Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1859-03-01
MORNING LEADER.
The United States Express Company.

iican, giving condensed history of the UniteC
States Express Company, cannot fail to be o
general interest to our readers. The growth o
this Company's business has been most rapid
as will be seen by reading the subjoined:-a
UNITED STATES EXPRESS COMPANY.
The express business OF the United States
furnishing, as il does, facilities of incaleulable
advantage to the people Of every State in the
Union, has grown to be so much of an every
day affair, that few persons give to it sufii ;ient
attention TO learn the surprising extent to which
this mode of transportation is resorted to, and
over what geographical range the lines of ex
presses run. Railroad lines are every where,
but express lines are "leetle ahead"
The early history of the express enterprise,
like that ofmany of the successful undertakings
of the American people, is to be found in un-
pretentious beginnings entered upon by indi-
viduals, without capital or combination, each
protector of the business soliciting patronage
from friends, hut rarely sufficient to balance ex-
penses and indemnify for occasional losses
Thcbusiness extended slowly, but gradually indi-
Gated for itself the place of felt necessity, yet
always demanding perseverance,, and toll by day
and by night, as the condition of its growth,
new miles being added month by month, new
villages and cities being reached and reported in
each months return, until now express messen-
gers are among the most familiar personages ON
every thoroughfare in the land.
AS railroads were constructed in the East,
heading toward the Pacific, the express busi-
ness became the attendant of railrold traffic,
speeding westward, and now claims for its field
the remotest point of the territory of the United
States where ciVilzeI Americans are found
1t was the rapid extension of Express lines
throughout the West, and particularly through
out Missouri, that lead US into some inquiry into
the history of the United States Express Com
pany, which has appropriated our own State
as exclusively its own, there being no Express
lines within the State of Missouri save those
| directed by the company named.
The existence of this company dates back
only to May, 1854 During that year is lines
extended 10 Chicago in the Northwest and to
! Cincinnati on the borders of the South with
ew short lines as tributaries to the main routes.
But in the second year the company commenced
stretching out its arms, under well organized
management, displaying great executive efici-
| ency, inviting and challenging honorable com
petition with older lines, steadily pressing on
ward to the Mississippi, until st. Louis was
reached via Chicago, then the only Railroad Ex-
lines of this company, while aiming at st. Louis
that year, embraced also Rock Island, and added
to the range OF its VARIOUS lines large proper
ton of the State of Illinois, accessible either by
railroads or by nayigable rivers, establishing
agencies in all the principal cities and towns,
and becoming one Of the "institutiens' of the
West. The number of miles run by this com
pany in the year 1854 and 1856 was scarcely
more than fifteen hundred. The progress of the
enterprise was rapid in the year 1856, the num-
Der of miles traversed being over three thousand,
with regular Express business established at
every city and town on the line of this 5000
miles of distance. In the year 1857, this COM
pany, the pioneer Express ofthe West (for such
it really was as then no other company had ex-
tended its lines stones throw to the west of
the Mississippi river,) pushed on across the
State of Iowa, more thnn three hundred miles
Of the distance being in post-coaches and in
four-hoTses covered wagons, reaching Des
Moines, and thence to Council Bluffs, where, to
s'make the line more perfect, they crossed the
Big Muddy" to Omaha City, the capital of Ne
braska, making a distance Of nearly direct line
from the seaboard Of sixteen hundred miles,
daily linc-no trifing feat for one organization.
Near the close of the same year-IS57-the
United States Express Company commenced
its services more extensively in Missouri. The
gradual extension of our lines of railroads, and
the rapidly developing business of the State re-
quired Express facilities, and the company
placed their messengers on the North Missouri
road, then to st. Charles only, extending their
business as Major Walker extended his road,
until it has now reached the intersection Of
Hannibal and st. Joseph road, oD which the
United States Express messengers are render
ing daily services westward from the Mississip-
pi with reasonable certainty of reaching St
Joseph during the approaching spring. dis
tance of two hundred and seven miles from riv-
er to river.
In September, 1857, the company sent well
organized force over the Pacific Railroad to JEFF
ferson City. hence by steamers to Council
Bluffs, establishing agencies at all the principal
landings on the river IN Missouri, Kansas, Iowa
and Nebraska. From the main line the com-
pany diverged at Kansas City, branching off
into the interior of Kansas, passing through |
Westport, the city of Lawrence, Tecumseh, to |
that somewhat noted city of Topeka, where, |
for this winter only, the line terminates. Dur
ing the present year, it is understood that the |
company will have regular express service to |
Pixies Peak, the new FL Dorado in Western |
Kansas, with view TO an early extension of
the express to Salt Lake City.
So remarkably has the company extended its
daily express services, that BY the month of
May of the present yeaF-not including the gold
express to Pixies Peak-the company will have
performed every tlcensy-follr hours, an express
service extending, if the distance travelled was.
in continuous line, over thirteen thousand Gscs!
The company have about four hundred Offices,
and employ some fifteen hundred men, with
horses and wagons innumerable.
II is difficult to estimate the value of this ad
dition to the transportation, telegraph, and
mail arrangements Of the day, to the merchant,
banker, and business men generally. Without |
it the most serious inconvenience and disadYan- |
tage would be experienced instantly. A lady's |
fan, case of goods, box of coin, or package-
of notes, can be forwarded by the company to |
almost every point in the United States, Cali.
fornia and Oregon included, as well as to Eu-
rope and Havana. ii
We Learn that the President ofthe Company,
D. n. Barney, Esq, is also President and Man
ager of Wells, Fargo & Co. California Express
q company, to its credit be it said, which was
the sole Express Company doing business with I
the Pacific coast that maintained itself during
the financial storm Of 1855 which passed over /
California. The direct connection of the Unit
ed States Express Company with this Pacific
Express, gives to it unusual facilities for doing
business with the Pacific coast.
3 Our own experience of the promptness and
dispatch displayed by this line, warrants the
statement that no other line surpasses it in those
particulars. The telegraph may excel it in
switness, but that only. The ordinary running
time to and from New York, Philadelphia and
Boston is about fifty six hours for money, valu-
sbles and newspapers. The latter, for weeks
and months. we have had by this ExpreEs
ahead Of mails-often in advance Of all other
lines, and never behind any-while this com
pany was acting as carrier Of newspapers for
the press i-.A