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    The First Overland Mail
    The First Overland Mail
    The First Overland Mail
    Ebook113 pages1 hour

    The First Overland Mail

    By Robert E. Pinkerton

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    About this ebook

    First published in 1953, this book tells the story of John Butterfield, a mid-19th Century stagecoach and freight line operator and his line of stagecoaches, which took passengers and mail across the U.S. in the 1850s.

    Born on a farm in Berne, New York in 1801, Butterfield grew up on a farm and was mostly self-educated. At the age of 19, he became a professional stage driver. He was always interested in transportation, becoming involved in the livery business, establishing stage routes throughout New York. He also gained experience with steamboats, railroads, and local plank-roads.

    As a skilled businessman, he soon controlled most of the stage lines west of New York, and in 1849 he formed the companies that became American Express and Wells-Fargo, as well as the Butterfield Overland Stage Company.

    In 1857, American Express won the government contract for the first transcontinental stage line, carrying the mail from Missouri to California for $600,000 per year—the largest mail contract that had ever been awarded. Thus, Butterfield became president of the Overland Mail Company.

    Covering an exciting period in American history, this story of bravery and adventure will appeal to readers of all ages!
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPapamoa Press
    Release dateJun 28, 2017
    ISBN9781787204690
    The First Overland Mail
    Author

    Robert E. Pinkerton

    ROBERT E. PINKERTON (March 12, 1882 - February 6, 1970) was an American writer of both fiction and non-fiction. Born in Arena, Wisconsin, he attended the University of Wisconsin for two years before working as a cub reporter on the Milwaukee Free Press and was later telegraph news editor for The Journal in Milwaukee. Together with his wife Kathrene, he sold their first fictive effort, a 30,000 word novelette, to Munsey’s Magazine. With their earnings from this sale, the couple departed for the wilds of Canada, where they built onto a cabin in the bush, 8 miles from the village of Atikokan, Ontario. The only means of transport to and from Atikokan was by canoe in the summer and dogsled during the long Canadian winter. They wrote non-fiction articles on camping, based on their experiences, and sold them to outdoor magazines. They came out of the bush for a short while for the birth of their daughter Bobs, and then began writing fiction of the characters of the bush they had come to know. Five years after they had entered the bush, they returned to civilization, but continued to travel extensively by car, living in the wilds of the Rockies, the heights of the Sierra Nevada and on the mesas of the Southwest. They then spent most of the next seven years on a boat, cruising off the Pacific coast, near British Columbia and Alaska. Their daughter, Bobs, spent the academic year in boarding school and the vacations on the boat. Mr. Pinkerton passed away in New York in 1970.

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      Book preview

      The First Overland Mail - Robert E. Pinkerton

      This edition is published by Papamoa Press – www.pp-publishing.com

      To join our mailing list for new titles or for issues with our books – papamoapress@gmail.com

      Or on Facebook

      Text originally published in 1953 under the same title.

      © Papamoa Press 2017, all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means, electrical, mechanical or otherwise without the written permission of the copyright holder.

      Publisher’s Note

      Although in most cases we have retained the Author’s original spelling and grammar to authentically reproduce the work of the Author and the original intent of such material, some additional notes and clarifications have been added for the modern reader’s benefit.

      We have also made every effort to include all maps and illustrations of the original edition the limitations of formatting do not allow of including larger maps, we will upload as many of these maps as possible.

      THE FIRST OVERLAND MAIL

      BY

      ROBERT E. PINKERTON

      Illustrated by Paul Lantz

      TABLE OF CONTENTS

      Contents

      TABLE OF CONTENTS 4

      DEDICATION 5

      1 6

      2 10

      3 15

      4 18

      5 25

      6 33

      7 40

      8 43

      9 49

      10 58

      11 67

      REQUEST FROM THE PUBLISHER 77

      DEDICATION

      To the men who drove the stagecoaches

      1

      THE STAGECOACH WAS SUPREME in 1801. IT carried the United States mail, and its passengers were important people bound on business or government affairs. Others walked or rode horses, and few went more than a few miles from home. Freight moved slowly behind ox teams.

      The glamor and romance of travel and far places centered in the stagecoach, in its speed and the dash of its horses, in the clatter of its passing. Men in fields waved their hats. Children in villages shouted, Here she comes! Dogs in towns raced beside the spinning wheels. Men gathered at stations where teams were changed. Women looked from their weaving to the grandfather’s clock and said, Henry Buckley’s on time, as usual.

      It was the horse in 1801, and nothing except the horse if you were in a hurry, but it was the drivers that people watched and admired. Most were quiet men, aware of their responsibility and careful of their horses and keeping schedule. Others added the quality of an actor. They’d save their teams for a final burst of speed, take the stage into town on the gallop and come to a dramatic stop. Departures were more theatrical with fresh teams racing madly.

      In November of that same year, 1801, John Butterfield was born on his father’s farm west of Albany, New York, and if he hadn’t lived on a stage route he might have become a farmer as did most of his acquaintances. Before he could walk, his mother would carry him to the road when the stage was due. As the horses dashed past, the child grew more and more excited.

      I often wondered if I marked him, doing that, she once said. He got so worked up over it.

      After John Butterfield could use his legs, he kept his own time schedule, as young children and animals do so accurately. Only in the worst weather did he fail to stand beside the road when the stage went by. Stage drivers began to notice him. He’d be there, rain or snow or freezing weather, waving his arms. When John was five, Henry Buckley blew his long coaching horn a half mile from the Butterfield farm. As this was sounded only on approach to stage stations, the boy listened in ecstasy. He felt suddenly that he was part of stagecoaching. Next day he led his mother to hear the entrancing music.

      Looks grand, don’t it? she said, awed by the special salute to her son and by the driver’s lifted hat.

      It goes so fast, the boy said.

      Years later, Mrs. Butterfield told of this. I knew right then nothing else would ever satisfy him, said she. John was going to be a stagecoach driver.

      John talked to his father of his excitement.

      What’s a stagecoach without horses? Daniel Butterfield asked. Like a preacher who’s lost his tongue. Or a skillet without a fire. If it’s stagecoachin’ you want, learn what makes ‘em go. It’s a four-legged critter called a horse. Quit lookin’ at the coaches and look at what keeps ‘em runnin’.

      Next day he went with his son when the horn sounded.

      Don’t look at the people in the wagon, he said. Or at Henry Buckley. Where’d he be without horses? Watch their footwork—the off leader’s spavined. Watch how they’re built. Near wheel horse is short coupled, nice mare. Watch their ears. That tells if an animal’s got git-up-and-go. It’s the horses that draws the stages.

      After that John studied their conformation and leg action, how they carried their heads. His father talked to him of draft breeds, of lighter and faster strains, and explained the care of horses, how to look for diseases or injuries, how to judge the temperament of an animal and how to handle it. When John was ten years old, he knew a great deal about horses. Also at ten he was a hard working farm boy, being spared only to go to the country school. He arrived breathless from morning chores and hurried home for the evening work and care of horses.

      More and more his father was aware he had a future stagecoach driver as a son, and that was all right. It meant a step up from the drudgery of farm work. Nor did John, when he was a boy, think past driving a coach. This was the most exciting thing in his world, and he wanted a part in it.

      His world was not large, and much of it was little known. In 1801, when he was born, the United States extended only to the Mississippi River. Beyond the Appalachian Mountains was a vast territory into which few had penetrated. More than two-thirds of our present nation was in the hands of European states, and Americans knew nothing of it. The new Republic clung to the Atlantic seaboard, but even Florida and the Gulf of Mexico coast belonged to Spain. In the west was a vast territory owned by France, and beyond that was another great expanse in Spanish domain that extended to the Pacific.

      When John Butterfield was two years old, his country negotiated the Louisiana Purchase at a cost of $11,250,000. Napoleon Bonaparte evidently needed money or considered the land of little value. It extended from the Gulf of Mexico to the present Canadian border and included what we now know as Arkansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa,

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