The Story of the Pony Express - Chapters VII-IX




Chapter VII 
Anecdotes of the Trail and Honor Roll 
 
No detailed account of the Pony Express would be complete without 
mentioning the adventures of Robert Haslam, in those days called "Pony 
Bob," and William F. Cody, who is known to fame and posterity as 
"Buffalo Bill." 
 
Haslam's banner performance came about in a matter-of-fact way, as is 
generally the case with deeds of heroism. On a certain trip during the 
Ute raids mentioned in the last chapter, he stopped at Reed's Station on 
the Carson River in Nevada, and found no change of horses, since all the 
animals had been appropriated by the white men of the vicinity for a 
campaign against the Indians. Haslam therefore fed the horse he was 
riding, and after a short rest started for Bucklands(29), the next station 
which was fifteen miles down the river. He had already ridden seventy-five 
miles and was due to lay off at the latter place. But on arriving, his 
successor, a man named Johnson Richardson, was unable or indisposed to go 
on with the mail(30). It happened that Division Superintendent W. C. 
Marley was at Bucklands when Haslam arrived, and, since Richardson would 
not go on duty, Marley offered "Pony Bob" fifty dollars bonus if he would 
take up the route. Haslam promptly accepted the proposal, and within ten 
minutes was off, armed with a revolver and carbine, on his new journey. He 
at first had a lonesome ride of thirty-five miles to the Sink of the 
Carson. Reaching the place without mishap, he changed mounts and hurried 
on for thirty-seven miles over the alkali wastes and through the sand 
until he came to Cold Springs. Here he again changed horses and once more 
dashed on, this time for thirty miles without stopping, till Smith's Creek 
was reached where he was relieved by J. G. Kelley. "Bob" had thus ridden 
one hundred and eighty-five miles without stopping except to change 
mounts. At Smith's Creek he slept nine hours and then started back with 
the return mail. On reaching Cold Springs once more, he found himself in 
the midst of tragedy. The Indians had been there. The horses had been 
stolen. All was in ruins. Nearby lay the corpse of the faithful station-
keeper. Small cheer for a tired horse and rider! Haslam watered his steed 
and pounded ahead without rest or refreshment. Before he had covered half 
the distance to the next station, darkness was falling. The journey was 
enshrouded with danger. On every side were huge clumps of sage-bush which 
would offer excellent chances for savages to lie in ambush. The howling of 
wolves added to the dolefulness of the trip. And haunting him continuously 
was the thought of the ruined little station and the stiffened corpse 
behind him. But pony riders were men of courage and nerve, and Bob was no 
exception. He arrived at Sand Springs safely; but here there was to be no 
rest nor delay. After reporting the outrage he had just seen, he advised 
the station man of his danger, and, after changing horses, induced the 
latter to accompany him on to the Sink of the Carson, which move doubtless 
saved the latter's life. Reaching the Carson, they found a badly 
frightened lot of men who had been attacked by the Indians only a few 
hours previously. A party of fifteen with plenty of arms and ammunition 
had gathered in the adobe station, which was large enough also to 
accommodate as, many horses. Nearby was a cool spring of water, and, thus 
fortified, they were to remain, in a state of siege, if necessary, until 
the marauders withdrew from that vicinity. Of course they implored Haslam 
to remain with them and not risk his life venturing away with the mail. 
But the mail must go; and the schedule, hard as it was, must be 
maintained. "Bob" had no conception of fear, and so he galloped away, 
after an hour's rest. And back into Bucklands he came unharmed, after 
having suffered only three and a half hours of delay. Superintendent 
Marley, who was still present when the daring rider returned, at once 
raised his bonus from fifty to one hundred dollars. 
 
Nor was this all of Haslam's great achievement. The west-bound mail would 
soon arrive, and there was nobody to take his regular run. So after 
resting an hour and a half, he resumed the saddle and hurried back along 
his old trail, over the Sierras to Friday's Station. Then "Bob" rested 
after having ridden three hundred and eighty miles with scarcely eleven 
hours of lay-off, and within a very few hours of regular schedule time all 
the way. In speaking of this performance afterwards, Haslam(31) modestly 
admitted that he was "rather tired," but that "the excitement of the trip 
had braced him up to stand the journey." 
 
The most widely known of all the pony riders is William F. Cody - usually 
called "Bill," who in early life resided in Kansas and was raised amid the 
exciting scenes of frontier life. Cody had an unusually dangerous route 
between Red Buttes and Three Crossings. The latter place was on the 
Sweetwater River, and derived its name from the fact that the stream which 
followed the bed of a rocky cañon, had to be crossed three times within a 
space of sixty yards. The water coming down from the mountains, was always 
icy cold and the current swift, deep, and treacherous. The whole bottom of 
the cañon was often submerged, and in attempting to follow its course 
along the channel of the stream, both horse and rider were liable to 
plunge at any time into some abysmal whirlpool. Besides the excitement 
which the Three Crossings and an Indian country furnished, Cody's trail 
ran through a region that was often frequented by desperadoes. 
Furthermore, he had to ford the North Platte at a point where the stream 
was half a mile in width and in places twelve feet deep. Though the 
current was at times slow, dangers from quicksand were always to be feared 
on these prairie rivers. Cody, then but a youth, had to surmount these 
obstacles and cover his trip at an average of fifteen miles an hour. 
 
Cody entered the Pony Express service just after the line had been 
organized. At Julesburg he met George Chrisman, an old friend who was head 
wagon-master for Russell, Majors, and Waddell's freighting department. 
Chrisman was at the time acting as an agent for the express line, and, out 
of deference to the youth, he hired him temporarily to ride the division 
then held by a pony man named Trotter. It was a short route, one of the 
shortest on the system, aggregating only forty-five miles, and with three 
relays of horses each way. Cody, who had been accustomed to the saddle all 
his young life, had no trouble in following the schedule, but after 
keeping the run several weeks, the lad was relieved by the regular 
incumbent, and then went east, to Leavenworth, where he fell in with 
another old friend, Lewis Simpson, then acting as wagon boss and fitting 
up at Atchison a wagon train of supplies for the old stage line at Fort 
Laramie and points beyond. Acting through Simpson, Cody obtained a letter 
of recommendation from Mr. Russell, the head of the firm, addressed to 
Jack Slade, Superintendent of the division between Julesburg and Rocky 
Ridge, with headquarters at Horseshoe Station, thirty-six miles west of 
Fort Laramie, in what is now Wyoming. Armed with this letter, young Cody 
accompanied Simpson's wagon-train to Laramie, and soon found 
Superintendent Slade. The superintendent, observing the lad's tender years 
and frail stature, was skeptical of his ability to serve as a pony rider; 
but on learning that Cody was the boy who had already given satisfactory 
service as a substitute some months before, at once engaged him and 
assigned him to the perilous run of seventy-six miles between Red Buttes 
and Three Crossings. For some weeks all went well. Then, one day when he 
reached his terminal at Three Crossings, Cody found that his successor who 
was to have taken the mail out, had been killed the night before. As there 
was no extra rider available, it fell to young Cody to fill the dead 
courier's place until a successor could be procured. The lad was undaunted 
and anxious for the added responsibility. Within a moment he was off on a 
fresh horse for Rocky Ridge, eighty-five miles away. Notwithstanding the 
dangers and great fatigue of the trip, Cody rode safely from Three 
Crossings to his terminal and returned with the eastbound mail, going back 
over his own division and into Red Buttes without delay or mishap - an 
aggregate run of three hundred and twenty-two miles. This was probably the 
longest continuous performance without formal rest period in the history 
of this or any other courier service. 
 
Not long afterward, Cody was chased by a band of Sioux Indians while 
making one of his regular trips. The savages were armed with revolvers, 
and for a few minutes made it lively for the young messenger. But the 
superior speed and endurance of his steed soon told; lying flat on the 
animal's neck, he quickly distanced his assailants and thundered into 
Sweetwater, the next station, ahead of schedule. Here he found - as so 
often happened in the history of the express service - that the place 
had been raided, the keeper slain, and the horses driven off. There was 
nothing to do but drive his tired pony twelve miles further to Ploutz 
Station, where he got a fresh horse, briefly reported what he had 
observed, and completed his run without mishap. 
 
On another occasion(32) it became mysteriously rumored that a certain Pony 
Express pouch would carry a large sum of currency. Knowing that there was 
great likelihood of some bandits or "road agents" as they were commonly 
called getting wind of the consignment and attempting a holdup, Cody hit 
upon a little emergency ruse. He provided himself with an extra mochila 
which he stuffed with waste papers and placed over the saddle in the 
regular position. The pouch containing the currency was hidden under a 
special saddle blanket. With his customary revolver loaded and ready, Cody 
then started. His suspicions were soon confirmed, for on reaching a 
particularly secluded spot, two highwaymen stepped from concealment, and 
with leveled rifles compelled the boy to stop, at the same time demanding 
the letter pouch. Holding up his hands as ordered, Cody began to 
remonstrate with the thugs for robbing the express, at the same time 
declaring to them that they would hang for their meanness if they carried 
out their plans. In reply to this they told Cody that they would take 
their own chances. They knew what he carried and they wanted it. They had 
no particular desire to harm him, but unless he handed over the pouch 
without delay they would shoot him full of holes, and take it anyhow. 
Knowing that to resist meant certain death Cody began slowly to unfasten 
the dummy pouch, still protesting with much indignation. Finally, after 
having loosed it, he raised the pouch and hurled it at the head off the 
nearest outlaw, who dodged, half amused at the young fellow's spirit. Both 
men were thus taken slightly off their guard, and that instant the rider 
acted like a flash. Whipping out his revolver, he disabled the farther 
villain; and before the other, who had stooped to recover the supposed 
mail sack, could straighten up or use a weapon, Cody dug the spurs into 
his horse, knocked him down, rode over him and was gone. Before the half-
stunned robber could recover himself to shoot, horse and rider were out of 
range and running like mad for the next station, where they arrived ahead 
of schedule. 
 
The following is a partial list, so far as is known(33), of the men who 
rode the Pony Express and contributed to the lasting fame of the 
enterprise: 
 
Baughn, Melville 
Beatley, Jim 
"Boston" 
Boulton, William 
Brink, James W. 
Burnett, John 
Bucklin, Jimmy 
Carr, William 
Carrigan, William 
Cates, Bill 
Clark, Jimmy 
Cliff, Charles 
Cody, William F. 
Egan, Major 
Ellis, J. K. 
Faust, H. J. 
Fisher, John 
Frey, Johnnie 
Gentry, Jim 
Gilson, Jim 
Hamilton, Sam 
Haslam, Robert 
Hogan (first name missing) 
Huntington, Let 
"Irish Tom" 
James, William 
Jenkins, Will D. 
Kelley, Jay G. 
Keetley, Jack 
"Little Yank" 
Martin, Bob 
McCall, J. G. 
McDonald, James 
McNaughton, Jim 
Moore, Jim 
Perkins, Josh 
Rand, Theodore 
Richardson, Johnson 
Riles, Bart 
Rising, Don C. 
Roff, Harry 
Spurr, George 
Thacher, George 
Towne, George 
Wallace, Henry 
Westcott, Dan 
Zowgaltz, Jose. 
 
Many of these men were rough and unlettered. Many died deaths of violence. 
The bones of many lie in unknown graves. Some doubtless lie unburied 
somewhere in the great West, in the winning of which their lives were 
lost. Yet be it always remembered, that in the history of the American 
nation they played an important part. They were bold-hearted citizen 
knights to whom is due the honors of uncrowned kings.
 
(29) Afterwards named Fort Churchill. This ride took place in the summer 
of 1860. 
 
(30) Some reports say that Richardson was stricken with fear. That he was 
probably suffering from overwrought nerves, resulting from excessive risks 
which his run had involved, is a more correct inference. This is the only 
case on record of a pony messenger failing to respond to duty, unless 
killed or disabled. 
 
(31) After the California Pony Express was abandoned, Bob rode for Wells 
Fargo & Co., between Friday's Station and Virginia City, Nevada, a 
distance of one hundred miles. He seems to have enjoyed horseback riding, 
for he made this roundtrip journey in twenty-four hours. When the Central 
Pacific R. R. was built, and this pony line abandoned, Haslam rode for six 
months a twenty-three mile division between Virginia City and Reno, 
traveling the distance in less than one hour. To accomplish this feat, he 
used a relay of fifteen horses. He was afterwards transfered to Idaho 
where he continued in a similar capacity on a one hundred mile run before 
quitting the service for a less exciting vocation. 
 
(32) Inman & Cody, Salt Lake Trail. 
 
(33) Root and Connelley's Overland Stage to California.



Chapter VIII 
Early Overland Mail Routes 
 
In the history of overland transportation in America, the Pony Express is 
but one in a series of many enterprises. As emphasized at the beginning of 
this book, its importance lay in its opportuneness; in the fact that it 
appeared at the psychological moment, and fitted into the course of events 
at a critical period, prior to the completion of the telegraph; and when 
some form of rapid transit between the Missouri River and the Pacific 
Coast was absolutely needed. To give adequate setting to this story, a 
brief account of the leading overland routes, of which the Pony Express 
was but one, seems proper. 
 
Before the middle of the nineteenth century, three great thoroughfares had 
been established from the Missouri, westward across the continent. These 
were the Santa Fe, the Salt Lake, and the Oregon trails. All had important 
branches and lesser stems, and all are today followed by important 
railroads - a splendid testimonial to the ability of the pioneer 
pathfinders in selecting the best routes. 
 
Of these trails, that leading to Santa Fe was the oldest, having been 
fully established before 1824. The Salt Lake and Oregon routes date some 
twenty years later, coming into existence in the decade between 1840 and 
1850. It is incidentally with the Salt Lake trail that the story of the 
Pony Express mainly deals. 
 
The Mormon settlement of Utah in 1847-48, followed almost immediately by 
the discovery of gold in California, led to the first mail route(34) 
across the country, west of the Missouri. This was known as the "Great 
Salt Lake Mail," and the first contract for transporting it was let July 
1, 1850, to Samuel H. Woodson of Independence, Missouri. By terms of this 
agreement, Woodson was to haul the mail monthly from Independence on the 
Missouri River to Salt Lake City, twelve hundred miles, and return. 
Woodson later arranged with some Utah citizens to carry a mail between 
Salt Lake City and Fort Laramie, the service connecting with the 
Independence mail at the former place. This supplementary line was put 
into operation August 1, 1851. 
 
In the early fifties, while the California gold craze was still on, a 
monthly route was laid out between Sacramento and Salt Lake City(35). This 
service was irregular and unreliable; and since the growing population of 
California demanded a direct overland route, a four year monthly contract 
was granted to W. F. McGraw, a resident of Maryland. His subsidy from 
Congress was $13,500.00 a year. In those days it often took a month to get 
mail from Independence to Salt Lake City, and about six weeks for the 
entire trip. Although McGraw charged $180.00 fare for each passenger to 
Salt Lake City, and $300.00 to California, he failed, in 1856. The 
unexpired contract was then let to the Mormon firm of Kimball & Co., and 
they kept the route in operation until the Mormon troubles of 1857 when 
the Government abrogated the agreement. 
 
In the summer of 1857, General Albert Sidney Johnston, later of Civil War 
fame, was sent out with a Federal army of five thousand men to invade 
Utah. After a rather fruitless campaign, Johnston wintered at Fort 
Bridger, in what is southwestern Wyoming, not far from the Utah line. 
During this interval, army supplies were hauled from Fort Leavenworth with 
only a few way stations for changing teams. This improvised line, carrying 
mail occasionally, which went over the old Mormon trail via South Pass, 
and Forts Kearney, Laramie, and Bridger, was for many months the only 
service available for this entire region. 
 
The next contract for getting mail into Utah was let in 1858 to John M. 
Hockaday of Missouri. Johnston's army was then advancing from winter 
quarters at Bridger toward the valley of Great Salt Lake, and the 
Government wanted mail oftener then once a month. In consideration of 
$190,000.00 annually which was to be paid in monthly installments, 
Hockaday agreed to put on a weekly mail. This route, which ran from St. 
Joseph to Salt Lake City, was later combined with a line that had been 
running from Salt Lake to Sacramento, thus making a continuous weekly 
route to and from California. For the combined route the Government paid 
$320,000.00 annually. Its actual yearly receipts were $5,142.03. 
 
The discovery of gold in the vicinity of Denver in the summer of 1858 
caused another wild excitement and a great rush which led to the 
establishment in the summer of 1859 of the Leavenworth and Pike's Peak 
Express, from the Missouri to Denver. As then traveled, this route was six 
hundred and eighty-seven miles in length. The line as operated by Russell, 
Majors, and Waddell, and that same year they took over Hockaday's 
business. As has already been stated, the new firm of Pony Express fame - 
called the Central Overland California and Pike's Peak Express Co. - 
consolidated the old California line, which had been run in two sections, 
East and West, with the Denver line. In addition to the Pony Express it 
carried on a big passenger and freighting business to and from Denver and 
California. 
 
Turning now to the lines that were placed in commission farther South. The 
first overland stage between Santa Fe and Independence was started in May, 
1849. This was also a monthly service, and by 1850 it was fully equipped 
with the famous Concord coaches, which vehicles were soon to be used on 
every overland route in the West. Within five years, this route, which was 
eight hundred fifty miles in length and followed the Santa Fe trail, now 
the route of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe railroad, had attained 
great importance. The Government finally awarded it a yearly subsidy of 
$10,990.00, but as the trail had little or no military protection except 
at Fort Union, New Mexico, and for hundreds of miles was exposed to the 
attacks of prairie Indians, the contractors complained because of heavy 
losses and sought relief of the Post Office and War Departments. Finally 
they were released from their old contract and granted a new one paying 
$25,000.00 annually, but even then they fell behind $5,000.00 per year. 
 
By special act passed August 3, 1854, Congress laid out a monthly mail 
route from Neosho, Missouri, to Albuquerque, New Mexico, with an annual 
subsidy of $17,000.00. Since the Mexican War this region had come to be 
of great commercial and military importance. A little later, in March 
1855, the route was changed by the Government to run monthly from 
Independence and Kansas City, Missouri, to Stockton, California, via 
Albuquerque, and the contractors were awarded a yearly bonus of 
$80,000.00 This line was also a financial failure. 
 
The early overland routes were granted large subsidies and the privilege 
of charging high rates for passengers and freight. To the casual observer 
it may seem strange that practically all these lines operated at a 
disastrous loss. It should be noted however, that they covered an immense 
territory, many portions of which were occupied by hostile Indians. It is 
no easy task to move military forces and supplies thousands of miles 
through a wilderness. Furthermore, the Indians were elusive and hard to 
find when sought by a considerable force. They usually managed to attack 
when and where they were least expected. Consequently, if protection were 
secured at all, it usually fell to the lot of the stage companies to 
police their own lines, which was expensive business. Often they waged, 
single-handed, Indian campaigns of considerable importance, and the 
frontiersmen whom they could assemble for such duty were sometimes more 
effective than the soldiers who were unfamiliar with the problems of 
Indian warfare. 
 
Added to these difficulties were those incident to severe weather, deep 
snow, and dangerous streams, since regular highways and bridges were 
almost unknown in the regions traversed. Not to mention the handicap and 
expense which all these natural obstacles entailed, business on many 
lines was light, and revenues low. 
 
News from Washington about the creation of the new territory of Utah - in 
September 1850 - was not received in Salt Lake City until January 1851. 
The report reached Utah by messenger from California, having come around 
the continent by way of the Isthmus of Panama. The winters of 1851-52, and 
1852-53 were frightfully severe and such expensive delays were not 
uncommon. The November mail of 1856 was compelled to winter in the 
mountains. 
 
In the winter of 1856-57 no steady service could be maintained between 
Salt Lake City and Missouri on account of bad weather. Finally, after a 
long delay, the postmaster at Salt Lake City contracted with the local 
firm of Little, Hanks, and Co., to get a special mail to and from 
Independence. This was accomplished, but the ordeal required seventy-eight 
days, during which men and animals suffered terribly from cold and hunger. 
The firm received $1,500.00 for its trouble. The Salt Lake route returned 
to the Government a yearly income of only $5,000.00. 
 
The route from Independence to Stockton, which cost Uncle Sam $80,000.00 
a year, collected in nine months only $1,255.00 in postal revenues, 
whereupon it was abolished July 1st, 1859. 
 
By the close of 1859 there were at least six different mail routes across 
the continent from the Missouri to the Pacific Coast. They were costing 
the Government a total of $2,184,696.00 and returning $339,747.34. The 
most expensive of these lines was the New York and New Orleans Steamship 
Company route, which ran semi-monthly from New York to San Francisco via 
Panama. This service cost $738,250.00 annually and brought in $229,979.69. 
While the steamship people did not have the frontier dangers to confront 
them, they were operating over a roundabout course, several thousand miles 
in extent, and the volume of their postal business was simply inadequate 
to meet the expense of maintaining their business(36). 
 
The steamer schedule was about four weeks in either direction, and the 
rapidly increasing population of California soon demanded, in the early 
fifties, a faster and more frequent service. Agitation to that end was 
thus started, and during the last days of Pierce's administration, in 
March 1857, the "Overland Mail" bill was passed by Congress and signed by 
the President. This act provided that the Postmaster-General should 
advertise for bids until June 30 following: "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 semi-monthly, $450,000 for weekly, 
or $600,000 for semi-weekly service to be performed semi-monthly, weekly, 
or semi-weekly at the option of the Postmaster-General." The 
specifications also stipulated a twenty-five day schedule, good coaches, 
and four-horse teams. 
 
Bids were opened July 1, 1857. Nine were submitted, and most of them 
proposed starting from St. Louis, thence going overland in a southwesterly 
direction usually via Albuquerque. Only one bid proposed the more 
northerly Central route via Independence, Fort Laramie, and Salt Lake. The 
Postoffice Department was opposed to this trail, and its attitude had been 
confirmed by the troubles of winter travel in the past. In fact this route 
had been a failure for six consecutive winters, due to the deep snows of 
the high mountains which it crossed. 
 
On July 2, 1857, the Postmaster General announced the acceptance of bid 
No. "12,587" which stipulated a forked route from St. Louis, Missouri and 
from Memphis, Tennessee, the lines converging at Little Rock, Arkansas. 
Thence the course was by way of Preston, Texas; or as nearly as might be 
found advisable, to the best point in crossing the Rio Grande above El 
Paso, and not far from Fort Filmore; thence along the new road then being 
opened and constructed by the Secretary of the Interior to Fort Yuma, 
California; thence through the best passes and along the best valleys for 
safe and expeditious staging to San Francisco. On September is following, 
a six year contract was let for this route. The successful firm at once 
became known as the "Butterfield Overland Mail Company." Among the firm 
members were John Butterfield, Wm. B. Dinsmore, D. N. Barney, Wm. G. Fargo 
and Hamilton Spencer. The extreme length of the route agreed upon from St. 
Louis to San Francisco was two thousand seven hundred and twenty-nine 
miles; the most southern point was six hundred miles south of South Pass 
on the old Salt Lake route. Because of the out-of-the-way southern course 
followed, two and one half days more than necessary were nominally-
required in making the journey. Yet the postal authorities believed that 
this would be more than offset by the southerly course being to a great 
extent free from winter snows. 
 
On September 15, 1858, after elaborate preparations, the overland mails 
started from San Francisco and St. Louis on the twenty-five day schedule 
- which was three days less than that of the water route. The postage rate 
was ten cents for each half ounce; the passenger fare was one hundred 
dollars in gold. The first trip was made in twenty-four days, and in each 
of the terminal cities big celebrations were held in honor of the event. 
And yet today, four splendid lines of railway cover this distance in about 
three days! 
 
These stages - to use the west-bound route as an illustration - traveled 
in an elliptical course through Springfield, Missouri, and Fayetteville, 
Arkansas, to Van Buren, Arkansas, where the Memphis mail was received. 
Continuing in a southwesterly course, they passed through Indian Territory 
and the Choctaw Indian reserve - now Oklahoma - crossed the Red River at 
Calvert's Ferry, then on through Sherman, Fort Chadbourne and Fort 
Belknap, Texas, through Guadaloupe Pass to El Paso; thence up the Rio 
Grande River through the Mesilla Valley, and into western New Mexico - now 
Arizona to Tucson. Then the journey led up the Gila River to Arizona City, 
across the Mojave desert in Southern California and finally through the 
San Joaquin Valley to San Francisco. 
 
Today a traveler could cover nearly the same route, leaving St. Louis over 
the Frisco Railroad, transferring to the Texas Pacific at Fort Worth, and 
taking the Southern Pacific at El Paso for the remainder of the trip. 
 
As has been shown, the outbreak of the Civil War in the spring of 1861 
made it necessary for the Federal Government to transfer this big and 
important route further north to get it beyond the latitude of the 
Confederacy. Hence the Southern route was formally abandoned(37) on March 
12, 1861, and the equipment removed to the Central or Salt Lake trail 
where a daily service was inaugurated. About three months was necessary to 
move all the outfits and in July 1861, the first daily overland mail - 
running six times a week - was started between St. Joseph and Placerville, 
California, 1,920 miles by the way of Forts Kearney, Bridger, and Salt 
Lake City. 
 
The Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad had been built into St. Joseph and 
was doing business by February 1859. For some time that city enjoyed the 
honor of being the eastern stage terminal; but within a year the railroad 
was extended to Atchison, about twenty miles down the stream. The latter 
place is situated on a bend of the river fourteen miles west of St. 
Joseph, and so the terminal honors soon passed to Atchison since its 
westerly location shortened the haul. 
 
In transferring the Butterfield line from the Southern to the Central 
route, it was merged with the Central Overland California and Pike's Peak 
Express Company which already included the Leavenworth and Pike's Peak 
Express Company, under the leadership of General Bela M. Hughes. This line 
was known to the Government as the Central Overland California Route. As 
soon as the transfer was completed, through California stages were started 
on an eighteen day schedule a full week less time than had been required 
by the Butterfield route, and ten days less than that of the Panama 
steamers. This was the most famous of all the stage routes, and except for 
three interruptions, due to Indian outbreaks in 1862, 1864, and 1865, it 
did business continuously for several years. 
 
Within a few months came another change of proprietorship, the route 
passing on a mortgage foreclosure into the hands of Benjamin Holladay, a 
famous stage line promoter, late in 1861. Early the following year 
Holladay reorganized the management under the name of the Overland Stage 
Line. This seems to have been what today is technically known as a holding 
company; for until the expiration of the old Butterfield contract in 
1863(38), he allowed the business east of Salt Lake City to be carried on 
by the old C. O. C. & P. P. Co.; west of Salt Lake, the new Overland Line 
allowed, or sublet the through traffic to a vigorous subsidiary, the 
Pioneer Stage Line(39). 
 
Holladay was fortunate in securing a new mail contract for the Central 
route which he now controlled. For supplying a six day letter mail service 
from the Missouri to Placerville together with a way mail to and from 
Denver and Salt Lake City, he was paid $1,000,000 a year for the three 
years beginning July 1, 1861. At the expiration of this period he was to 
get $840,000. 
 
In the meantime gold was discovered in Idaho and Montana, and Holladay, 
encouraged by his big subsidy from the Government, put stage lines into 
Virginia City, Montana, and Boise City, Idaho. 
 
In 1866 the Butterfield Overland Despatch, an express and fast freight 
line, was started above the Smoky Hill route from Topeka and Leavenworth 
across Kansas to Denver. Within a short time this organization, mainly 
because of the heavy expense caused by Indian depredations, and was 
consolidated with the Holladay Company. Just prior to this transfer, Mr. 
Holladay received from the Colorado Territorial legislature a charter 
for the "Holladay Overland Mail and Express Company," which was the full 
and formal name of the new concern. This corporation now owned and 
controlled stage lines aggregating thirty-three hundred miles. It brought 
the service up to the highest point of efficiency and used only the best 
animals and vehicles it was possible to obtain. 
 
In addition to his federal mail bonus, Holladay had the following rates 
for passenger traffic in force: 
 
In 1863, from Atchison to Denver $75.00 
 
In 1863, from Atchison to Salt Lake City $150.00 
 
In 1863, from Atchison to Placerville $225.00 
 
In 1865, on account of the rise of gold and the depreciation of currency, 
these rates were increased; the fare from the Missouri River to Denver was 
changed to $175.00; to Salt Lake $350.00. The California rate varied from 
$400.00 to $500.00. A year later the fare to Virginia City, Montana, was 
fixed at $350.00 and the rate to Salt Lake City reduced to $225.00. 
 
These high rates and Indian dangers did not seem to check the desire on 
the part of the public to make the overland trip. Stages were almost 
always crowded, and it was usually necessary for one to apply for 
reservations several days in advance. 
 
Late in the year 1866, Holladay's entire properties(40) were purchased by 
Wells Fargo and Co. This was a new concern, recently chartered by 
Colorado, which had been quietly gaining power. Within a short time it had 
exclusive control of practically all the stage, express, and freighting 
business in the West and this business it held. 
 
Meanwhile the overland stage and freight lines were rapidly shortening on 
account of the building of the Pacific railroads, and the terminals of the 
through routes became merely the temporary ends of the fast growing 
railway lines. By the early autumn of 1866, the Kansas Pacific had reached 
Junction City, Kansas, and the Union Pacific was at Fort Kearney, 
Nebraska. The golden era of the overland stage business was from 1858 to 
1866. After that, the old through routes were but fragments "between the 
tracks" of the Central Pacific and Union Pacific roads which were building 
East and West toward each other. 
 
Wells Fargo & Co., however, clung to these fragments until the lines met 
on May 10th, 1869, and a continuous transcontinental railroad was 
completed. Then they turned their attention to organizing mountain stage 
and express lines in the railroadless regions of the West, - some of 
which still exist. And they also turned their energies to the railway 
express business, in which capacity this great firm, the last of the old 
stage companies, is now known the world over. 

(34) Authority for Early Mail Routes is Root and Connelley's Overland 
Stage to California. 
 
(35) The reader will keep in mind that during the early days of California 
history, practically all communication between that locality and the East 
was carried on by steamship from New York via Panama. 
 
(36) In June, 1860, Congress got into trouble with this company over 
postal compensations. The steamship company, it appears, thought its 
remuneration too low and it further protested that the diversion of mail 
traffic, due to the daily Overland Stage Line and the Pony Express would 
reduce its revenues still further. Congress finally adjourned without 
effecting a settlement, and the mail, which was far too heavy for the 
overland facilities to handle at that time, was piling up by the ton 
awaiting shipment. Matters were getting serious when Cornelius Vanderbilt 
came to the Government's relief and agreed to furnish steamer service 
until Congress assembled in March, 1861, provided the Federal authorities 
would assure him "a fair and adequate compensation." This agreement was 
effected and the affair settled as agreed. At the expiration of the 
period, the war and the growing importance of the overland route made 
steamship service by way of the Isthmus quite obsolete. 
 
(37) The contractors are said to have been awarded $50,000 by the 
Government for their trouble in haying the agreement broken. 
 
(38) See page 153. Holladay secured possession of the outfits of the C. 
O. C. & P. P. Exp. Co., between the Missouri and Salt Lake City. 
 
(39) The Pioneer Line which had recently come into power and prominence 
had gained possession of the equipment west of Salt Lake. This line was 
owned by Louis and Charles McLane. Louis McLane afterward became 
President of the Wells Fargo Express Co. 
 
(40) Holladay is said to have received one million five hundred thousand 
dollars cash, and three hundred thousand dollars in express company stock 
for his interests. Besides these amounts which covered only the animals, 
rolling stock, stations, and incidental equipment, Wells Fargo and Co. had 
to pay full market value for all grain, hay and provisions along the line, 
amounting to nearly six hundred thousand dollars more.



Chapter IX 
Passing of the Pony Express 
 
When Edward Creighton completed the Pacific telegraph, and, on October 24, 
1861, began sending messages; by wire from coast to coast, the California 
Pony Express formally went out of existence. For over three months since 
July 1, it had been paralleled by the daily overland stage; yet the great 
efficiency of the semi-weekly pony line in offering quick letter service 
won and retained its popularity to the very end of its career. And this 
was in spite of the fact that for several weeks before its discontinuance 
the pony men had ridden only between the ends of the fast building 
telegraph which was constructed in two divisions - from the Sierra Nevada 
Mountains and the Missouri River - at the same time, the lines meeting 
near the Great Salt Lake. 
 
The people of the far West strongly protested against the elimination of 
the pony line service. Early in the winter of 1862 it became rumored - 
perhaps wildly - that the Committee on Finance in the House of 
Representatives had, for reasons of economy, stricken out the 
appropriation for the continuance of the daily stage. Whereupon the 
California legislature(41) addressed a set of joint resolutions to the 
state's delegation in Congress, imploring not only that the Daily Stage 
be retained, but that the Pony Express be reestablished. The stage was 
continued but the pony line was never restored. 
 
As a financial venture the Pony Express failed completely. To be sure, its 
receipts were sometimes heavy, often aggregating one thousand dollars in a 
single day. But the expenses, on the other hand, were enormous. Although 
the line was so great a factor in the California crisis, and in assisting 
the Federal Government to retain the Pacific Coast, it was the irony of 
fate that Congress should never give any direct relief or financial 
assistance to the pony service. So completely was this organization 
neglected by the government, in so far as extending financial aid was 
concerned, that its financial failure, as foreseen by Messrs. Waddell and 
Majors, was certain from the beginning. The War Department did issue army 
revolvers and cartridges to the riders; and the Federal troops when 
available, could always be relied upon to protect the line. Yet it was 
generally left to the initiative and resourcefulness of the company to 
defend itself as best it could when most seriously menaced by Indians. The 
apparent apathy regarding this valuable branch of the postal service can 
of course be partially excused from the fact that the Civil War was in 
1861 absorbing all the energies which the Government could summon to its 
command. And the war, furthermore, was playing havoc with our national 
finances and piling up a tremendous national debt, which made the 
extension of pecuniary relief to quasi-private operations of this kind, no 
matter how useful they were, a remote possibility. 
 
That the stage lines received the assistance they did, under such 
circumstances, is to be wondered at. Yet it must be borne in mind that
at the outset much of the political support necessary to secure 
appropriations for overland mail routes was derived from southern 
congressmen who were anxious for routes of communication with the West 
coast, especially if such routes ran through the Southwest and linked 
the cotton-growing states with California. 
 
At the very beginning, it cost about one hundred thousand dollars to equip 
the Pony Express line in those days a very considerable outlay of capital 
for a private corporation. Besides the purchase of more than four hundred 
high grade horses, it cost large sums of money to build and equip stations 
at intervals of every ten or twelve miles throughout the long route. The 
wages of eighty riders and about four hundred station men, not to mention 
a score of Division Superintendents was a large item. 
 
Most of the grain used along the line between St. Joseph and Salt Lake 
City was purchased in Iowa and Missouri and shipped in wagons at a freight 
rate of from ten cents to twenty cents a pound. Grain and food stuffs for 
use between Salt Lake City and the Sierras were usually bought in Utah and 
hauled from two hundred to seven hundred miles to the respective stations. 
Hay, gathered wherever wild grasses could be found and cured, often had to 
be freighted hundreds of miles. 
 
The operating expenses of the line aggregated about thirty thousand 
dollars a month, which would alone have insured a deficit as the monthly 
income never equaled that amount. 
 
A conspicuous bill of expense which helped to bankrupt the enterprise was 
for protection against the savages. While this should have been furnished 
by the Government or the local state or territorial militia, it was the 
fate of the Company to bear the brunt of one of the worst Indian outbreaks 
of that decade. 
 
Early in 1860, shortly after the Pony Express was started, the Pah-Utes, 
mention of whom has already been made, began hostilities under their 
renowned chieftain Old Winnemucca. The uprising spread; soon the Bannocks 
and Shoshones espoused the cause of the Utes, and the entire territory of 
Nevada, Eastern California and Oregon was aflame with Indian revolt. 
Besides devastating many white settlements wherever they found them, the 
Indians destroyed nearly every pony station between California and Salt 
Lake, murdered numbers of employes, and ran off scores of horses. For 
several weeks the service was paralyzed, and had it been in the hands of 
faint-hearted men it would have been ended then and there. 
 
The climax came with the defeat and massacre of Major Ormsby's force of 
about fifty men by the Utes at the battle of Pyramid Lake in western 
Nevada. Help was finally sent in from a distance, and before the first of 
June, eight hundred men, including three hundred regulars and a large 
number of California and Nevada volunteers, had taken the field. This 
formidable campaign finally served the double purpose of protecting the 
Pony Express and stage line and in subduing the Indians in a primitive 
and effective manner. Order was restored and the express service resumed 
on June 19. Desultory outbreaks, of course, continued to menace the line 
and all forms of transportation for months afterwards. 
 
During this campaign, the local officers and employes of the express gave 
valiant service. It was remarkable that they could restore the line so 
quickly as they did. The total expense of this war to the Company was 
$75,000, caused by ruined and stolen property and outlays for military 
supplies incidental to the equipment of volunteers. 
 
This onslaught, coming so soon after the enterprise had begun, and when 
there was already so little encouragement that the line would ever pay 
out financially, must have disheartened less courageous men than Russell, 
Majors and Waddell and their associates. It is to their everlasting credit 
that this group of men possessed the perseverance and patriotic 
determination to continue the enterprise, even at a certain loss, and in 
spite of Federal neglect, until the telegraph made it possible to dispense 
with the fleet pony rider. Not only did they stick bravely to their task 
of supplying a wonderful mail service to the country, but they even 
improved their service, increasing it from a weekly to a semi-weekly 
route, immediately after the disastrous raids of June, 1860. Nor did they 
hesitate at the instigation of the Government a little later to reduce 
their postal rates from five dollars to one 
dollar a half ounce. 
 
This condensed statement shows the approximate deficit which the 
business incurred: 
 
To equip the line .....................................$100,000 
 
Maintenance at $30,000 per month (for sixteen months). $480,000 
 
War with the Utes and allied tribes ................... $75,000 
 
Sundry items ...........................................$45,000 
 
                                                       _________ 
 
Total ................................................ $700,000 
 
The receipts are said to have been about $500,000 leaving a debit balance 
of $200,000. That the Company changed hands in 1861 is not surprising. 
 
While the Pony Express failed in a financial way; it had served the 
country faithfully and well. It had aided an imperiled Government, helped 
to tranquilize and retain to the Union a giant commonwealth, and it had 
shown the practicability of building a transcontinental railroad, and 
keeping it open for traffic regardless of winter snows. All this Pony 
Express did and more. It marked the supreme triumph of American spirit, of 
God-fearing, man-defying American pluck and determination - qualities 
which have always characterized the winning of the West.

(41) Senate Documents.