Russell, Majors and Waddell actually suspended delivery between Carson City and Salt Lake City for about a month in June 1860. The terrain and its effect on horse travel determined the number and the distance between stations. This arrangement allowed the mail to speed across the country in record time. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. However, you may visit "Cookie Settings" to provide a controlled consent. With road improvements and the development of steel springs speeds increased. In 1884, the Union Pacific Railroad completed the Oregon Short Line, which left U.P. Strings of coaching inns provided passengers with overnight accommodation as well as fresh horses. Very similar in design to stagecoaches their vehicles were lighter and sportier. 18, T. 9 N., 26 E.), Le Flore County, about 1 miles northeast of present Spiro. In spite of the rough frontier conditions of the stations, Donaldson admired the people who ran them under such difficult circumstances. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads. The roofs were made of heavy ridgepoles, to which were attached other pole rafters, all covered with brush and coarse grass. One of the horses was ridden by the postilion. Under the old system the journey had taken up to 38 hours. Q. The Pony Express operation was divided into five operating divisions. Neil's or "Blue River Station," (Secs. Some variations simply appear to be transcription errors. I have eaten dinner at a home station when the meat was never more ambitious than bacon. 4-5, T. 2 N., R 15 E.) near present rock schoolhouse on county road, Pittsburgh County, just south of Elm Creek. The business of running stagecoaches or the act of journeying in them was known as staging. That meant a horse would pull the stagecoach for about a two or three hour shift. The first started from Caldwell and drove to Skeleton, with a change of teams at Pond Creek; the second made the trip from Skeleton to Kingfisher, with a change of teams at Buffalo Springs; the third route was from Kingfisher to George Washington's Ranch, changing teams at Darling; the fourth driver made the trip from this point to Cache, where he changed teams when he extended the trip on to Fort Sill and back over the same route. The coaches themselves were not always the enclosed vehicles seen in movies often they had canvas sides stretched over supports; though there were springs, the coaches' had little or nothing in the way of shock absorbers, and no windows to let fresh air in or keep dust or weather out. All of those things should be remembered when the romance of stagecoach travel comes to a grinding halt and reality rears up. Steamboats were forerunners of the railroad as an important factor in the development of the West. This highway passes through Pampa, Texas, one of the busy marts of the new Panhandle oil field towns, and passes on towards New Mexico. Beginning in the 18th century crude wagons began to be used to carry passengers between cities and towns, first within New England in 1744, then between New York and Philadelphia in 1756. Designed by the Abbot Downing Company, the coach utilized leather strap braces underneath, giving them a swinging motion instead of a spring suspension, which jostled passengers up and down. The Overland Trail:Stage Coach Vocabulary- Last Updated 19 April 1998, Stagecoach History: Stage Lines to California, Wild West Tales: Stories by R. Michael Wilson; Stagecoach, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Stage_station&oldid=1115595755, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0. Travel on the route from the railroad stop at Kelton, Utah, through Idaho and onto Oregon and Washington was dusty and tough: "Ruts, stones, holes, breaks, all combined to make this journey distinctly one to be remembered. The stagecoach was a closed four-wheeled vehicle drawn by horses or hard-going mules. Life at both the home and relay stations was very hard. A novel sight 5 miles, 60 miles, or 200 miles. In addition to a carriage's obvious advantages (a degree of safety and shelter for the inside passengers and accessibility to non-riders) on long trips it tended to be the most rapid form of passenger travel.[2]. [9] The London-York route was advertised in 1698: Whoever is desirous of going between London and York or York and London, Let them Repair to the Black Swan in Holboorn, or the Black Swan in Coney Street, York, where they will be conveyed in a Stage Coach (If God permits), which starts every Thursday at Five in the morning. . The meals were uniformly bad and one dollar each. Relay rider stations usually had a single caretaker for the horses. List of Butterfield Overland Mail States in Oklahoma, Published in Oklahoma Chronicles Spring 1957. How far apart were stage relay stations? Though the Pony Express is often credited with being the first fast mail service from the Missouri River to the Pacific Coast, the Overland Mail Company began a twice-weekly mail service in September 1858. Kathy Alexander/Legends of America, updated February 2023. [8], The first route started in 1610 and ran from Edinburgh to Leith. It was regularly used as a public conveyance on an established route usually to a regular schedule. Steamboats on the Columbia River were eventually replaced by railroads. It was isolated, primitive and dangerous. What happens to atoms during chemical reaction? The English visitor noted the small, sturdy Norman horses "running away with our cumbrous machine, at the rate of six or seven miles an hour". [22], The railway network in South Africa was extended from Mafeking through Bechuanaland and reached Bulawayo in 1897. What stops bones from moving too far apart? In 1862, the company built Oregon's first railroad, a five-mile portage line between Bonneville and Cascade Locks, to connect with steamships above and below an unnavigable portion of the river. Concord stages could carry seven passengers, mail, and feed for the horses. When the coach halted at Spring Creek for the customary watering of the mules, one of the prisoners slipped a shackle. During the night, however, some daring members of the gang of horse thieves that roamed the frontiers filed the chains to the door in two and made good their escape with the mules. For the first time, East was now linked to West, via the Butterfield Overland Mail, which ran from Tipton, Missouri to San Francisco. Systems of arranging a supply of fresh horses to expedite travel along a particular route had been in use at least as far back as the ancient Romans when they were used by messengers and couriers or bearers of letters. The stagecoaches linked Jerusalem with Jaffa, Hebron and Nablus, the Zionist colonies with Jaffa, Haifa with Acre and Nazareth. Stagecoach horse chase Still later steam vessels and some canal boats could provide stagecoach speeds at much lower prices. Some owners would parade their vehicles and magnificently dressed passengers in fashionable locations. The Angel and Royal in Grantham on the Great North Road until 1866 known as The Angel is believed to be England's oldest coaching inn. Between home stations, there were several relay rider or swing stations. Here 90 replacement horses were staged at the stop in the below coral. At one time, more than 150 stations were situated between Kansas and California. By clicking Accept All, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. Stagecoaches, post chaises, private vehicles, individual riders and the like followed the already long-established system for messengers, couriers and letter-carriers. "Don't swear, nor lop over on your neighbor when sleeping. The diligence from Le Havre to Paris was described by a fastidious English visitor of 1803 with a thoroughness that distinguished it from its English contemporary, the stage coach. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously. Spent horses were replaced with fresh horses at stage stations, posts, or relays. [10], Steel springs had been used in suspensions for vehicles since 1695. Post came to be applied to the riders then to the mail they carried and eventually to the whole system. Here, drivers were usually switched. (This station was better known locally after the Civil War as "Carriage Point."). The stagecoach was required to work six times a week (except for the Shabbat) and to carry free of charge the mails and medicines of the Rehovot pharmacy. To secure his mules from horse thieves, the driver placed a farm wagon across the front entrance of the stable, with instructions to two of the company's employees to sleep in the wagon bed. In 1861, riders traversed the westward. The Overland Trail, also known as the Overland Stage Line, was a stagecoach and wagon road in the American West. The stagecoach would depart every Monday and Thursday and took roughly ten days to make the journey during the summer months. Many interesting incidents connected with his father's life in the early days are fresh in the merchant's memory. A canvas-topped wagon had a lower center of gravity, and it could not be loaded on the roof with heavy freight or passengers as an enclosed coach so often was. Individually mounted riders are subject to their personal endurance limits. The coaches hang by leather straps to take away some of the bounce. Stage fare was twenty cents per mile. They were rich in little save dirt. Within the month the service had been extended from London to Norwich, Nottingham, Liverpool and Manchester, and by the end of 1785 services to the following major towns and cities of England and Wales had also been linked: Leeds, Dover, Portsmouth, Poole, Exeter, Gloucester, Worcester, Holyhead and Carlisle. It was the longest stagecoach service in the world. There were about 25 home stations along the route. But normally not more than 15 miles from the last stop. Costing $1200 - $1500, these coaches weighed more than two thousand pounds. Stage passengers could be victims, but usually thieves were after money or gold being transported, especially by stages operated by Wells, Fargo. Lighter faster and better-bred horses were used as the road surfaces smoothed and heavy mud-slogging could be forgotten. A station master lived at a home station and travellers would be supplied with meals. The trip between Jaffa and Jerusalem by stagecoach lasted about 14 hours spread over a day and a half, including a night stop at Bab al-Wad (Shaar HaGai), the trip in the opposite, downhill direction took 12 hours. People's Histories include personal memoirs and reminiscences, letters and other historical documents, interviews and oral histories, reprints from historical and current publications, original essays, commentary and interpretation, and expressions of personal opinion, many of which have been submitted by our visitors. By 1829 Boston was the hub of 77 stagecoach lines; by 1832 there were 106. Stories that prominently involve a stagecoach include: Part of the plot of Doctor Dolittle's Circus is set in a stagecoach, where the animal-loving Doctor Dolittle is traveling along with a female seal, disguised as a woman, whom he is helping to escape from the circus. A. [8] A string of coaching inns operated as stopping points for travellers on the route between London and Liverpool. They were used to connect towns and cities with railroad stops to outlying mining and agricultural areas. 40, 41. Ironically, the cost of maintaining even this hard living at each Pony Express station was high. Part of this was due to greatly improved roading see Turnpike trusts and part to improved vehicles. [note 1] A professional coachman might accompany them to avert disaster. Even as the nation's network of iron and steel rails grew larger and more comprehensive, stagecoach connections to small and isolated communities continued to supplement passenger trains well into the second decade of . Spent horses were replaced with fresh horses at stage stations, posts, or relays. It existed only briefly from 1858 to 1861 and ran from Memphis, Tennesse - or St. Louis, Missouri - to San Francisco. He was a member of the third Territorial Legislature and the author of the Herd Law. The teams for the long trips consisted of some hundred or more mules, purchased from a class of stock that, were noted for extreme endurance; for they were destined to make many an excursion that would test their utmost endurance and patience without succumbing. Boggy Depot (Sec. Each rider rode about 75-100 miles per shift, changing horses 5-8 times or so. "The 'home' stations were houses built of logs and usually occupied by families. In 1864, Holladay obtained a contract to carry mail from Salt Lake to the Dalles, Oregon, via Boise City in Idaho Territory and Walla Walla and Wallula in Washington Territory, a distance of 675 miles. Stage is the space between the places known as stations or stopsknown to Europeans as posts or relays. The horses were changed three times on the 80-mile (130km) trip, normally completed in 17 hours. Prior to its arrival, a network of stagecoach routes existed.[23]. A postcard shows Salado's Stagecoach Inn, which it describes on the back as a "major stage stop-relay station of the old Chisholm Trail." Randy Mallory The Halfway Inn in Chireno, built around 1840, sits on Texas 21, the historic El Camino Real, and served as a post office and stagecoach inn. Central Overland California and Pikes Peak Express Company, Johnny Fry First Rider of the Pony Express, Byways & Historic Trails Great Drives in America, Soldiers and Officers in American History, Leavenworth & Pikes Peak Express Company, Central Overland California and Pikes Peak Express, Easy Travel Organization Tips You Will Love, Bidwell-Bartleson Party Blazing the California Trail. The areas of what are now KS, NE, CO, WY, UT & NV were still territorial lands.) There were stops at regularly scheduled intervals at stations where travelers could get off the stagecoach to unwind, and horse teams could be changed. For most of human history, this was the fastest way to transport people and parcels over land. A stage station or relay station, also known as a staging post, a posting station, or a stage stop, is a place where exhausted horses could be replaced by fresh animals, since a long journey was much faster without delays when horses needed rest. [10] By 1797 there were forty-two routes. A stagecoach is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. If you are disappointed, thank heaven" (Osburn et al., 30). For the final segment the stretch from Sacramento to San Francisco, the mail was first transported by horse relays. At the beginning of the Pony Express, the relay rider stations were set approximately twenty to twenty-five miles apart, but afterward more relay rider stations were established at shorter intervals, with some twelve to fifteen miles apart. There were at least 420 stagecoach services to and from London each week in 1690. but only about a quarter of them took passengers beyond 40 miles (64km) from London. Stage drivers were sworn officers of the United States and U.S. mail carriers. The Oregon Steam Navigation Company built "first class railroads" to transport passengers and goods around the non-navigable portions of the Columbia River at the Cascades and Dalles Portages. 2:40 PM - Charley Crockett. Mmoires du Duc de Rovigo, vol. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". Stagecoaches also became widely adopted for travel in and around London by mid-century and generally travelled at a few miles per hour. Mountain Stagecoach by Rey Britton and Company, Adventures & Tragedies on the Overland Trail, John Butterfield & the Overland Mail Company, Canyon Station Treasure Near Kingman, Arizona, Cowboys, Trail Blazers, & Stagecoach Drivers List, Clark Old Chieftain Foss Boisterous California Stage Driver, George Baldy Green A Popular Stage Driver, A Journey to Denver via the Butterfield Overland Dispatch, Knights of the Lash: Old-Time Stage Drivers of the West Coast, Delia Haskett Rawson Carrying the U.S. Mail, Russell, Majors & Waddell Transportation in the Old West, Virginia Dale, Colorado Stage Station Treasure, Wells Fargo Staging & Banking in the Old West. They also provided horses to other travellers.[6]. Stagecoaches are more comfortable than riding your own animal. February 10, 1927-Logan County News-Henry A. Todd, one of those brave and daring men who came to the Indian country when both it and he were young, died in 1913 at the age of 67 years. 6 N., R 22 E.) where meals were served to Overland Mail passengers soon after the establishment of the stage line, Riddle's Station (Sec. His patent lasted 14 years delaying development because Elliott allowed no others to license and use his patent. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By the end of the 17th century stagecoach routes ran up and down the three main roads in England. They built their first Concord stagecoach in 1827 employing long leather straps under their stagecoaches which gave a swinging motion.[20]. In the end, it was the motor bus, not the train, that caused the final disuse of these horse-drawn vehicles. By 1836 the scheduled coach left London at 19:30, travelled through the night (without lights) and arrived in Liverpool at 16:50 the next day, a distance of about 220 miles (350km), doubling the overall average speed to about 10 miles per hour (16km/h), including stops to change horses.[5]. Organised long-distance land travel became known as staging or posting. This essay is part of HistoryLink's People's History collection. A stage moved at a fair gait, depending on the terrain, of course we're talking dirt paths, and an unpaved road, at best. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ranches in the area were used, if the location fit. Once when Henry Todd drove his stage out of Wellington, Kansas to Fort Reno, a sheriff, with two men charged with horse stealing, was among the passengers. Each route had an average of four coaches operating on it at one time - two for both directions and a further two spares in case of a breakdown en route. Pony stations were generally located between 5 to 20 miles apart. The first 10 miles of the railroad were built entirely of wood, with four-by-six fir stringers used for rails. Maximum efficiency was a priority. Horses were changed out at each Stagecoach Stop, which were a minimum of 10 miles apart. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". Stations were attacked and the horses stolen, the stations burned and keepers killed, especially during the Pauite Indian War starting in May 1860. The driver sat on a seat below the roof, which had a luggage rack. How far apart were stagecoach relay stations? For other uses, see. 1, T. 3 S., R 9 #), 10 miles south and west of Atoka, Atoka County, and about 4 miles south of present bridge (west end) across Clary Boggy River. A simple stage supposedly held up to nine adult passengers, but that was if everyone's legs and knees were intertwined. It occurred to him that this stagecoach service could be developed into a national mail delivery service, so in 1782 he suggested to the Post Office in London that they take up the idea. Through years of experience on the frontier, he had learned that it was useless to try to get the better of an outlaw; so instead of meting them with their own weapons, he submitted courteously, and in this instance, treated them so amicably that they gave him back his watch and $14 in money. The coaches, each equipped to carry nine passengers with baggage, and each drawn by six sturdy young mules, started from each end of the line every second day, the route being divided into four separate drives. Reforms of the turnpike trusts, new methods of road building and the improved construction of coaches led to a sustained rise in the comfort and speed of the average journey - from an average journey length of 2 days for the Cambridge-London route in 1750 to a length of under 7 hours in 1820. With the three men, the officers rode on to Wellington. Though there were numerous lines throughout the Old West, some figure into history more prominently than others, most notably John Butterfields Overland Mail Company, Wells Fargo & Co., and the Holladay Overland Mail and Express Company. Thus, the origin of the phrase "riding shotgun". The riders carried mail from the Midwest to the West Coast in less than half the time a stagecoach could ( 24 days ), and in a pinch, could go even faster. Upon the roof, on the outside, is the imperial, which is generally filled with six or seven persons more, and a heap of luggage, which latter also occupies the basket, and generally presents a pile, half as high again as the coach, which is secured by ropes and chains, tightened by a large iron windlass, which also constitutes another appendage of this moving mass. [10], Palmer made much use of the "flying" stagecoach services between cities in the course of his business, and noted that it seemed far more efficient than the system of mail delivery then in operation. Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. Goods were taken by wagon, and later by railroad, from Wallula to Walla Walla. It was a similar style of passenger conveyance to the Berline coach. He spent the remained of his life on his allotment. Chaplin alone had 1800 horses and 2000 employees. And a stage could carry more people, providing the rider was willing to cling to the railings amid luggage lashed to the top. 9-10, T. 1 S., R 13 E.) about 3 miles southwest of Wesley, Atoka County, Geary's Station (Sec. This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience. The sheriff was sitting outside with Todd. [12], During this time improving incomes allowed people to travel, there were more people and there was much more economic activity. Stage is the space between the places known as stations or stops known to Europeans as posts or relays. 7:40 PM - Brandi . No ice was ever seen on the table. Theodore Cardwell Barker, Dorian Gerhold. The first mail coaches appeared in the later 18th century carrying passengers and the mails, replacing the earlier post riders on the main roads. The story of the operations of this, the first important transportation company operating through the Southwest, over the un-traversed lands of Indian Territory, often following the trails made by outlaws and sometimes by honest adventurers, makes a griping story of the early pioneering days, of the "Wonder State:--Oklahoma. Walking Away Is Not Forever. Pony Express Route by William Henry Jackson, 1860, Division One St. Joseph, Missouri to Fort Kearny, Nebraska, Division Two Fort Kearny, Nebraska to Horseshoe Creek, Wyoming, Division Three Horseshoe Creek, Wyoming to Salt Lake City, Utah, Division Four- Salt Lake City, Utah to Roberts Creek, Nevada, Division Five Roberts Creek, Nevada to San Francisco, California, The original Pony Express Stables in St. Joseph, Missouri, now serves as a museum. In addition to the stage driver or coachman who guided the vehicle, a shotgun messenger armed with a coach gun might travel as a guard beside him. Stagecoaches were familiar vehicles along the main roads of the East and the South before the coming of railroads in the 1830s and 1840s. What are the physical state of oxygen at room temperature? Life at both the home and relay stations was very hard. Two men in Concord, New Hampshire, developed what became a popular solution. They never had the prestige of railroads, but profits made in the golden age of steamboating furnished the first money used in railroad building along the Columbia. A stagecoach is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. In the twinkling of an eye, one prisoner was out of the coach, had grabbed the sheriff, and relieved him of his guns. The fabled Pony Express of the American West is the most famous horse-based relay system, but it was not the first, the largest, or the most successful. The local postmasters delivered the letters as well as providing horses to the royal couriers. Through metonymy the name stage also came to be used for a stagecoach alone. The speed of coaches in this period rose from around 6 miles per hour (9.7km/h) (including stops for provisioning) to 8 miles per hour (13km/h)[15] and greatly increased the level of mobility in the country, both for people and for mail. But as True West Magazine tells us, passengers were often packed together in ways that made good friends of total strangers, whether they wanted to be or not. The license to operate the stagecoaches was granted by the government to private individuals in the cities and to the colony committees in the early Zionist colonies. The more numerous swing stations, generally run by a few bachelor stock tenders, were smaller and usually consisted of little more than a small cabin and a barn or corral. Or daily changes of clothing. Stage fare was twenty cents per mile. But normally not more than 15 miles from the last stop. They have not been verified by HistoryLink.org and do not necessarily represent its views. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. Transcontinental stage-coaching ended with the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". changing horses at relay stations set at 10-15 mile intervals along the nearly 2,000-mile route; the . This led to the arrest of "Texas Red" and "Granger" Dyer, two of five members of an outlaw gang that was active at that time. Three times a day, passengers could get a hurried meal. The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. They took businessmen about their business which could now be conducted in person without agents. Coaches with iron or steel springs were uncomfortable and had short useful lives. Numerous stagecoach lines and express services dotted the American West as entrepreneurs fought to compete for passengers, freight, and, most importantly, profitable government mail contracts. Though many types of stagecoaches were used for various purposes, the most often used for passenger service was the Concord Stagecoach, first built in 1827. Travel time was reduced on this later run from three days to two in 1766 with an improved coach called the Flying Machine. His coach had a greatly improved turning capacity and braking system, and a novel feature that prevented the wheels from falling off while the coach was in motion. In France, between 1765 and 1780, the turgotines, big mail coaches named for their originator, Louis XVI's economist minister Turgot, and improved roads, where a coach could travel at full gallop across levels, combined with more staging posts at shorter intervals, cut the time required to travel across the country sometimes by half.[19]. 7-8, T. 5 S., R 9 #.) The trio assumed control of the route July 1, 1874, which was one year after the establishment of the business by Tisdale and Parker, of Lawrence, Kansas. They included: "The best seat is the one next to the driver. The first stagecoaches were brought to Palestine by the German religious group known as the "Templers" who operated a public transportation service between their colonies in the country as early as 1867. Stagecoaches usually had a driver and also an armed guard armed with a sawed-off .12-gauge hence "riding shotgun" but even so, that wasn't always deterrent. Please reorganize this content to explain the subject's impact on popular culture, The Postman and the Postal Service, Vera Southgate, Wills & Hepworth Ltd, 1965, England, Gerhold: Stage Coaching and Turnpike Roads, Economic History Review, August 2014,, figure 1, p. 825. Postal and postage follow from this. The stages stopped forty minutes at the home stations and about five minutes at the other stations, time enough to change horses or teams" (Donaldson). Each driver's division was 50 miles long. This work was done by hand with mower and rakes. The riders were frequent targets for robbers, and the system was inefficient. Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features. He found another horse, which he purchased, and started himself with the second mail. Stagecoach Inns and Stations. There were also numerous other rules required of passengers, including abstaining from liquor, not cursing or smoking if ladies were present, and others. Charles Todd, a son of Henry Todd, owns a grocery at Calumet, Oklahoma. 3, T. 7 S., R. 8 #.) The yard of ale drinking glass is associated by legend with stagecoach drivers, though it was mainly used for drinking feats and special toasts.[2][3]. The first stagecoach started out from San Francisco on September 14, 1858, at ten minutes after midnight. pinal county jail commissary,
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