semiweekly overland mail
arrangements and the arrival of the first Concord stage
across the continent from St. Louis was celebrated in a
style never before dreamed of on the Pacific coast. |
evening of September 14, 1858, prepared expressly for the overland mail, copies of which were sent off on the first east-bound coach, which departed, from the western coast at an early hour the following morning. The arrival of the first Concord stage from the Mississippi valley in San Francisco was the occasion of another extra from the Alta California. The paper, which gave the particulars of the arrival of the overland mail, "went off like hot cakes." The "California Guards," a favorite military organization, turned out and celebrated the event by firing 200 guns. The route overland from St. Louis was a little south of west across the country, through Springfield, Mo.; thence through Arkansas, touching at Fayetteville; thence across the Ozark mountains to Van Buren, on the Arkansas river, opposite Fort Smith, 468 miles, where the mail from Memphis was met, and both mails proceeded thence on a common line to San Francisco. A short cut was taken through the Choctaw Nation reserve in the Indian Territory. At Calvert's Ferry the Red River was crossed; thence the route was across the undiversified prairies of northern Texas, via Sherman, and on west to Fort Chadbourne, on a branch of the Little Colorado, in Texas. For a distance of 487 miles after leaving Sherman there were no settlements, and, fortunately, there was little or no trouble experienced from the Indians. The mail reached Fort Belknap, Texas, 819 miles out from St. Louis, on September 23, the ninth day after its departure. Here it was found that it had been twelve hours covering the last thirty-five miles, notwithstanding it was about twenty-seven hours ahead of the time-table. The cause of the slow time in making these thirty-five miles was the obstinacy of the wild mules which the superintendent of the line was obliged to use on that portion of the route. To the natives in that part of the country, the sight of the first Concord overland mail coach was a great surprise. They were fairly astounded with what seemed to them the unsurpassed facilities possessed by the stage company, and the apparently wonderful progress that had been made that far on the journey. The arrival of the first four-horse stage-coach which penetrated into their region marked a new era with them. Until that time they had never known any other means of conveyance and trans- |
portation than the rude carts drawn by slow, patient oxen, or riding on the backs of ponies and donkeys. The wild part of the route commenced after leaving Chadbourne. The source of the Concha river--a tributary of the Colorado, at the edge of the "Staked Plains"--was reached after ride of eighty miles; thence, for seventy-five miles, it was a monotonous route, with no water--hardly a tree or shrub being visible. Thence up along the level banks of the Pecos river, through the rough Guadalupe pass and across the rolling table-lands, a point a little above El Paso was reached, on the Rio Grande. It was a somewhat lonesome and tedious ride between Chadbourne and El Paso, for there was not a house or settlement for over 400 miles. There was, however, much to interest the traveler in the varied and entertaining scenery. From El Paso the route proceeded up the Rio Grande, which was forded, through the Mesilla valley and the lower part of Arizona. For 334 miles after leaving El Paso, there was little in the way of settlement except at Mesilla. A considerable portion of the route was rough--passing over numerous hills, across rugged mountains, through rough gorges, over diversified plains, and across what was called "Doubtful pass." Leaving Tucson, the road traversed some extremely rough and rugged passes, leading directly through the Pima Indian villages, on the Gila river; thence it crossed a bend from the Maricopas wells through a forty-mile desert, striking the Gila again, which it followed nearly to its junction with the Colorado of the West. The latter was crossed a short distance below, at a town made up of a few mud houses, then known as "Arizona City." The remaining part of the route--extremely monotonous--was the most direct one taken to Los Angeles and San Francisco, crossing, in the meantime, the most tedious and worst part of the journey the Mojave desert--a barren, sixty-mile, heavy, sand stretch in western Arizona and southeastern California. A large number of the stations on the route were built of adobe or Mexican brick, long a favorite among the people of that part of the country. Some of them were sixty-five miles apart, though the most of them were built at an average of about ten miles. Frequently there were unavoidable delays on the route. The stage that left San Francisco on the 27th of September--before |
the line had been in operation two weeks--and reached St. Louis October 30, was detained fourteen hours by a sand-storm in the Colorado desert, and two days were lost owing to high water in the Kern river, the ferry having been disabled. According to the report of the Postmaster-general, under date of December 1, 1858--two and one-half months after the line was established--the overland mail was pronounced a triumphant success. Both its departure and arrival were announced with unbounded demonstrations of joy and exultation. A special agent of the post-office department came through on the first stagecoach that left San Francisco for St. Louis. His report was a highly important as well as an interesting document, showing now since the lapse of over four decades--by what energy, skill and perseverance the then vast uninhabited region west of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers was first penetrated by the Concord mail stages of "Uncle Sam," and the two great oceans thus united by the longest and most important land route ever established in any country.  |
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© 1999, 2000, 2001 for the NEGenWeb by Pam Rietsch, Ted & Carole Miller