on down to the western terminus of the great stage line, at what was known in pioneer days as "Hangtown," are now only a remembrance. Scarcely one of the old vehicles can be found. They were all hung on the thorough-brace style of springs; which has made the old Concord such a favorite stage-coach by all who have ridden in it. A few only of these historic old stages have been gathered up, and are to be seen connected with traveling shows. Col. William F. Cody ("Buffalo Bill") was for many years the owner of one of the most-noted and conspicuous ones. He came into possession of it in the heart of the Rockies. Subsequently he took it with his "Wild West" across the Atlantic, and exhibited it in many of the leading cities of Europe. Still later it was a prominent attraction at the great Columbian Exposition in Chicago. This remarkable coach was built by the Abbot-Downing Company, at Concord, N. H., in 1863. It was one of thirty-two similar vehicles ordered by Louis McLane, of San Francisco, who at the time was president of the Pioneer Stage Company, of California, for which the coaches were designed. In shipping this stage-coach to its destination, it was sent from Boston by the ocean route around Cape Horn on the clipper ship General Grant, a distance of 19,000 miles, reaching the Golden Gate some time in 1864. For a long time thereafter it was used on one of the prominent mountain stage lines in operation to the mines of northern California. Later it found its way across the Sierras on the overland line, subsequently reaching the Rockies, where, for some time, it was used in Wyoming, in the exciting days of early staging in Deadwood. It has since been known as the "Deadwood Coach." On one occasion in London, by special invitation, it happened that four European kings were seated in the old coach for a ride, while the Prince of Wales sat on the box alongside Buffalo Bill, the driver. While the distinguished party were enjoying the drive, the prince jokingly remarked to the renowned showman, "This coach now holds a big poker hand." "Yes," says the showman; "four kings inside and the 'joker' on the box." For a long time the old coach, drawn by six of the best horses ever hitched to a stage, did service in the mountains on the "Overland." The noted vehicle attracted crowds everywhere. Buffalo Bill regarded it as one of the prime attractions of his |
"Wild West" show. "And well he might," says a Concord newspaper; "its battered sides, its paintless panels, its missing boot, its rusty iron, are eloquent of hard knocks. The vicissitudes of its career are marvelous. In the day of its prosperity, glistening with new paint and varnish, bedecked with gold leaf, every strap new and shining, it traversed the most deadly mail route in the West, from Cheyenne to Deadwood via Laramie, and through a country alive with the banditti of the plains." The coach route was full of peril, but it lay through a picturesque country. During its first season in the Deadwood region, the more dangerous places on the route were Buffalo Gap, Lame Johnny Creek, Red Cañon, and Squaw Gap. These were all made famous by scenes of slaughter and the deviltry of the highwaymen. Of the latter, the more conspicuous were "Curley" Grimes, killed at Hogan's Ranch; "Peg-legged" Bradley; Bill Price, who was killed on the Cheyenne river; Dunk Blackburn, now serving a term in the Nebraska penitentiary, and a number of others of the same class--representing the most fearless of the road-agents who did their work on the frontier. The first attack on the noted stage resulted in the death of John Slaughter, a son of the former city marshal of Cheyenne. He was filled with buckshot and fell from the box to the ground. The team ran away with passengers and mail and brought up all right at Greeley's Station. This attack occurred at White Wood Cañon. The body of young Slaughter was recovered, taken to Deadwood and thence carried to Cheyenne, where it was buried. It was here that the old coach received its "baptism of fire." In a few months afterward it was again attacked, and some years later it went through a number of similar experiences. A terrific attack was made on it by Sioux Indians, but the assault was successfully repelled; not, however, until the two lead horses were killed. Another attack was made when a party of commercial travelers were ambushed, and a Mr. Liebman, of Chicago, was killed, and his companion shot through the shoulder. The stage was soon afterward fitted up as a treasure coach, and it at once became an object of special interest to the highwaymen. As a means of protection, a strong force of shot-gun messengers accompanied the old vehicle, and some time elapsed before the robbers succeeded in accomplishing their purpose. Prominent among "these messengers were Scott Davis, a splendid scout, and |
one of the self-appointed undertakers of many of the lawless characters of the neighborhood; Boone May, one of the best pistol shots in the Rocky Mountain regions, who killed Bill Price in the streets of Deadwood, together with 'Curley' Grimes, one of the road-agents; Jim May, a worthy brother--a twin in courage if not in birth. Few men have had more desperate encounters than he, and the transgressors of the law have had many an occasion to feel the results of the keen eye and strong arm whenever it has become necessary to face men who are prepared to 'die with their boots on.' Still another of these border heroes (for such they may be justly termed) is Gail Hill, late deputy sheriff of Deadwood, and his frequent companion was Jesse Brown, an old-time Indian fighter, who has a record of incident and adventure that would make a book. These men constituted a sextette of as brave fellows as could be found on the frontier, and their names are all well known in that country. "At last, however, some of them came to grief. The bandits. themselves were old fighters. The shrewdness of one party was offset by that of the other, and, on an unlucky day, the celebrated Cold Spring tragedy occurred. The station had been captured, and the road-agents secretly occupied the place. The stage arrived in its usual manner, and, without suspicion of danger, the driver, Gene Barnett, halted at the stable door. An instant. afterward a volley was delivered that killed Hughey Stevenson, sent the buckshot through the body of Gail Hill, and dangerously wounded two others of the guards. The bandits then captured the outfit, amounting to some $60,000 in gold. "On another occasion the coach was attacked, and, when the driver was killed, saved by a woman--Martha Canary, better known at the present time in the wild history of the frontier as 'Calamity Jane.' Amid the fire of the attack she seized the lines, and, whipping up the team, safely brought the coach to its destination. "When Buffalo Bill returned from his scout with General Crook, in 1876, he rode in this self-same stage, bringing with him the scalps of several of the Indians whom he had met. When, afterwards, he learned that it had been attacked and abandoned, and was lying neglected on the plains, he organized a party, and, starting on the trail, rescued and brought the vehicle into camp. With the sentiment that attaches to a man whose |
life has been identified with the excitement of the far West, the scout has now secured the coach from Colonel Voorhees, the manager of the Black Hills stage line, and hereafter it will play a different role in its history from that of inviting murder and being the tomb of its passengers. . . . "In London, it carried the Prince of Wales on an inside seat when the 'attack on the mail' was depicted in the 'Wild West' arena. The President of the French republic, the child King of Spain, the Emperor of Germany, His Holiness Pope Leo XIII, have examined the battered structure with interest, but nowhere has the 'Deadwood Mail' been greeted with more eager and intelligent interest than here in Concord*, the city of its birth, where the very men who made it gave it welcome, and where the president of the Abbot-Downing Company, after careful inspection,  guaranteed its running-gear for another indefinite term
of service. The 'Deadwood Mail' was built 'pon honor by a
company which has an uninterrupted story of business success
for eighty-two years, and whose pay-roll bears among its 250
names those of twenty men whose length of consecutive
employment individually exceeds forty-four years, and
forty-three who have drawn their pay from the same concern
for more than thirty-eight years each. And all of them, and
the thousands of others who saw the old relic yesterday, are
hoping that its future visits here will occur at less
intervals than thirty-two years." *Quoted from a Concord newspaper. |
Accordingly it was fixed up for the occasion, six mules, were hitched to it, and a photograph taken of it, with its veteran builders seated inside, and no less a personage than the renowned Buffalo Bill sitting on the box holding the lines. On the side of the coach was placed the following inscription:
This remarkable stage-coach has been
attacked by Indians and highwaymen on the "Overland," and
has since journeyed through the new and a considerable
portion of the old world. In its early days, it traveled
hundreds of thousands of miles in the mail, express and
passenger service. For years it has been looked upon and
cherished as a sort of priceless relic. Inside of it have
ridden many high officials, both civil and military, in
America, and, while across the briny deep, a number of the
crowned heads of Europe have ridden in it. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
© 1999, 2000, 2001 for the NEGenWeb by Pam Rietsch, Ted & Carole Miller