 First Overland Daily Mail Coach on Way Across The Plains. |
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CHAPTER III. First Daily Overland Mail.
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HEN
hostilities broke out between the North and the South, early
in 1861, after the first Republican President had been
elected, it became imperative that the Government make a
change in the location of the great overland mail route. It
was decided to locate it entirely north of the Confederacy's
dominions; and also that the new schedule for transporting
the mail be increased to six times a week to and from
California, instead of semiweekly.
river through to the Mormon capital was reduced from thirty to eighteen days. The distance, as the road was laid out and traveled, was between 1200 and 1300 miles. It took a month in the early '50's to get the mail to Utah from Independence and St. Joseph, Mo., and later from Atchison, Kan.; likewise, a month was consumed in making the trip east from Sacramento, to Salt Lake, little more than half the distance. The line from the Missouri river to the "City of the Saints," for a time in the early '60's, was in charge of Mr. S. B. Miles, a Western frontiersman and pioneer mail contractor on the frontier. The first monthly mail route to Salt Lake, established July 1, 1850, was a great help to the pioneers of Utah, but it seemed a slow way of getting the news. Complaints were made that the postal route was poorly conducted. As an example, the news from Washington of the creation of the Territory of Utah, in September, 1850, did not reach the Mormon city until January, 1851, and came via California by private messenger. W. G. Chorpening, in the `50's, was proprietor of the mail line from Sacramento east to the Utah capital, there connecting with the route from St. Joseph, Mo. In the spring of 1858, Chorpening purchased ten stage-coaches, with all the necessary supplies for the route, and the vehicles were received at Atchison in August, 1858, by Missouri river steamboat. The vehicles were at once put in condition and started on their long journey across the plains, drawn by mules, in charge of experienced drivers and plainsmen. These two routes, in charge of different parties--one extending from the Missouri river to Salt Lake, and the other from the California capital to the Mormon metropolis--were practically operated as one line. It was over a portion of these two routes that Horace Greeley made his overland journey by stage to the Pacific, in the summer of 1859, when he was for ten days and for about a third of the distance on the trip accompanied by Albert D. Richardson, the noted Eastern newspaper correspondent and author. The distance traveled together by these two journalists was something near 600 miles, and by the Leavenworth & Pike's Peak Express. The territory traversed was from the Missouri valley to the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains--much of the same route as now traversed by the Kansas branch of the Union Pacific |
railway, and which covers the distance (640 miles) inside of eighteen hours. The railroad fare has been reduced from forty-five to fifteen dollars. On the 12th of March, 1861, service on the southern overland mail route was ordered discontinued, and one month's extra pay ($50,000) was allowed the contractors. The order to discontinue was preparatory to changing the location of route, the post-office department having ostensibly decided on a shorter line; but the real purpose was to get away from the scene of hostilities between the North and the South. The central route was regarded as a highly important frontier mail line, as at first operated about half a century ago. It supplied the Mormons with their mail, as also the various military and trading posts en route. There was a post-office at each fort, and the traders and frontiersmen residing or sojourning in that part of the then sparsely settled country received their mail from the east and the west. The semiweekly overland mail route--the original one from St. Louis--was abandoned in the spring of 1861, and St. Joseph, the great distributing office on the Missouri river, was selected as the initial point for the departure of the first daily overland mail. In less than three months, however, Atchison, being the farthest city in the West reached by railroad and telegraph on the Missouri river and east of the Sierra Nevadas, the mail was carried there by rail from St. Joseph, and it afterwards became the starting point for the consolidated stage line carrying the great mail, and known as the "Central Overland California and Pike's Peak Express," abbreviated to C. 0. C. & P. P. The company operating this important stage line across the continent had it equipped with the latest modern four- and six-horse (and mule) Concord coaches, which ran daily from Atchison via Salt Lake City to Placerville, Cal. To make the schedule, an average of a fraction less than 112 miles must be covered each and every day in transit. With the exception of a few weeks of Indian troubles at different times in 1862, 1864, and 1865, the "Overland" was in operation and running stages daily out of Atchison for about five years. In equipment, no similar line could excel it. In importance, none could equal it. It was the greatest stage line on the globe carrying the mail, passengers, and express. It was also |
deemed the safest, and was known to be by far the quickest and most expeditious way to get across the plains and over the mighty mountain ranges that intervened. Meals at the eating stations along the route during the period of overland mail traffic cost from fifty cents to two dollars each, according to distance out from Atchison. In 1864 and 1865 it cost more for meals alone, on the stage line between Atchison and Denver, than the entire cost for railroad fare and meals now by the Kansas branch of the Union Pacific. At this time, after a lapse of more than thirty-five years, it requires less than eighteen hours to make the run from the Missouri river to Denver by rail, and the fare is only $15, against $175, when the highest point had been reached, by stage, in the fall of 1864. The stock, coaches, etc., on the southern route were pulled off, and accordingly moved north, and, by act of Congress, on July 1, 1861, the route between St. Joseph and Placerville, having been duly equipped for a daily line, went into operation. It took about three months to make the transfer of stages and stock, and to build a number of new stations, secure hay and grain, and get everything in readiness for operating a six-times-a-week mail line. The new line was designated by the post-office department as the Central Overland California Route." Before making the final selection of the railroad route for carrying the overland mail between the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, there was a trial of speed among the several frontier railway lines to ascertain which road could make the quickest time in transporting this highly important mail. The Hannibal & St. Joseph road was already built across Missouri, and had been in operation between the "Father of Waters" and the "Big Muddy" for over two years. The "Northwestern" was rapidly pushing across Iowa, with Omaha as its objective point; and the Missouri Pacific was steadily winding its way up the Missouri river westward from St. Louis to Kansas City. These three important Western roads were anxiously hoping to obtain a prize in the form of a contract for carrying the great overland letter mail, which originally went by the Isthmus on a Pacific steamer. The time for making a test of speed was close at hand. A man by the name of Ad. Clark was then one of the favorite engineers on the Hannibal & St. Joseph railroad. He |
was selected by the railroad officials to make the run over his line, and he made it--covering the distance, 206 miles--in four hours and fifty minutes, beating all previous records, and the contract was accordingly given to that road. The first through daily stages on the central route left St. Joseph and Placerville simultaneously on July 1, 1861. Both coaches reached their destination on the 18th, the time occupied in making the trip being a few hours over seventeen days, whereas, the schedule was twenty-five days by the southern route. Notwithstanding the initial trip was attended with a number of perplexing and what at first seemed almost insurmountable difficulties, the announcement of the safe arrival of the first overland daily mail in six days less time than over the original Butterfield route proved that the gigantic enterprise--pronounced an impossibility by the preceding national administration--was a complete success. Soon after the completion of the Hannibal & St. Joseph railroad, St. Joseph became an important shipping point. When the Government decided to make it the starting-point for the daily overland mail, long wagon trains were at once put on the great thoroughfare, and transported supplies across the plains to the various stage stations on the frontier. It required a train of twenty-five or thirty wagons to haul the provisions, forage and necessary supplies for each division of the line, as it took a large quantity of these to feed the vast army of employees, many hundred head of stock, with blacksmiths, harness-makers, carpenters, and wagon-makers. It was necessary to have at each station extra teams for use in case of loss from raids or other losses incident to the perils of more than a thousand miles of wilderness. The first through passenger on a Concord stage-coach from California to St. Joseph by the central route was Maj. J. W. Simonton, one of the editors of the San Francisco Bulletin. He came on the first coach. As Gen. Bela M. Hughes aptly said at the time, it "solved the problem of overland transportation," and was "the avant-courier of the great railroad line." At each end of the line the event was celebrated with much pomp, it being regarded as an undertaking of vast importance, not only to the east and west ends, but also an enterprise of considerable magnitude to the entire country. St. Joseph, having more than a year before fortunately become |
the "Pony Express" starting-point, was brought into additional prominence. But it did not, however, long enjoy the honor, of being the point of departure for the country's greatest stage line. In September following a change was ordered. Atchison, on account of its favorable location--being fourteen miles farther west than St. Joseph or any other point on the Missouri river reached by rail--was, by an order from the post-office department, made the starting-point for the overland mail. Being the distributing office for the great Western mails, the sacks for Denver, Salt Lake City, Carson, Virginia City, Sacramento and San Francisco were made up at St. Joseph, tagged, and put upon the cars for Winthrop, where they were taken out, loaded upon the omnibus, transferred across the Missouri to Atchison, thence taken to the post-office, and there loaded onto the stages with the Atchison mail bound for the Pacific coast and intermediate points. A four-horse Concord stage-coach left Atchison at eight o'clock in the morning seven times a week, taking out a mail every day except Monday, that day's coach in charge of a messenger being loaded with express packages--the most of them for Denver and other Colorado points--and transported at the rate of one dollar per pound. When Atchison was made the starting-point it was uncertain how long the mail would continue to go from there. The civil war was raging, and the forces of the Confederacy bad been doing much damage to both the Hannibal & St. Joseph and the North Missouri railroads. They had in some places torn up the track, burned a number of bridges, destroyed culverts, fired promiscuously into trains, placed obstructions along the road-bed, and otherwise committed various depredations, frequently delaying the mail from two to six days while coming through Missouri. As a result the situation at once began to look critical. It was feared at Atchison--and the talk was getting to be quite common--that the overland mail, in consequence of the work of the bushwhackers who were making raids in all directions through Missouri, would change to some point north. To insure its safe transit, it was said it would have to go across Iowa to Council Bluffs, thence west from Omaha. In fact, while the railway troubles were looking decidedly serious, the great mail was sent, a few trips from Davenport through Iowa to Omaha. In consequence, Atchison, for a short time, was fairly "trembling in her |
boots," fearing this would be the ultimate result. But the "powers that be," at Washington, early saw the necessity of keeping these two important Missouri railroads open for traffic. It was the most direct--practically the only feasible--route to Kansas, Nebraska, and Colorado. The Government saw that the way must be kept open at all hazards, and at once made provision for the emergency. A sufficient number of troops were placed at convenient distances along the entire line of each railroad to insure not only the Kansas and Colorado, but also the Salt Lake and Pacific coast mails, coming through safely and, as near as possible, on schedule time. This last order having been promulgated at the national capital and carried into effect, Atchison rested comparatively easy. From that time forward the place continued to be the point of departure for the overland mail until the Concord stage-coach was forced to retire by the completion of the Union Pacific railway, which was built through from Omaha to Fort Kearney in 1866, thence on west, almost in sight of the old military and overland stage road, on the north side of the Platte, while the stage road was on the south side. For 200 miles--from Fort Kearney to a point opposite old Julesburg--the early stage road and railroad were in no place more than a few miles apart; in a number of places a short distance on either side of the river and only the river itself separating them. In the summer of 1866, after the overland stages had been taken off the route between Atchison and Fort Kearney, the mail west ran from Omaha to Denver daily on the Platte route, stopping at all the stations between the Missouri river and the Colorado capital. At the same time a through, three-times- a-week mail line was established and operated through Kansas over the Smoky Hill route, going west by rail to the end of track on the Kansas Pacific, thence by stage to its destination. The first mail route along the Smoky Hill fork by stage-coach was shortly thereafter increased to a daily. It soon became, as new towns and settlements sprang up, a great mail route, and was continued for about four years, or until the completion of the Kansas branch of the Union Pacific road to Denver, in 1870. The plains, as crossed in the days of the overland mail, were by some considered the most monotonous part of the journey from the Missouri river to Salt Lake. Between three and four |
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First Overland Daily Mail Coach on Way Across The Plains. |
decades ago they were mentioned by Agassiz, who at the time declared that they were the grandest of all glacial deposits--a scope of country 500 miles wide and 1000 long-stretching from river to mountain and from the British line to Mexico. Truthfully did Agassiz picture them as a magnificent "earth-ocean, rolling up in beautiful green billows along the shore of the continental streams and mountains that border it, and calming down in the center, as if the divine voice had spoken again, as of yore, 'Peace, be still."' Well do many yet living remember, in their boyhood days, reading in the books and upon the maps of this vast region, which was known only as the "Great American Desert," "Unexplored Regions," etc. But much of this has been explored, and is no longer a desert. That part of "Uncle Sam's" domain, even as late as the '50's and '60's, was known as a region inhabited almost exclusively by the Indian and buffalo. It has since been changed into an immense pasture ground, on which are grazing, annually, hundreds of thousands of cattle, horses, and sheep, while vast numbers of hogs are annually sent to market, and countless millions of bushels of corn, wheat, rye, oats, barley, and the finest vegetables, in addition to vast quantities of choice fruit, are annually produced. During the pioneer days of overland mail and staging, in the later '50's and early '60's, from Atchison direct to Denver and Salt Lake, and beyond to the Pacific, before there was a change in proprietorship, the line was known as the "Central Overland California and Pike's Peak Express." The change was made under a mortgage foreclosure. Ben. Holladay, of New York, who advanced vast sums of money to the former company, took possession of the mail route late in 1861. There was a reorganization early in 1862 and the new "stage king," gave it the name of the "Overland Stage Line." After the C. O. C. & P. P. Express line passed into the control of Ben. Holladay, the new overland stage king, gold was discovered in Idaho and Montana. Holladay a short time thereafter obtained an increased subsidy from the Government, and added additional lines--one to Virginia City, Mont., one to Boise City, Idaho--until the mileage of his stage lines amounted to 3300 miles. It is said the discovery of gold in the Northwest was the saving of Holladay from financial ruin, in the early '60's. He ran the stage lines at an enormous expense. The Indians |
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