Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1889-09-23

4
Daring Riders Who Changed Horses In g
Few Seconds.
There is a Quiet, middle aged gentleman
| whose life work constitutes an important
part OF the growth and development of the
great state Of Colorado His name is Johr
Scudder, and ne was one of the first to advo
cate the organization of the celebrated pony
express, and after its establishment, through
the efforts of William H. Russell, assisted in
its management and operation In converse
| ton with reporter he related the history OF
that famous enterprise After lighting a
cigar and seq ting himself in comfortable
easy chair he said:
The firm ~ Majors Russell e. Waddel
were at that time the wealthiest and mosr
| extensive frei ght contractors i'm the Union
just To give ypu an idea of the magnitude of
| their business, | will tell Won that i'm 1851
| when first knew Mr. Russell, they were un.
der contract with the national government
20 carry every pound OF freight. north, south
and west of tie Missouri river and east of the
Rocky mount aims, including every govern.
ment post in that territory At that time
they had over 200 wagons on the road a,
one time, each costing from $50 to 500, and
as each wagon required six yoke of oxen to
pull it, you may form some conception OF
the amount o. capital invested
TBE PLAN CONCEIVED.
at was in the fall of 1859, and during the
ensuing winter, |, together with some of MIR.
| Russel's mer. gathered at the headquarters
| in Salt Lake City, which were under the
charge of A b. Miller, man of consider.
able ability, and known throughout the west
as a sporting character. The eastern news
papers whicl found their way into camr
were full of the overland mail agitation, and
| becoming interested in the discussion we be
gan To figure on the time and distance did
most of the calculating, and the more / fig
ured the greater became our interest We
satisfied ourselves fully that the time could
be greatly shortened, and the result was that
the boys wrote to Mr.. Russell, informing him
that they wo, Id undertake to carry mail from
st. Joseph, No, to San Francisco in twelve
days Now, in addition to his wonderful en-
terprise, MIR Russell was kindly man. and
ever ready to listen to suggestions from those
under him. We were not surprised, there
fore, when ho replied promptly to our letter,
and requested that we acquRint him fully
with the ar5iculars of our plan We i'm.
mediately DIR fitted out a rough map of the
country, showing the proposed route to-
gether with the stations and their distances
apart and Il is we forwarded to him without
delay. We, at the same time, wrote him an
other letter, explaining our plan of covering
the route by relays of horses, carrying "A mail
pouch, and strongly urged its entire prac-
ticability Quite number of communica-
tions passed between Mr. Russell and his
agent at Salt Lake, and the upshot of it was
that the former agreed TO test the matter by
stringing out lot of horses and riders be
tween the Missouri river and the Pacific
coast. The first notice they received of Mr.
RuSSell's acceptance, however, was the re-
ceipt of an order to buy 900 good horses
at Salt Lake At the same time Ben Flick.
land, who was then division master be-
tween Denver and Salt Lake, but after
wards famous as blockade runner left New
York for San Francisco to buy horses there
The horses were good, strong ones, but not
heavy, and the prices paid for them ranged
as high 500 each Associated with us,
also, in the work of preparation for the great
trial were n man named Bromley and the
notorious SHIde, who was after wards hanged
in Montana and who was employed as di-
vision master between Denver and Fort
kearney. Another Of those interested in
the work was a man named Clute who was
Mr. RUSSELL manager at ST. Joseph
DISTRIBUTING THE HORSES.
After the purchase of the horses the work
of distrihut ne began, and / assisted Miller
and Bromley In scattering them along the
line between Salt Lake and Platte Bridge
This done, tine line was given practical test
by being run over once or twice and Mr.
Russell was 20 far satisfied that he caused it
TO be ammo Inced in The New York Herald
and Washin yton Star, the latter of which he
owned, that he would start the first horses
from San Francisco and st. Joseph at the
same hour on the 9th day of April, and that
he would agree to carry letters or written
correspondence between those points in ten
days This created great excitement in the
east, and 10 became evident that Mr.. Russell
possessed more thorough knowledge of the
great west than was had in the departments
at Washington The stage line representa-
tives who we're working up this overland
mail scheme laughed at his plans and his
partners even went to Washington TO remon
strate against what they considered piece
of extravag ant folly So strong was his faith
I'm hts plan and 50 firm the deter
mination 70 carry il out that he assumed pay
ment of all bills contracted, and thus the en-
terprise became his own.
THE FIRST START
when the momentous 9th day of April ar
rived a ina; a;,niiicent black horse, carrying q
mail pouch and rider, left st. Joseph on the
ferry boat bound west, in the presence of
10000 cheering spectators AT the same hour
a splendid white horse left San Francisco on
the steame- for Sacramento. Over plains
and mount aims they sped. past station after
station, day and night, without halting longer
than to transfer the pouch from horse to
horse, and in eight days and four hours the
letters that left St Joseph were in Sacra-
mento. Mr. Russells scheme was an assured
success, AMI the pony express became for a
time one % the most potent factors in civili-
zation. IL brought the far west into closer
communication and sympathy with the east,
and advanced the development of the west,
in my opir ion, fully fifty years. The stage
companies contract scheme fell through, and
one year lIter Mr.. Russell was awarded the
contract for carrying the overland mails.
''In clos ng ! will state that the stations
were from nine to fifteen miles apart, ac-
cording to the nature of the country, and
each rider covered from two to three sta
tions, changing horses at each. They were a
hardy, feIrless set of men, and capable of
enduring great exertion. The saddle, bride
and pouch were strongly and compactly
made, ano weighed together thirteen pounds
Each rider carried a small horn, by means of
which he announced his approach from a
distance, N order to warn the stable attend
ants, and i'm this way the horses were always
in readiness on his arrival and no time was
lost. st Louis Republic.
III