and road-agents were factors which made the cost of operating the line about double. The half breed French and "squaw men" (as whites who lived with the Indians were called) were almost the only settlers on the route, except at Government forts, and were frequently warring on the company by raids on its stock and supplies, and pilfering, to trade with the wild Indians. Holladay was now at the head of the great enterprise and continued to operate it until after the close of the civil war all together about five years--finally selling out to Wells, Fargo & Co., who operated it until the iron bands were stretched across the continent. The latter firm, with a national reputation and backed with vast wealth, bought nearly fifty new Concord coaches, and operated a large number of important new stage lines that were necessarily opened to all the rich mining camps in the Northwest after the completion of the Pacific road. In the latter years, while Holladay ran the great stage line, he obtained possession of the "Butterfield Overland Despatch." This was an important rival line organized by D. A. Butterfield, and operated through Kansas, more than 100 miles south of the Platte, on the Smoky Hill route. In 1867 these two lines were consolidated, and the name accordingly changed to the "Holladay Overland Mail and Express Company." The great transcontinental railway was being built from both ends, and, as fast as 50 to 100 miles of track were completed west of Fort Kearney and east of Sacramento, in the '60's, the stages and stock were moved forward to the new starting station. There it took the mails, express packages and passengers from the terminus of the railroad at the ends of the lines on both the Union and Central Pacific. The Union Pacific was the first railroad built across the plains and over the Rocky Mountains west from the Missouri river; the Central Pacific the first one built from Sacramento across the Sierra Nevadas eastward. A junction was formed at Promontory, but later this was changed to Ogden, Utah. Almost immediately after taking possession of the overland mail route, Holladay began preparations to make it not only the leading and model stage line in America, but the most important one on the globe. His long and successful career on the frontier was of great advantage to him. He had crossed the plains many times with oxen and mules long before the first stage line was |
dreamed of, and had "roughed it" on the frontier in pioneer days. He had been all over the great West and Northwest and enjoyed a wide acquaintance in the territories and on the Pacific slope. He employed the most skillful and experienced stage men in the country; he bought, regardless of price, the finest horses and mules suitable for staging that money could secure; he purchased dozens of first-class Concord coaches; he built additional stations and storehouses at convenient distances on the plains and in the mountains for storing hay and grain, and added many extra features to make the long, tedious overland trip of nearly 2000 miles by stage an easier and more pleasant one. The stage-coaches used on the overland line were built by the Abbot-Downing Company, in Concord, N. H. They carried nine passengers inside and one or two could ride on the box alongside the driver. Some of the "Concords" were built with an extra seat a little above and in the rear of the driver, so that three additional persons could ride there, making fourteen with the driver. Sometimes it became necessary to crowd an extra man on the box, making as many as fifteen persons who rode on this pattern of coach without much inconvenience. 1 once made the trip from Denver to Atchison when there were fourteen passengers besides the driver and myself, and the coach arrived at its destination on time. Frequently, among a load of stage passengers, there would be from one to three of sufficient avoirdupois to tip the beam at 250. Being jostled about when the road was rough, it would be anything but pleasant for nine crowded passengers, inside a coach, riding six days and nights between the Missouri and Denver. It occasionally happened that there would be a fat woman among the passengers, perhaps weighing 250 pounds. It was a great relief, however, for such people, at the end of each ten or twelve miles, to get out and exercise two or three minutes while the horses were being changed at the station. A person weighing perhaps less than 125 pounds, while being crowded by a fat fellow, would think it an imposition to be obliged to pay as much for passage as a man twice as heavy. Still the stage company made no distinction. A Falstaff or a Daniel Lambert could ride as an overland passenger for exactly what Gen. Tom Thumb or his wife would be obliged to pay. The fare from Atchison to Denver by stage, until the summer of 1863, -4 |
was $75; to Salt Lake, $150; to Placerville, $225. Owing to the continued rise in the gold quotations and the correspondingly marked depreciation in greenbacks, when the civil war was raging at its fiercest, the fare to Denver was subsequently advanced to $125. Later, in 1865, it was put up to $175 to Denver, $350 to Salt Lake, and in proportion the balance of the trip. On the 1st of April, 1866, there was a reduction in fare by the stage line, as follows: Atchison or Omaha to Virginia City, Mont., $330; Atchison to Salt Lake, $250; while the Atchison to Denver fare remained $175. The advance in rates of fare from time to time appeared to make very little difference in the extent of the passenger traffic. Still there was an occasional party whose time was not limited who would buy a team and go across by private conveyance, being on the road at least three weeks between the Missouri river and Denver, rather than pay what he considered an extortionate price for passage. Nearly every business man, however, whose time was money to him, took passage on the stage, no matter what the fare might be. The number of the great overland mail route awarded to Ben. Holladay was 10,773. The contract price for conveying the first six-times-a-week letter mail from the Missouri river to Placerville, with all the way-mail to Denver, Salt Lake, and intermediate points, was $1,000,000 per annum, from July 1, 1861, to June 30, 1864. Beginning July 1, 1864, the pay for conveying the same mail was at the rate of $840,000 per annum. Holladay was awarded, in 1865, contracts for carrying the mail on the routes from Nebraska City and Omaha to Kearney City, the latter point located about two miles west of Fort Kearney just outside the limits of the military reserve. On the former route he received $7000 and on the latter $14,000 per annum. At Kearney City ("Dobytown") these two routes connected with the overland stage line. Between Atchison and Salt Lake City, from July 1, 1864, to June 14, 1868, the annual pay for transporting the overland mail was $365,000, and during that period Holladay was paid $1,352,796.05. On the same route, from June 15, 1868, to September 30, 1868, the pay was at the rate of $347,648, and Holladay received from Government, for those three and one-half months, the sum of $102,193.23. Both the C. 0. C. and L. & P. P. express lines subsequently |
passed into control of other parties, and, being shortly afterward consolidated, the new line was for some time thereafter known as the "Central Overland California and Pike's Peak Express." Gen. Bela M. Hughes was attorney for this corporation, and made desperate struggles to overcome the financial difficulties that were constantly threatening the new company, but, with all his efforts, was unsuccessful in averting the final disaster. Creditors came forward and continued to press the corporation. Afterward it became necessary to borrow, from time to time, large sums to meet the numerous urgent demands and keep the enterprise from going to the wall. The money was always obtained from Ben. Holladay, the company giving a first mortgage, of course, on all the property of the entire line. The old company finally, after being in existence less than six months, collapsed, and all its property, from Atchison to Placerville, passed, by foreclosure, into the hands of Holladay. In relation to the breaking up of the first overland mail line, and the establishment of numerous new lines as the result, Mr. David Street, of Denver, writes me, under date of September 16, 1901, as follows: "In regard to what Holladay got from the C. O. C. & P. P. Express Company: he got all they owned, of course, for his mortgage covered their entire line; but they only owned up to Salt Lake City (from the Missouri river to Salt Lake City), with a branch line from old Julesburg (the upper California crossing on the Platte river) to Denver. When the "Southern Overland" or Overland Mail Company, as the name was, was broken up by the Confederates, during the early days of the war of the rebellion or civil war, the Confederates captured some of it. What they did not get was moved north, and some of it was put on east of Salt Lake and sold to the C. O. C. & P. P. Express Company. The remainder (enough to stock the line, or partly do so) was put on from Salt Lake to Virginia City, Nev.; from Virginia City, Nov., to Sacramento, Cal., was the Pioneer stage line, owned by Louis and Chas. McLane. Louis McLane was president of Wells, Fargo & Co. at the time they bought Mr. Holladay out. The Pioneer line was splendidly equipped with fine Concord coaches and six-horse teams. They had a heavy travel, as it was the palmy days of the Comstock mines. There was also another line between Virginia City and Sacramento, that crossed the Sierra Nevada mountains via the Dutch Flats route, owned by the California Stage Company, and divided the business with the Pioneer line. But to go back, the C. O. C. & P. P. Express Company, the Overland Mail Company and the Pioneer stage line formed the through line from Atchison to Sacramento, and carried the overland mails under the unexpired contract of the Overland Mail Company from Memphis, Tenn., via El Paso to San Diego, Cal., permission having been obtained from the post-office de- |
partment transferring it to this route; the Overland Mail Company subletting to the C. O. C. & P. P. Express Company and the Pioneer stage line the portions of the route covered by their respective lines. Upon the expiration of that contract it was relet for four years, Holladay being the successful bidder, and subletting to the Overland Mail Company and the Pioneer stage line; the Overland Mail Company having that name, preventing Holladay adopting it. That was the name he always wanted. The Overland Mail Company passed into the possession of Wells, Fargo & Co. some time before they bought Holladay out; they acquired it in about the same way Holladay did the C. O. C. & P. P. Express Company--by advancing of money, or loans; first commenced as advances on quarterly mail payments and ended in mortgages and foreclosures." The number of mail pouches carried west on the stage-coach six times a week ran about as follows: San Francisco, two; Sacramento, one to two; Virginia City and Carson, Nev., one each; Salt Lake, one to two; Denver, two. In addition, there was a way pouch which was opened at the few offices along the route--Daniel's Ranch, Valley City, Fort Kearney, Cottonwood Springs, Fremont's Orchard, Latham, and Fort Bridger. Some queer things now and then were sent through the mail in early days on the overland route. Well do I remember one in the spring of 1864, while I was stationed as local mail agent at Latham, Colo. Complaints were numerous, as they had been for a long time before, that mail robberies were being committed every little while, somewhere along the route. Valuable letters were being abstracted at different points, but no one, it appears, could find the guilty parties. One day when the mail-coach came in from the west, I unlocked and opened, as I did every day, both the east- and west-bound regular way pouch. While the contents of the sack were being shaken out, I was startled by the sound of something that fell with a heavy thud on the table. In assorting this mail I came across two naked bars of precious metal--one of gold and one of silver--with simply a plain tag attached to each. One of the bars was directed to a firm in New York, the other to a Philadelphia firm. I called the attention of the stage agent to them, remarking, as I placed them back in the pouch and locked it, that I thought it was "a very careless way to send treasure loose in the mail; that such stuff ought to be registered or go by express in charge of a messenger." Having never before seen or even heard of anything of the kind going in such manner through the mail, I never suspected, at that time, that the bars of specie were placed in the mail-bag as "decoys." |
After I had finished assorting the contents of the pouch and had made up the Eastern way mail and locked the pouch, I learned that an agent who had come through from the West had been watching me from an adjoining room, as he had also watched every postmaster and deputy from the Pacific coast who bad opened the pouch at the different offices along the line. After having seen through the cracks of an adjoining room, without my knowledge, every movement I had made in the distribution of the mail, the man knocked at the door for admission into my office. Immediately after coming in he pulled from his pocket and handed to me his credentials as a special agent of the postoffice department. After talking with me a few seconds he then explained the decoys which he said he had observed I had not failed to notice. They were quite a temptation. Whether the precious bars of metal were "gobbled" by any crooked Nasby or postal employee between Latham and the Missouri river I never learned; but the special agent occupied a seat in the stage-coach from its terminus at the western slope of the Sierras to Fort Kearney, where he changed to the Western Stage Company's line, on which he went to his destination at Omaha. Among some of the remarkably quick rides across the plains during the staging days, there was one made by Holladay while he operated the overland stage line, in the '60's. At one time, while on the Pacific coast looking after his interests, be was advised by telegraph that important business demanded his early presence in New York. Accordingly he notified his division agents to have everything in readiness, and he made the trip by special coach, from the western terminus to Atchison, Kan., a distance of nearly 2000 miles, in twelve days, two hours, beating the regular daily schedule five days. This was a rather expensive ride for the noted stage man, the journey costing him, it is said, about $20,000 in the wear and tear of stock, vehicles, and other necessary expenses incurred while making the noted trip. However, costly as this journey proved to be, Holladay knew it would be a great advertisement for his overland stage line, being the quickest trip ever made across the plains by the Concord coach, and it was noted all over the continent, for the time had never been excelled except by the "Pony Express," which was operated from April, 1860, until the completion of the Pacific telegraph, in September, 1861. |
Another overland stage trip of note was in 1865, when Hon. Schuyler Colfax made the journey, accompanied by Samuel Bowles, of the Springfield (Mass.) Republican, and Albert D. Richardson, the latter at the time staff correspondent of the Boston Journal, who was also remembered as the noted army correspondent of the New York Tribune. This journalistic trio made the ride from Atchison to Denver, 653 miles, in four and one-half days; one of the quickest and most remarkable journeys ever made by the overland route. From Salt Lake to Virginia City, Nev., 575 miles, the ride was made in seventy-two hours, on which a drive of eight miles was covered in thirty-two minutes. A stretch of seventy-two miles--on the extreme western division into Placerville--was made in seven hours, including stops, being the same piece of road traversed by Horace Greeley while on his overland journey down the Sierra Nevada, when he had his exciting experience with Hank Monk, the well-known Pacific slope driver, in the summer of 1859. Speaking of a few noted quick journeys across the plains recalls to mind the fact that, in February, 1866, a stage-coach carrying the mail made the trip from Santa Fe, to Kansas City, a distance of over 800 miles, in eleven days; up to that date, the fastest time by stage ever made between those two points. But there was a quicker trip made in the early '50's, on a wager, over the same route, by F. X. Aubrey, the daring Western frontier rider, who rode from the New Mexican capital to the Missouri river in eight days. On the completion of his journey he was so exhausted that he had to be lifted from his horse. In the transportation of the mail by the overland route in 1864, when the Indians were executing all kinds of hellish deeds so frequent among the savage races, the expenses of the company were enormous. On the western division of the line--between Salt Lake City and Austin, Nev.--all the grain used by the stage animals was purchased in Utah of the Mormons, for which twenty-five cents a pound was paid. Prices ruled high all over the country in 1864, but such prices as these were enough to cripple any company. The following year the stage proprietor raised his own grain in the desert region. A tract of over 800 acres was cultivated, and sown to oats and barley, and, put under irrigation, yielded from thirty to fifty bushels to the acre, thus saving for the company upwards of $50,000. |
On the 28th of April, 1866, the Holladay Overland Mail and Express coaches started from both Topeka and Denver, running daily over the Smoky Hill route. The stages were moved west every few weeks, as fast as fifty or more miles of track were put down and accepted by the Government railway commissioners. In August following, all the overland mail for California, Salt Lake, Colorado, etc., was sent to the end of track over the Kansas division of the Union Pacific; thence over the Smoky Hill route by stage to its destination. In the latter part of October, 1866, Junction City became the starting-point for the overland stages. The distance almost due west from St. Louis to Junction City is 420 miles. It was shown at that time that, in a fast run across the plains, letters were carried via the Smoky Hill route from New York to Denver in five days--a speed never before accomplished or even attempted from the Colorado metropolis. This unprecedented dispatch in postal affairs caused a waking up of the authorities at Washington, and resulted in the early transfer to this route of the British letter mail for China and San Francisco. Commenting on the foregoing at the time, the Atchison Daily Free Press of October 29, 1866, said: "There will be no call for mule and ox trains on the great plains a twelvemonth hence. 'Westward the march of empire takes its way.'" Ben. Holladay continued at the head of the overland line for almost five years. Taking possession of it in December, 1861, he remained with it for some time after the civil war, when be disposed of everything, including the stations, rolling-stock, animals, etc., in the latter part of 1866, to Wells, Fargo & Co., a firm known all over the Pacific coast, besides enjoying a national reputation. Wells, Fargo & Co. operated the line for some time between the Missouri river and the capital of California. They also operated a score or more of branch lines leading to the various mining camps then springing up in the West and Northwest territories. With their vast wealth and wide experience as mail and express carriers on the frontier--doing a business of many millions of dollars annually--they were, in a measure, considered public benefactors. The firm name--Wells, Fargo & Co.--finally became as familiar as household words throughout almost every portion of the country. In their employ were an immense number of men as agents and drivers, The firm had the reputation of being ex- |
tremely liberal with all their employees, paying their overland drivers in some instances upwards of $200 a month, according to experience and ability, and considering the hazard of being waylaid by road-agents, the genteel name then given to bands of frontier highway robbers. In the latter part of 1866, through the efforts of Gen. Bela M. Hughes, the territorial legislature of Colorado granted a charter for the Holladay Overland Mail and Express Company, which shortly afterward absorbed a sort of rival line known as the "Butterfield Overland Despatch," a stage, express and freight line in operation a year or more between Atchison and Denver over the Smoky Hill route. At the head of the "Despatch" was D. A. Butterfield, an early citizen of Denver, but then a prominent business man at Atchison. It was not long thereafter until a general consolidation of stage lines followed, including the Wells, Fargo & Co., the Overland Mail Company, the Pioneer Stage Company, and all the other stage and express companies between the Missouri river and the Pacific ocean. The new enterprise was successful in all respects, for the noted firm of Wells, Fargo & Co. were at the head of the movement and became the proprietors of the new company. It was capitalized at ten million dollars, and the new name--Wells, Fargo & Co.--was subsequently ratified by special act of the Colorado territorial legislature. This consolidation practically gave Wells, Fargo & Co. exclusive control of all the express and stage routes between the Missouri river and the Pacific, with numerous branch lines in Nevada, Montana, and Idaho--in fact, the entire Pacific slope. Over the great stage lines as controlled by them, Wells, Fargo & Co. transported, until the completion of the first transcontinental railroad, all the overland mail and express matter, after which the owners disposed of all their stage interests and took up the express and banking business. There has been a mighty change in postal matters on the frontier in the last third of a century. By the overland stage line, in the early '60's, it required seventeen days for a letter to go from the Missouri river to Placerville, a distance of something over 1900 miles. In 1869, after the completion of the first transcontinental railway, letters were carried all the way from New York and Boston to the far-western metropolis on the great ocean--about twice the distance--inside of six days. |
Over forty years have gone by since the first mail route overland by stage-coach was established to the Pacific via Salt Lake. Few can realize what vast changes have taken place and the improvements that have been made in facilitating the dispatch of the mails on the frontier since that time. The trip from the Missouri river with the mail to the Mormon capital can now be made by the fast railway-train on the Union Pacific in as many hours as it required days when the first monthly mail route was established, in the '50's, and which was afterward changed to a weekly during the prospective Mormon war, to accommodate Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston's army, quartered at Salt Lake for some months in 1858-'59. Going back a generation to the time of overland mail, express and staging days between the Missouri river and the Pacific, it appears much like a dream. The Concord stage-coaches transported, for a period of little over ten years, the entire overland letter mail. They likewise carried all the letter mail that came across the Atlantic for British Columbia, Australia, and New Zealand. In addition, the stage-coaches carried thousands of passengers, millions of dollars in money, priceless papers and documents and many valuable packages across the plains to all the vast territory west of the Rocky Mountains. Those strongly built nine-passenger vehicles, pulled by four- or six-horse (or mule) teams were, in their day, familiar and conspicuous objects to all persons journeying across the country by the overland route. Those pioneer days were full of excitement and adventure, because there was so much on the frontier to be seen, It was always a pleasure, however, to look at the old stages as they regularly departed and arrived. It is difficult to imagine what has become of those hundreds of coaches that were the "passenger-cars" before the days of railroads west of the Missouri. Those vehicles that moved so gently over the rolling prairies; that traversed the fertile valleys; that glided so smoothly across the plains; that rumbled along through gulches; that slowly climbed their winding way to the summit of the Rocky Mountain passes; that thundered on through rugged and precipitous mountain gorges and cañons; that moved slowly through the sandy deserts and alkali plains of the "Great Basin"; that passed along the parched valley of the sluggish Carson; that slowly wound their way over the summit of the Sierras, and finally rolled |
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