Sonoma-San Francisco-Napa County CA Archives Biographies.....Allman, John 1823 - 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com February 5, 2007, 12:56 am

Author: Lewis Publishing Co. (1891)

JOHN ALLMAN, the pioneer stage owner of the Pacific coast, has been a resident
of California since 1850. He was born on shipboard in the harbor of Queenstown,
and his parents, who were about sailing for America, were Thomas and Elizabeth
(Doughty) Allman, natives of Bandon, Ireland. Arriving in Boston, his father
immediately took out his papers as a citizen of the United States, and was soon
after appointed, through American friends he had made while a young man
attending the Corn Exchange in London, to a position in the appraiser's
department of the custom house in Boston. The son was educated in the public
schools of their adopted city, and at the age of fourteen years he accompanied
his father on a trip to New Orleans, where he was engaged in buying sugar and
molasses for the Boston market. He there decided to strike outfor himself, and
shipped on a boat running up the Arkansas River, and later for a trip to
Cincinnati and return.

  On the discovery of gold in California in 1849, he determined to come to this
State, and shipped as a boy on the Caroline C. Dow for home. After visiting his
family, he and an older brother were to come to California, but the brother
weakened at the last moment, and John got the benefit of his ticket, arriving in
San Francisco, via Panama, on the first trip made by the steamship Tennessee, in
1850. He went immediately to the mines, and panned dirt in almost every digging
in the Sierras, seeking for the place where gold could be shoveled up clear.
During some three years of varied experience at Horse-Shoe Bar, Grass Valley,
Murderer's Bar, Rough and Ready, and Nevada City, he accumulated about $4,500
and the rheumatism, and succeeded in getting rid of both at about the same time!
His money being exhausted he made another attempt in the mines, building a wing
dam on the American River. This brought on a relapse, which satisfied him with
mining, and he decided to remain in San Francisco. In those early days that city
was filled with men for whom employment was scarce, and having given up the
search for gold as arduous and uncertain in its results, they were returning to
their homes in the East.

  For several years Mr. Allman engaged in any employment that required well
developed muscle, a clear understanding and a cheerful, buoyant spirit, and
these qualities especially fitted him for the position, which he afterward took
as passenger agent for one of the steamship lines then competing for the travel
back to the States. His unassuming but strict attention to business soon
attracted the attention of Commodore Garrison, who gave him a position of trust
as well as profit in connection with his lines. This connection continued until
1857, when the commodore returned to New York, where he established what became
the largest steamship business in the world up to that time. Mr. Allman returned
home in 1855 and was married by the Rev. Bishop Eastburn, to Miss Mary Jean
Dodson, a daughter of John W. and Henrietta Dodson, natives of the north of
Ireland, but who had long resided in Boston. She was a Sunday-school companion
and a friend of his early youth, whose memory and the hope of making her his
wife had been the guiding star of his existence and the inspiration of his
labors and efforts in California.

  He brought his wife to California and opened a hotel, which he conducted for
some time. In 1859 he went to Healdsburg and engaged in the livery business.
Horace F. Page, likewise engaged, began to run in opposition by letting rigs at
starvation prices; but the very next year Mr. Allman sold him out by sheriff's
sale, and Page then left the place; and was afterward Congressman from El Dorado
County. Mr. Allman established stage routes on the Russian River, and also from
Healdsburg to Napa City. Two years later he extended his lines to Sacramento,
covering about 160 miles, being then only twenty-seven years of age. At the same
time he was carrying on livery stables at the White Sulphur Springs, at
Healdsburg and at Napa, and in order to maintain a supervision over all he drove
one side of the road himself, three times a week, thus keeping an eye on each
stable every day. In addition he was agent for the Sacramento stages, and did
all the business for the others himself. During this time he had opposition on
nearly all his lines, but finally by superior management he succeeded overcoming
the opposition and forcing the Sacramento lines to be sold out by the sheriff.
During this fight the fare was at one time as low as one dollar from Napa to
Sacramento, out of which he paid two tolls on the road. The very first year
(1859) he sold out his opponent, Jonas McKensey, by sheriffs sale; and on the
very day of the battle of Bull Run, at one o'clock in the afternoon, the latter
stole up behind Mr. Allman and shot him twice, and both bullets Mr. Allman
carries in his body to-day! Up to that time of his life he had never carried a
weapon. Two years after the above event the men met again on a steamboat at
Benicia bound for San Francisco, and on arrival at the wharf in that city
McKensey commenced firing at Mr. Allman, one shot passing through the hand of
officer Spooner, who was standing near. McKensey was struck twice. Mr. Allman
was tried in Judge Campbell's police court and at once acquitted.

  In 1860 he went to Virginia City, and located ground on C street, where the
Metropolitan livery stable was afterward built, and adjoining Wells, Fargo &
Co.'s express office of a later date, on which he built an ordinary stage barn,
and paid $900 for three tons of common grass hay. He formed a partnership with
Major Ormsby, who had been previously engaged in the stage business, to stock
the road from Virginia City to Placerville. He had at that time one
eleven-passenger stage coach, which he had taken apart and packed on mules a
distance of seventy-five miles over the Sierra Nevada Mountains through the
snow. He returned to California to purchase 150 head of horses and more coaches,
and had bought a small part of his outfit when the news came by pony express
that Major Ormsby had been killed in the Piute Indian war of Nevada.

  Not having sufficient money to carry on this enterprise alone, Mr. Allman was
obliged to dispose of this property to the best advantage. On the breaking up of
the California Stage Company's business in 1866, he purchased sixteen
eleven-passenger coaches, which, with swing-poles and harnesses for as many
six-horse teams, he shipped to Sacramento, where he had the coaches painted, and
advertised that he would buy 200 head of horses, which he did in two days. He
had learned from parties coming from Montana that on account of the Missouri
River being frozen, staple goods could be introduced into the territory only
from California. But Montana was filled with robbers and highwaymen, making it
dangerous to transport either goods or treasure, the Portneuf Canon robbery
having occurred about this time, in which six men had been killed and $200,000
captured. These parties were outfitting with cattle from Los Angeles, to carry
their goods to Helena, Montana, and Mr. Allman bought the same class of goods
and took the chance of beating them into Montana by means of his fine horses,
notwithstanding that they had ten days the start. His stock consisted of about
175 cases of Hayward long-legged gum boots, two tons heavy California clothing,
2,500 pounds long-handled shovels, one ton prospect pans, 1,000 pounds pick
handles, and three tons of black gunpowder tea. He paid six dollars, six and
one-fourth cents per pair for the boots, and sold them at an average of $24.50
per pair, and everything else in about the same proportion, having beaten the ox
teams by over two weeks, and finding the territory empty of goods.

  Before leaving for Montana he advertised to take passengers with 50 pounds of
luggage for $150 each, including board, and shrewdly secured enough, with the
drivers, to guard the train. Judge Burson, afterward nominated for Chief Justice
of Montana, was one of his passengers, with 500 pounds of law books, and paid
$600 for his passage, with the privilege of riding with Mr. Allman in his
division buggy. He made Salt Lake from Sacramento in twenty-nine traveling days,
scouring Utah in advance of the train from one end to the other, buying hay and
grain, and making arrangements for the camp at night; and he never found one
person in the Territory who could figure up in the morning what was due him for
hay. They recruited but two days at Salt Lake, after traveling 700 miles, all
the men and horses being in good health and condition.

  Starting on the next stage of the journey, 720 miles, to Helena, all went well
until they crossed the Bear River, and reached the east Mormon settlement. He
there bought a stack of about eight tons of hay for $40. This Mormon demanded
his pony at night, contrary to the usual custom. During the night the horses
became perfectly wild, and in the morning when hitched up they would not pull a
pound; and there was not a Mormon to be found in the settlement. The hay was
"crazy grass." Ten of the horses could not be moved, and were traded off for
hay. The others recovered slowly, and the whole train was delayed for four days.
Meanwhile they reached the crossing of the last range of the Rocky Mountains,
with about nine miles of soft snow ahead before entering the Territory of
Montana. They cooked Chili beans and pork enough for all hands, packing them in
gunny-sacks, and allowing five days for the trip across the snow. It took them
nine days, on some of which they did not make a quarter of a mile, the snow
being so deep and the men and horses nearly exhausted. Two of the men and
several horses succumbed to the hardships of the passage. Every passenger, even
Chief Justice Burson, was pressed into the service of driving these six-horse
teams, and Mr. Allman paid a man living in the neighborhood, who had a sled and
a yoke of steers, $150 to help him through the last quarter of a mile. Had he
not been a man of herculean strength and iron nerve he could never have
accomplished it. When every other man lay down at night exhausted he would carry
goods in his arms ahead of the wagon and pile them up for the coaches when they
reached them the next day. They had to feed the horses on flour and snow water,
while the men lived on beans, which were frozen solid in the sacks, and had to
be cut off in chunks with axes.

  At one time he found there was a conspiracy among some of the passengers to
take the horses and push through, leaving the coaches and goods in the snow.
This was nipped in the bud by knocking the ringleader on the head with his
revolver and disarming him; this prompt action bringing enough of the other
passengers to his support to overawe the conspirators and crush out the attempt.

  He sold out his whole outfit at Helena, with a clear profit of about $48,000
on the venture, but with no means of getting hither himself or such a quantity
of gold dust out of the Territory. After the Missouri River opened he was able
to reach St. Joseph, Missouri, by boat, and carried his dust and securities with
him. The Vigilance Committee at Helena had vouched to him for two others who had
a large amount of gold, and to the others for him. Each of these gentlemen took
his regular watch over the dust. At St. Joe they took the train, and on the
afternoon of July 4, 1866, they arrived at the Continental Hotel in
Philadelphia, where a large and intensely excited crowd blocked up the street to
watch these gentlemen carry their sacks of gold-dust into the hotel. Mr. Allman
then went to Washington, and secured from Postmaster General Randall a contract
for carrying the mails from Hellgate, otherwise known as Missoula Mills,
Montana, to Wallula, Washington Territory, the head of navigation on the
Columbia River. This route covered a distance of 600 miles, passing through
Flathead Agency on Kansas Prairie, Vermilion Creek, to Pendoreille Lake, where
they ferried the mails across the lake from Pendoreille City to Cabinet Landing,
crossing Snake River three times, and so. through Walla Walla to Wallula.

  For a number of years after this Mr. Allman was a very prominent mail
contractor, opening up new routes to many parts of the great northwest, and
furnishing mail facilities to miners, stockmen and settlers in sections of the
country which had never before had the benefit of postal or any other reliable
means of communication with the outside world. He has invariably secured his
mail contracts by personal efforts at headquarters in Washington, returning to
the coast to see that they were properly executed. For the past thirty years he
has owned and operated stage routes more or less continuously, and meeting the
most celebrated men of the period from all parts of the world, who have at one
time or other traveled on the Pacific coast. Besides this he has always been a
large operator in mines and real estate.

  In 1880 he obtained the Government mail contracts from Dayton, Nevada, by way
of Neason Valley to Belleville, ninety miles, and from Virginia City, same
State, to Bodie, California, 125 miles, and also from Aurora to Independence,
California, 150 miles, and stocked all of them. The National Stage Company were
running from Carson City, Nevada, to Bodie, and also to Belleville, and the two
lines were therefore in competition. They commenced cutting fare. Mr. Allman,
however, made but one cut, and that was from $17 to $7, when hay was worth $60 a
ton and barley four cents a pound. The opposition company soon came to Mr.
Allman and purchased 400 miles of his service, coaches, horses and harness.

  In 1884 J. L. Sanderson & Co. extended their service over Mr. Allman's roads
on the north coast by misrepresentation at Washington. Mr. Allman warned them,
but in vain. Nevertheless, he stocked every road they had where there was good
travel, and in less than two years he had them sold out. They were attached by
their creditors and left the State, $30,000 in debt, to their drivers, hostlers,
etc.

  There are three children in his family: John Henry, a graduate of the Golden
Gate Academy, Oakland, and now superintendent of a large milling plant in
Washington; Emma Jean, a graduate of Mills Seminary, and now the wife of Major
Tompkins, of Oakland; and George Dodson, also a graduate of the Golden Gate
Academy, and a merchant of Washington.



Additional Comments:
Extracted from

Memorial and Biographical History of Northern California.

Illustrated, Containing a History of this Important Section of the Pacific Coast
from the Earliest Period of its Occupancy to the Present Time, together with
Glimpses of its Prospective Future; Full-Page Steel Portraits of its most
Eminent Men, and Biographical Mention of many of its Pioneers and also of
Prominent Citizens of To-day.

"A people that takes no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors will
never achieve anything worthy to be remembered with pride by remote
descendents." – Macauley.

CHICAGO
THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY
1891.


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