Across The Fence: The Butterfield Overland Mail

On the Sept., 15, 1858 the newly formed Butterfield Overland Mail Company sent its first Concord stages on their inaugural journey across the U.S. One stage left Saint Louis, Mo., and another left San Francisco, Calif., and within 25 days, each would reach their destination on the opposite end of the Overland Route.

The history of our Nebraska Panhandle does not include this historic event in the annals of Nebraska's pioneers. But two years later, in 1860, Nebraska would play host to a major portion of the Pony Express Route as it followed the old Oregon and California trails. Though the Pony Express lasted little more than a single year, the courage and daring of young men riding horseback across the nation, while eluding eminent danger at every galloping stride, held far more romance than a lumbering stagecoach delivering mail to the Pacific coast. However, it could well be argued that the Overland Mail Company was directly responsible for the brief success, and subsequent failure, of the Pony Express. And, though nearly forgotten, the Overland Mail Company, a sub-entity of the Butterfield Stage Company, did in fact operate briefly along the old Pony Express route and deserves mention in our Nebraska history.

John Warren Butterfield was born in the second year of the nineteenth century in Berne, NY. As a young man his sole desire was to become a professional stage coach driver, a goal that he had achieved by the age of nineteen. In his early years as a teamster the young Butterfield hauled passengers and freight from Albany, New York to Utica. By the time J. W. Butterfield had reached his mid-forties he was operating stage lines throughout the state of New York and had established transportation routes via steamboats on Lake Ontario and a commercial rail system in Utica. In 1850 he merged his business of Butterfield, Wasson & Company with Livingston, Fargo & Company and also brought into the mix the Wells & Company. The three companies combined, under the direction of Butterfield, were organized as the American Express Company that has continuously operated as a transportation, insurance and financial institution into our current 21st century.

Butterfield's experience with stage coach transportation for hauling both passengers and freight gave him a significant advantage when in 1857 the U.S. Postal Service sought to finance a mail delivery system that could transport mail overland from Saint Louis to San Francisco in 25 days or less.

Previous mail service from the eastern cities to the west coast had been provided by private companies, many under government contract, using various land and water routes. In the early 1850's the overland mail route went between Missouri and Utah through Kansas or Nebraska, on to Denver then northwesterly through Wyoming and over South Pass to Salt Lake. From Salt Lake the route wound through the mountains to San Francisco. The various routes were unpredictable at best and deadly at worst. Hostile Indians and adverse weather conditions often delayed delivery or stopped it completely when both mail carrier and mail disappeared.

The earliest, most common route was by steamship from Boston, around the southern tip of South America's Cape Horn, then up the west coast to San Francisco. Later routes, beginning in 1848 carried the mail by ship from Boston to the Isthmus of Panama, across the Isthmus by land, then again by ship to San Francisco. The trip could take from three to six months.

Increasing population in the new state of California and the need for faster communication across the continent prompted the government to seek a faster service. From the beginning, the U.S. Postal Service did not intend for the operation to be profitable, the goal was simply to bind the continent together, from coast to coast, through expedient communication.

Out of the nine overland stage companies who competed for the six-year mail contract, J. W. Butterfield's American Express Company won the bid. Each of the bidders submitted their own proposed route and the southern route proposed by Butterfield was the route preferred by the Postmaster General. Although the Butterfield route was nearly 800 miles greater than other proposed routes, Butterfield maintained that his extreme southern route would virtually eliminate the hazards of mountain travel, hostile Indian attacks and deadly winter conditions. And so it was that, on September 15, 1857, J.W. Butterfield was awarded the $600,000 per year contract to deliver the U.S. mail.

The Butterfield Overland Mail Company was given one year to prepare for the inaugural run and over the ensuing twelve months spent more than one million dollars in preparations. One hundred and thirty-nine stations were built along the proposed 2,800-mile route. Eight hundred men were hired to drive and guard the 250 Concord coaches and various freight wagons, man the stations and care for the 2,000 horses and mules. The route, known as "The Oxbow Route", began in Tipton, Mo. and covered the first 160 miles to Saint Louis by train. From Saint Louis coaches carried the mail, and passengers, dropping sharply to the southwest through Arkansas and Indian Territory reaching its southern extreme at Franklin, Texas (todays El Paso). The route then continued in a gradual north by northwest course that crossed the Mexico border before passing through southern New Mexico then swinging up through California to San Francisco.

Exactly one year from the date that the contract was awarded, the Butterfield Overland Mail coaches left from San Francisco and Saint Louis along the Ox Bow route and succeeded in completing the run in less than the required 25 days. On that first run, John W. Butterfield took the reins and drove the coach for the first leg of the journey and then handed off the reins to his son J. W. Butterfield Jr. On that first run, New York Herald correspondent Waterman Ormsby rode the entire route to San Francisco and recorded his travels for publication. Within the first 300 miles of the trip Ormsby wrote: "...we have now gone two hundred and forty-three miles through, I think, some of the roughest part of the country on the route... I find roughing it on the Plains agrees with me." Two days later he wrote, "I had thought before we reached this point that the rough roads of Missouri and Arkansas could not be equaled; but, here Arkansas fairly beats itself. I might say our road was steep, rugged, jagged, rough and mountainous – and then wish for some more expressive words... Our heavy wagon bounded along the crags as if it would be shaken in pieces every minute, and ourselves dis-emboweled on the spot." After further abuse Ormsby wrote; "...if I had any property I certainly should have made a hasty will."

Upon arriving in San Francisco, Ormsby concluded his dispatch to the New York Herald saying, "Had I not just come out over the route, I would be perfectly willing to go back, but I now know what Hell is like. I've just had 24 days of it."

In 1860 the Pony Express set out to win the government contract for mail delivery. Although the Express was able to deliver from St. Joseph, Missouri to San Francisco in 10 days, they were unsuccessful in winning the contract. Although certainly faster that the Overland Mail, perhaps the inability to carry up to 12,000 pieces of mail at a time, precluded any chance of beating out the Butterfield. Additionally, express mail with a delivery time of only 10 days could not compete with the nearly instantaneous delivery of messages via the newly completed transcontinental telegraph system.

In March of 1860, the Butterfield Overland Stage Company was taken over by the newly formed Wells-Fargo & Company and Butterfield was forced out of business due to the large debt that he owed his partners Wells and Fargo. A year later, with the impending threat of civil war, Congress discontinued the southern "Ox Bow" route and established a new central route from Saint Joseph, Missouri to Placerville, California. This route followed closely the old Oregon and California trails that had also been used by the short lived Pony Express.

By 1866, until 1869 Wells-Fargo Company established a monopoly on long distance stage travel and mail delivery. The company had created a huge network of relay stations and routes that served the travel and communication needs of the growing nation. Despite the unprecedented success of the Wells-Fargo Company, their passenger and freighting business was soon replaced when the final spike was driven at Promontory Point, near Ogden, Utah on May 10, 1869. The completion of the first transcontinental railroad marked the beginning of an era and the last delivery of mail by stagecoach. On that day, the U.S. Government cancelled its Overland Mail contract.

Six months later, on November 14, 1869, John Warren Butterfield, his life's journey complete, closed his eyes to dream no more.

M. Timothy Nolting is an award-winning Nebraska columnist and freelance writer. Contact Tim via email at [email protected].