In the performance of his duties he was gentlemanly, and polite in his manners, temperate, and free from vices. He neither indulged in profanity nor used vulgar slang, and his honor and integrity were always above suspicion. Following is a telegram which shows the difficulties frequently encountered in the transportation of the overland mail, express and passengers in early days:  OMAHA,
March 23, 1867."A. Benham, Denver: Snow blockade again on U. P. R. R. No train has gone west since Wednesday, and that is reported snowed in at Kearney. On that train there is large amount of mail and passengers and now mail accumulating here and forty passengers. When these reach North Platte, use every exertion to get them off with as little delay as possible; put in extra men and stock for the emergency. Got mail and passengers off before anything else. I will go up on first train. D.
STREET."NAT. STEIN* began work as an "Overlander" March 1, 1861, at St. Joseph, Mo., where he was employed by the Central Overland California and Pike's Peak Express Company, first going on the line as a messenger to Denver; afterwards on temporary duty in the St. Joseph office; then as agent in Central City, Colo., until the line changed hands the following spring and passed into the control of Ben. Holladay. About the same time he was placed in charge of the agency at Denver, and, early in 1863, was transferred to the Salt Lake City office. Holladay having secured, in May, 1864, the first Government contract for mail service in Montana, Mr. Stein was sent by him to take charge of the office at Virginia City, where he represented the stage line in all its branches, including the banking department. In October, 1865, as he was about leaving Montana on a visit to his home in the East, he became troubled with a serious affliction of the eyelids, and this caused him to be detained in Philadelphia. under treatment of eminent specialists until July, 1867. In the meantime Wells, Fargo & Co. had bought all of Mr. Holladay's "Overland" interests and were operating the great mail and express line, and had entered into large contracts for carrying Government freights from the Union Pacific railway, then in course of construction, to the military posts of the West. Mr. Stein making application for work, later, he was given the agency at Omaha, which became combined soon after, by mutual *See portrait on page 75. |
agreement, with the agencies at that place of the American and United States Express Companies. The joint office was carried on by Mr. Stein until October, 1868, when, fearing the work was ruining his eyes, he gave it up, whereupon he was placed on duty by Wells, Fargo & Co. again, in his old place at Salt Lake City. Some months afterward he concluded to try the effects of a change in his calling. He drifted, to the Pacific coast and has followed the banking business ever since; being connected with the same well-known organization--Wells, Fargo & Co.--in San Francisco, and in constant touch with agreeable reminders of the good old days of the pony express and the overland stage line. While engaged with the "Overland," Mr. Stein was very popular with all the employees on the route. He was a gentleman, and in every way a genial-hearted fellow; honest, upright and courteous in all business relations, thoroughly capable and efficient in the discharge of his duties, and he had abilities which qualified him for filling any position in the gift of the stage officials. The drivers and other employees greatly admired him, He was always sociable and on the stage route had become known as quite a literary character--called by many "the poet of the stage line." His productions had merit, and he frequently wrote verses for the amusement of the boys. The following, which was written by him, appeared in the Montana Post, April 8, 1865, and, for some time afterward, was sung by the army of stage boys to the tune of "The High Salary Driver on the Denver City Line": SONG OF THE OVERLAND STAGE-DRIVER. |
Alike are all the seasons and weathers, to my mind; ROBERT L.
PEASE, One of the pioneers of
Atchison (see portrait, p. 75), was a faithful and trusted
employee on the overland line. Before Ben. Holladay secured
control, and while the line was operated as the Central
Overland California and Pike's Peak Express Company, in
1861, and had become largely indebted to Holladay for money
advanced them, in the fall of that year the company conveyed
to Theo. F. Warner, of Weston, Mo., and R. L. Pease, of
Atchison, as trustees, all their real and personal property
on their several lines, to secure the indebtedness to
Holladay. The company failing to make its payments to
Holladay, he called on the trustees to take possession of
the property and operate it for his benefit, and advertise a
day on which it would be sold by them. Mr. Warner declined
to act with Mr. Pease in operating the line, and the latter
took possession as trustee on December 6, 1861, and
published a notice fixing a date on |
which he would sell the property. The old company obtained an injunction in the United States court, restraining Mr. Pease from selling it on the date advertised; hence the date of sale was postponed from time to time, until finally the injunction was dissolved, when, on March 21, 1862, in front of the old Massasoit House, at Atchison, the whole property was sold at public auction by the trustees and bought by Ben. Holladay, the sum paid being $150,000.* On the day of sale Holladay became the sole owner of the property, and there was an immediate reorganization. He afterwards operated the enterprise as the "Overland Stage Line." Mr. Pease was kept busy during the spring and summer of 1862 in settling up his business and paying the numerous bills as trustee for the time he was operating the line. In the fall of 1862 he was sent to Denver, upon the earnest request and appointment by Holladay, as agent in charge of the business at that place and of the branch lines beyond there, remaining in the service of the "Overland" until 1864. Mr. Pease died at Atchison, Kan., in the spring of 1901. ANDREW S. HUGHES, so long the efficient traffic manager of the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad Company, was one of the pioneers in the service of the overland stage line. He engaged with the Central Overland California and Pike's Peak Express Company in July, 1861, immediately following the beginning of the first daily overland mail service between the Missouri river and the Pacific coast. He received his first lessons in the overland express and stage business in the Denver office, under the veteran, Henry Carlyle, to whose desk he later succeeded. Employed in the office at Denver at the time were W. R. Likins, agent, Judge Steck, Billy McClelland, and Alfred Lockwood. Gen. Bela M. Hughes, general counsel for the stage company, and father of the subject of this sketch, "routed out" his son in 1862 and sent him back East to college, where he remained until 1863, when he returned to the West and was soon back on the *But that did not represent the whole amount paid, for Holladay liquidated a large number of debts that he assumed, to prevent litigation. He paid a considerable amount to employees that he was not legally hold for, to obtain peaceable possession of the property. As it was, some of the old employees of the Central Overland California and Pike's Peak Express Company helped themselves to stock and outfit and went west with them, saying that they were taking them for payment of indebtedness. |
plains, where he remained until 1864. In the meantime he was assistant agent in the office in Atchison at odd times, being a very useful man, capable of filling any position connected with the stage line. Later he joined John Hughes, Robert J. Spotswood and Amos Bissell in the purchase of the remnant of Wells, Fargo & Co.'s overland line; that is, all that was left of staging in Colorado. After the railroad had penetrated the so-called "Great American Desert" and was running cars into Denver, in the summer of 1870, that part of the overland stage line extending east to the Missouri river was wiped out and the remaining mountain routes were disposed of to Messrs. McClelland & Spotswood. The career of Mr. Hughes has been a busy one since he first went on the frontier and engaged with the Overland California Stage Company, in the early '60's. After the overland stages disappeared he was one of the early general passenger and ticket agents of the Denver, South Park & Pacific railway, in which position he remained until he retired and accepted a similar place with the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad Company, which he held for several years, until he was advanced to the more important and responsible position of traffic manager, which place he still occupies. Truthfully it can be said of Mr. Hughes that he is one of the old settlers of Denver. He first rode in on the stagecoach and saw the place when it was a settlement of a few score of rude buildings, and has since watched its building up until it has become one of the grandest and most imposing inland cities between the Atlantic and Pacific. W. W. LETSON, one of the early messengers, was born in South Carolina, April 2, 1836, where he lived until he reached his majority, when he went to Montgomery, Ala., and lived for some time. He then came North and, at the close of the Missouri-Kansas border strife, drifted into Kansas in 1859. During the latter part of December, 1859, he was employed by the Central Overland California and Pike's Peak Express Company as messenger, and ran for some months between the Missouri river and Denver, some of the time from St. Joseph and later from Atchison, continuing for a short time after the stage line passed into the control of Ben. Holladay, in the early '60's. Resigning his position as messenger in the fall of 1861, he was married at Granada, a station that had become prominent on the |
old pony express route, on Christmas, 1861, afterwards settling on the South Platte, at old Julesburg, where he bought out the mercantile firm of Thompson & Chrisman, remaining there only a few months, however, when he disposed of his stock of goods and returned to the States. He located in Nemaha county, Kan., at Granada, where, for more than five years the overland stages daily passed his place, and where he embarked in merchandising, later branching out into farming and stock-raising. While in the service of the stage and express company, Mr. Letson, like most of the other messenger boys on the line, had a number of exciting experiences with buffaloes and Indians. He was also lost on the plains in blizzards, and one dark night, while coming down the Platte, the stage, with driver and every passenger on board, was lost for several hours. The driver, fatigued from overwork, had fallen asleep and the team had wandered from the road, and the vehicle had got turned around and was actually going in the opposite direction, towards Denver. The driver at first would not be convinced that the team was headed in the wrong direction until his attention was called to the fact that the Platte river, instead of being on the left of the stage-coach, as it had been for several hundred miles, was now plainly to be seen on the right side. When this was shown him there was no longer on his part a chance for prolonging the argument. During the early part of the civil war, while he was coming from Denver on one of his trips in charge of a valuable treasure, he was cautioned by the agent of the stage company at Fort Kearney to be on the alert--that it was feared that a squad of rebels, under the leadership of Col. M. Jeff. Thompson, of St, Joseph, would intercept them and likely plunder the express and passengers at some lonely spot on the Kickapoo Indian reserva-  W. W. LETSON. |
tion not far west of Atchison. When the east-bound stage reached the Big Blue river and the stream was crossed, at Marysville, it was a day of intense anxiety for him, as well as by all the passengers on the coach, for in their possession were several thousand dollars in gold. Luckily for all on the old Concord coach, there was no raid made, and the messenger as well as all the passengers breathed considerably easier when they got in sight of their destination on the Missouri river, and shortly afterward the vehicle drew up in front of the stage company's headquarters. Mr. Letson, in the overland days, was known as "Bill" Letson, for short. He spent over ten years of his pioneer life in Kansas at Granada, where he built up a lucrative business among the ranchmen and plainsmen, for a number of years enjoying quite an extensive trade from the Kickapoo and Pottawatomie Indians. When the Rock Island road crossed the Missouri river and invaded Kansas, in the later '80's, he located on the new road at the now brisk town of Horton, where he has from the first been recognized as one of its leading citizens. In 1897 he was honored by his fellow townsmen by being chosen mayor of the city of Horton, a position he filled with honor to himself and satisfaction to his constituents. He is a well-preserved man and substantially fixed financially, being one of the largest real-estate owners in his town. A corner of one of his farms, a short distance west of Kennekuk, and in plain sight of his home, is crossed by the old stage road over which, forty years ago, the coaches started out from Atchison, and arrived there daily from California. He is a pleasant conversationalist, and greatly enjoys talking with old friends concerning the pioneer staging days. The writer, who was acquainted with him nearly forty years ago on the "Overland," recently met him for the first time in nearly thirty years, and for two or three hours the two greatly enjoyed themselves talking over old friendship and scenes and events in the almost-forgotten days before railroads were built west of the Missouri river. In addition to being a leading farmer, Mr. Letson is also interested in the banking business in Oklahoma. He is vice-president of the Bank of Enid, Okla., his son-in-law, Mr. 0. J. Fleming, being its president. His son, Frank H. Letson, is cashier. He has three sons, one daughter, and two grandchildren. He has lost one child, and his wife, an affectionate companion and a most estimable lady, died at Horton, Kan., November 6, 1899. |
One of the faithful messengers in early staging days was CHESTER THOMAS, JR., who went into the employ of the Central Overland California and Pike's Peak Express Company. He came west from Towanda, Pa., to Kansas in 1857, locating at Auburn, Shawnee county. I first met him and made his acquaintance when we were making our second trips to Kansas, and were together for nine days on a trip up the Missouri river on the steamboat Omaha from St. Louis to Kansas City, in the fall of 1858. He was known as "Chet" Thomas, jr., his father being called "Uncle Chester." Before coming to Kansas, Chet had been on a surveying expedition in the valley of the Red River of the North, where he spent some months, suffering many hardships. While employed as messenger, in 1860-'61, his run first was from St. Joseph to Denver; afterwards from Atchison west. After retiring from the stage and express line he located in Topeka, in the early `60's, where he was shortly elected sheriff of Shawnee county, and re-elected; afterwards, for two terms, he held the office of county treasurer, in both positions being an honest, capable and obliging officer. No man in the city of Topeka was ever more popular or had more ardent friends than Chet Thomas, jr., where he lived the greater part of his life, having secured a choice homestead and amassed a valuable estate. He was born in Troy, Bradford county, Pennsylvania, April 10, 1837, and died at his suburban home in Oakland, adjoining Topeka, August 15, 1888, at the age of 51 years. His funeral was one of the largest ever held in the capital city of Kansas. JOHN T. GILMER, the senior member of the firm of Gilmer & Salisbury, was known as Jack Gilmer. He was a live and pushing fellow, driving on the Platte for Ben. Holladay when I knew him, in the early '60's, when he was staging. Previously he had been employed for some time on the plains "whacking" mules and oxen for the noted firm of Russell, Majors & Waddell. In 1864 he was made an agent on the Bitter Creek division. As a stage man he was one of the best, and, in the prosperous days of staging in the Northwest, he amassed a fortune. When the overland line passed from the ownership of Holladay, Wells, Fargo & Co. operated it until the railroad was finished. The completion of the Union Pacific and the development of the mining region in the Northwest necessitated, the building of new stage |
lines in Montana and Idaho. The country was rapidly settling up and new mining camps and towns were being started. With $70,000 worth of the finest stage-coaches made, Gilmer & Salisbury were promptly at the front, and did an immense business and made large sums of money. After his several years' staging in the Northwest--railroads having built in and usurped his business there--Gilmer engaged in mining in the Black Hills in the later '70's, and, later, followed mining for some time in Nevada, Arizona, and California. While he amassed a fortune in staging, he probably lost in mining, for in 1884 he was again in the stage business, being associated with lines in Utah, Nevada, and on the Pacific slope. He died at Salt Lake in the later '90's, where his widow now resides. ALEX. BENHAM was a favorite with everybody on the great stage line. He was an experienced and capable man, and for a long time a well-known division agent on the important branch line between old Julesburg and Denver, in the early '60's. He also ran awhile as messenger. For several years in the pony-express days he was in some capacity associated with the company, and was always faithful to the trusts reposed in him. GEORGE K. OTIS, of New York city, a very capable and experienced business man, was for nearly three years in the service of the stage line. He was in Holladay's employ from October, 1861, to September, 1864, as financial agent, auditor, purchaser of supplies, general superintendent, etc. Otis was succeeded by William Reynolds, an experienced and capable stage man. GEORGE M. LLOYD* was an honored and trusted employee of the overland mail line during nearly the whole of Ben. Holladay's connection with it. He first was assistant agent at Atchison, Kan., and afterwards agent at Fort Kearney, the junction of the three lines, from Atchison, Omaha, and Nebraska City. JOHN N. TODD, * a very capable and experienced man, was agent for the Holladay Overland Mail and Express Company at Boise City, Idaho. This position, in the palmy days of the Owyhee and Idaho City mines, was regarded one of the most important offices on, the, stage line. *See portrait, on page 75. |
MAJ. OLIVER P. WIGGINS, a Canadian by birth, and formerly a servant of the Hudson Bay Company, was a pioneer on the Western frontier. He was in what is now Colorado as early as 1834. For some time in the early days he was engaged with the American Fur Company, being stationed at Fort St. John. He was with Fremont during one of the Pathfinder's explorations across the continent in the early '40's, with the noted guide, Kit Carson. In the '60's, he was well known on the overland stage line, for some time being in charge of the eating station at Fort Kearney, one of the best on the line. During the Indian raids along the Platte in the later '60's, a large amount of property belonging to Major Wiggins was destroyed. Before the stage line had been superseded by the railroad, he had settled in Colorado, and became a wealthy citizen, but he afterwards met with financial reverses and lost everything. During the past few years he has been one of the faithful watchmen in the Government building at Denver. HUGO RICHARDS* was for some time connected with the stage line, being one of Holladay's faithful employees in charge of the office at Atchison in later years, where he remained until the latter part of 1866, the date of abandonment of the division extending from Atchison to Fort Kearney. THOMAS P. BEACH and his brother, A. T. BEACH, were among the trusted and efficient employees on the stage line. They succeeded David Street, the vast amount of business on the line in the later years of overland staging requiring two paymasters. Mr. Street then acted as auditor and supervised the paying. In connection with the building of telegraph lines west of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, the pioneer and frontiersman, HENRY M. PORTER, of Denver, deserves something more than a passing notice. He was born at Lancaster, Pa., November 2, 1840. His parents moved to Jefferson City, Mo., in the same year, when the country was filled with savages. From there the family moved, in 1854, onto a farm in Adair county, where he remained four years, when he began telegraph building. Not long after the establishment of the original Overland Mail *See portrait, on page 75. |
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