Uinta County WY Archives History - Books .....Chapter Nine Early Transportation And Mail Service 1924
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Book Title: Uinta County, Its Place In History

CHAPTER NINE 
Early Transportation and Mail Service

    In 1848 a young Missourian by the name of Alexander Majors, who had been
hauling freight on the Santa Fe trail, became so impressed with the future of
the industry that he determined to go into it on a larger scale. W. H. Russell
and Thomas Waddell, men who had also had some experience on the southern route,
became has partners, and the company began business under the firm name of
Russell, Majors & Waddell. The result was the organization of the biggest
freighting company that the world has ever seen. In the zenith of its prosperity
it employed about four thousand men and had six thousand wagons on the various
transcontinental routes. A train consisted of from twenty to thirty wagons, and
was under the general direction of the "wagon master," whose subordinates, a
teamster and assistant to each wagon, were called "bull whackers". The men were
paid a dollar a day and board, and so strong was the lure of the West that there
was a rush for positions. Few of them returned with their trains, and most of
the oxen and wagons were sold at the end of the outward journey. [1]

[1] Majors, "Seventy Years on the Frontier."


    William Cody, who was later famous as "Buffalo Bill", entered the employ of
Mr. Majors in 1848, and a life-long friendship resulted. His first work was that
of messenger boy between trains, a position calling for courage and
resourcefulness because of the hostility of the Indians. His ability won the
esteem of the older man, and he, in turn, had the greatest regard for Majors,
whom he considered the leading spirit of the great business. In his old age Mr.
Majors published a book called "Seventy Years on the Frontier", the preface of
which was written by Cody. Among other tributes to his friend he writes:
"Alexander Majors never shirked a duty or failed to meet an obligation." Strict
rules were laid down for the employes, prohibiting the use of liquor and
profanity, and although they may not always have been adhered to in the wild
life of the frontier, yet there is no doubt that they had their influence in
making this the safest, as well as the largest, company in operation.

    The fate of the first trip of this firm into Wyoming in 1856 when the
government supplies for Johnson's army were destroyed, has already been told.
The next year a regular freight service to Salt Lake City was begun. The round
trip starting from the Missouri took all summer. Across Uinta County the two
roads were still traveled from Fort Bridger, the one to Fort Hall and the other
to Salt Lake.

    In 1851 two men known as Hockaday and Leggitt established a stage line to
Salt Lake. It began on a monthly schedule, which was soon made semi-monthly. The
driver cared for his own horses, and it took twenty-one days to make the trip
out. The fare was one hundred and fifty dollars and passage had to be engaged
months in advance. They made a specialty of mail and express. [2]

[2] Laman, "Tie Great Salt Lake TraiL"


    In 1858 Russell, Majors & Waddell bought out Leggett and Hockaday and put on
a daily service. The trip from Atchison to Salt Lake was made in ten days. Stage
stations equipped with horses and provisions were built about twenty miles
apart; Millersville, named from Miller, a well-known stage driver; Fort Bridger,
Big Muddy and Bear River Crossing comprised those within the region we are
studying. The company received from the government $400,000 a year for carrying
mail. [3] The vehicles were Concord coaches. They were swung on strong leather
straps, and afforded as much comfort as possible on the long mountain journey.
Hour after hour by night as well as day the passengers endured as best they
could the rocking motion of the forward progress. At stations they would alight
to stretch their cramped limbs, and eat meals of varying quality.

[3] Ibid.


    The stage driver was a high-salaried man for his time, receiving from $150
to $200 a month. He was autocrat of his realm, and many were the hairraising
yarns of events on the road spun by them in later years. Jim Brumley, who
"fingered the ribbons" for some ten years, was an adept in this art, and gloried
in entertaining the guests at the eating house in Echo that he ran for many
years after the railroad was built. One day he was telling a thrilling adventure
to a party of "tender-feet", and described being chased from his stage by a band
of Indians. He pictured himself, unarmed and separated from his companions,
making his way at breakneck speed up a canyon, the yelling redskins gaining on
him at every step. On either side rose precipitous cliffs hundreds of feet high,
and he found himself faced by a huge perpendicular rock. At this point of his
narration he paused, and silently gazed at his breathless audience, one of whom
tremblingly asked: "And what did you do?" His answer came with a gulp:  "By G—,
they killed me!"

    At the side of the driver sat a man with a sawed-off shotgun, and he bore
the title of "guard".

    Before the year 1860 half a million people had settled in the western
territories. There was an earnest demand for quicker mail service and this
resulted in the organization of the Pony Express. The idea had been conceived in
1854, by William Gwin, Senator from California, while he was making the overland
journey on horseback. For several years it was at different times brought to the
attention of Congress and the public, but no definite steps were taken until
1859, when W. H. Russell became interested, and made a contract for his company
to carry the mail by horseback, from the terminus of the eastern telegraph lines
at St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento. The route was that of the old stage line
and covered nineteen hundred sixty miles. At an enormous expense one hundred
ninety stations were equipped with horses to furnish fresh mounts for the
riders, and with provisions. The old stage stations were utilized, and others
built, so that the stopping places were about ten miles apart. The new stations
within the limits of this work were Quakenasp Springs and Needle Rock. There
were about five hundred horses in this work, animals chosen for speed and
endurance. Eighty riders were employed at $125 a month and board. From either
side of the light saddle hung two leather bags filled with sealed dispatches,
many of which had been telegraphed from the east to the starting place on the
Missouri. At first the rate was five dollars for the half ounce, but it was
later reduced to one. [4]

[4] Mary E. Pack, "U. P. Magazine for October, 1923."


    On the third of April, 1860, the riders started from the two terminals with
their valuable loads. On the fifth day, not far from Fort Bridger, their relays
hailed each other from the saddles and galloped on. In ten days the trip was
accomplished. This time was never exceeded, and was often cut by as much as
twenty hours. The equipment was of the lightest possible, saddle, bridle and
bags being limited to thirteen pounds, and the riders were chosen for their
skill, courage and lightness of weight. They rode night and day, and were
relieved every forty miles if all went well, but there are records of men being
in the saddle twenty hours at a stretch. Only once was the mail lost, but there
were many hair-breadth escapes, for the Indians cherished a deadly animosity
toward these daring horsemen.

    One of the very early settlers in Evanston was John Wade. If one may believe
the story of his life as told by himself, it was one long adventure from the
arrival of his father's family at Salt Lake to its close. When a young man he
was taken by Indians, and for three years was in captivity. When he finally made
his escape he found his way with great difficulty to Salt Lake, where he
appeared one night at his mother's door, and, though nearly naked and greatly
changed, he was recognized and taken in. Later he became a scout and roamed all
over the Rockies. He entered the employ of the Pony Express, and at the time of
Lincoln's First Inaugural was the bearer of the message through this part of the
country. There was a race between the Santa Fe Trail and the Oregon Trail in
getting the news to California. He told of riding at breakneck speed from Fort
Bridger to Bear River Crossing, where he expected to be relieved, but, owing to
an accident to the rider stationed there, was disappointed. The station keeper
tried to prevail on him to rest and eat, but time was too precious, and quickly
changing mounts and snatching a piece of pie in his hand, he continued the
journey. Though worn and weary when he reached Salt Lake, he had the
satisfaction of finding that he had contributed to the success of the Oregon
Trail messengers in the race. The time consumed in carrying this message was
seven days and seventeen hours. Mr. Wade had a blacksmith shop in Evanston in
the early '70s and spent his old age on a ranch near Millburn, in the Bridger
Valley, where he died in 1920.

    As a business venture the Pony Express was a failure, for the expense was
terrific. 1861 was, as we have already seen, a bad year in the Indian country.
Horses were run off, stations burned, and many a brave rider was shot from
ambush. Even the usually peaceful Shoshones joined in the depredations, and in
March, 1862, they made a concerted attack on the stations between the Platte and
Bear River and captured every horse in the service. Stage passengers were not
molested, but many were left in standing coaches from which the horses were
taken. A negro who was cooking at one of the stations on the Sweetwater was
killed, and three drivers who resisted the demands of the savages were wounded,
but there were no other casualties. [5] As United States military forces were
engaged in the South, General Conner sent three hundred men out from Salt Lake
to guard the line. [6] This was known as the Mormon Battalion, and was under the
command of Lot Smith.

[5] "History of Wyoming," Content.

[6] "History of Utah," Whitney.


    As quickly as possible the new equipment was sent out and operations
resumed, but it was a fatal blow to Russell, Majors & Waddell, the company that
had done so much for the upbuilding of the West. They were obliged to sell out,
the purchaser being Ben Holiday, proprietor of the stage line from Salt Lake to
Sacramento, and he continued the daily stage service. Holiday received from the
government $1,000,000 a year for carrying mail, but even that did not make the
business pay, and in 1866 he sold to the Wells Fargo Company, who continued to
run their stages up to the time of the regular trains on the Union Pacific. [7]

[7] Hebard, "Pathbreakers from River to Ocean."


    The Pony Express was abandoned in 1862 after sixteen months of activity. In
the winter of i860 Edward Creighton of Omaha came as far as Salt Lake by stage
and traveled on horseback to Sacramento, to satisfy himself as to the
advisability of building a telegraph line to connect with one that had already
been constructed as far as Denver. His trip resulted in an agreement by which
the California Telegraph Company contracted to build from Sacramento to meet a
line to be built by the Western Union to Salt Lake. The government offered a
subsidy of $40,000 a year to the company first to complete its work. Creighton's
men reached the goal on the 17th of October, 1861, and gained the bonus. Just a
week later the through line was completed, and the first message sent. [8]

[8] Ihman, "The Great Salt Lake Trail."


    The soldiers at Fort Bridger assisted the workmen in the building and later
in the maintenance of the line. The Indians were very suspicious of the "talking
wire" and cut down the telegraph poles at every opportunity. The course across
the country is still to be traced by the broken stumps of poles running parallel
to the old trail.

    Descriptions of the trip across the country on the old road vary with the
season of the year and the spirit of the writer. John F. Burton gives an
interesting account of his arrival at Jack Robinson's seven Indian lodges on the
23d of August, i860. He tells of his kindly reception by the old mountaineer,
and credits "Uncle Jack" with the possession of $75,000 and a numerous progeny.
[9] The fortune was undoubtedly exaggerated, as the tax roll of Uinta County of
1872 gives the assessed value of his property as $2,268. It is well known, too,
that the little copper-skinned youngsters playing around the tepees were not
Uncle Jack's offspring. Old settlers tell stories of designing Indians bringing
to him captured children from other tribes with the demand that he buy them. A
debate always followed, Uncle Jack protesting that he could not care for any
more children, but the threat "You no buy, me kill", and the raised tommyhawk
over the head of the cowering child never failed to bring the bargain to an end,
and the savage would ride off with the food, blanket or knife he had coveted,
while the white man's camp would be augmented by one more hungry mouth to feed.

[9] Burton, "The City of the Saints."


    Captain Burton describes the Bridger Valley stretching before them in all of
its late summer beauty, luxurious pastures, slopes covered with wild flowers,
mountain currants and hawthorns on every side. Of the people, too, he speaks in
glowing terms, and dwells upon the courtly hospitality of Judge Carter. Crossing
to Bear River they passed several trains of Mormon emigrants, and he describes
the valley as a veritable graveyard. It is a sad truth that many succumbed to
the hardships of the long march at the very threshold of their promised land.

    Leaving the fort by the Salt Lake road the traveler passed on the left a
steep, flat-topped butte that had been left by the receding waters, for this
region was at one time covered by the great Inland Sea. About eighteen miles
farther on a sharp descent led to the Big Muddy, where there was a stage station
kept for many years by a Frenchman by the name of Baptiste. J. H. Beadle, who
made the trip by stage in the summer of 1868, gives the following description of
the onward journey: "From here through a region of bright red rocks often capped
by white clay, and frequent groves of pine, firs and quakenasps, we went up the
grassy slope to Coperas Springs, and on to Quakenasp Hill. The altitude at the
summit is nearly 8,000 feet. A sharp descent leads down to Sulphur Creek at the
foot of a mountain called by the trappers 'Rim Base', because it is the eastern
wall of the great inland basin, the waters of which flow into Salt Lake. Seams
of coal crop out from the hillsides to the north, and about a mile to the south
is Tar Spring." Mr. Beadle mentions a dug way down the steep grade from
Quakenasp Hill. [10]

[10] Beadle, Editor of Salt Lake Reporter from 1869 to 1871.


    The pretty view of the Bear River Valley, with its luxuriant grass and fine
native trees, never fails to excite the admiration of travelers. From 1861 the
station at the crossing of Bear River was kept by John Myers, and it is
described as the very best station on the road. The meadows during the summer
months were often dotted with the outfits of emigrants who stopped there for
rest before entering on the last hard climb over the Wasatch Range.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

UINTA COUNTY ITS PLACE IN HISTORY
ELIZABETH ARNOLD STONE
GLENDALE, CALIFORNIA, U. S. A. 
THE ARTHUR H. CLARK COMPANY

A History of the Original Uinta County, Wyoming, and its Subdivisions

To the dear memory of my father,
Rev. F. L. Arnold


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