The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1895-12-15
STAGES ON THE PLAINS
STORIES RECALLING THE DAYS OF
THE FAMOUS CONCORD COACH.
Ben Holiday, the Owner of n Dig
but They Didn't Rob Him.

lines mat rddlateo tnence over tue TOusn
New England roads into all parts OF New
Hampshire. Vermont and Maine, and be-
tween Boston and Concord there was oper-
ated a daily line of tages
In 1913 Mr.. Louis Downing established at
Concord a shop for the repair of heavy
freight wagons and strong passenger and
mail coaches used throughout New Eng
land. In ISIS he began the building of a
strong. symmetrical, easy riding and COM
modious mail and passenger coach, which
fast gained favor with the operatives of
stage lines under the name OF 9TH Con-
cord Coach" and soon the coach made
among the bleak hills of New England was
pioneering civilization westward and south
westward
Still the steady march of civilization
Westward, no." made heavy and more
heavy drafts on the renowned coach build
ers OF Concord. who had now become
known as the Abbott-Downing Company.
In 1910 another and companion industry
sprang into existence in the New Hamp-
shire town that was destined to go hand
In hand In fame and prosperity with the
Concord coaches. James r. Hill began the
manufacture of the ~well-known Concord
harness., and the coach and harness on
which was stamped the magic name of
concord theDceforth went hand in hand
In plotting the way for the iron horse and
the palace car.
Not only in the great West, but on the
sun-burnt soap weed and cactus deserts
OF old Mexico, on the high reaches and
In the dusty valleys of Australia, on the
veidts or South Africa and the pampas
OF South America. South Africa ordered
an ornate vehicle in which to ride over
veldt and hillock to the far remote dia-
mond fields and gold mines of the Trans
vaal- 1t would hold twelve passengers in
strong horses at a sweeping gallop, or a
swinging trot, to pull il ten miles an hour
over South African roads.
From Mexico, the land of the banditti,
used TO come orders for coaches with Sc
cret. skillfully hidden strong boxes of tenn
pered steel, in which the wealthy Castil-
liam grandees were wont to conceal their
from the ruthless hands Of the
robbers of the land of 'Mannana."
The discovery of gold in California in
lS4S. the settlement of Brigham Young
in 1917, the discovery OF gold in Colorado
in 1858. led men to brave the dangers ana
privations OF the long Journeys into this
then nearly unknown region. on the books
Of the Concord manufacturers in the late
forties began to appear the names of men
who became famous in the annals of stag
ing in the far West.
Barlow and Sanderson, who operated from
st. Louis into Texas, New Mexico. Arizona,
and thence across the continent via Fort
Smith, Ark; FL Paso, Tex; Fort Yuma,
a. T., thence to Los Angeles, CAL, and up
through the sunkissed valleys to the Golden
Gate. About the same time Brigham Young
was a customer of the Concord establish
ment. and Hockady q McGraw, who
about 1856 established a slow-going, unrelia-
BILE mail and passenger stage service be-
tween the Missouri river and Salt Lake
The line was about 200 miles in length
and they covered 1t in twenty-five days.
driving a single team many hundreds of
miles, having no relay stations. The stages
were stopped while the team fed on the
grass of the prairies. They had a mail
contract between the Missouri river and
Salt Lake. but their line proved very un-
satisfactory to all concerned. and when
their contract expired Mr.. Hiram kimball,
a Mormon. of Salt Lake, outbid them and
secured the contract.
MAKING HISTORY.
1t was while singing under their defeat
by Mr.. Kimball that Mr.. McGraw, of the
firm, wrote a letter to the authorities in
Washington in which he savagely attacked
the Mormons. This letter had much to do
with the ill-advised sending OF Gen. Albert
Sydney Johnston with an army to Salt
Lake in 1857. Mr.. Kimball's company i'm
proved the time between the Missouri river
and Salt Lake, but the Mormon war in
1888 brought his enterprise to an I'M
timely end.
In 1859 the firm of Russell, Majors & Wad-
dell purchased animals, stages and har-
nesses, built relay stations every ten or
fifteen miles, and established a daily line
of stages between the Missouri river, Den
yer and Salt Lake. They reduced the time
to a little over i've days to Denver and
ten days TO Salt Lake.
This line induced a connecting line oper-
ated by Butterfield & Co., between Salt
Lake and Sacramento, and at the outbreaks
OF the civil war in 1861 a mail contract
which had been held by the B~arlow-San-
derson line, operating from st. Louis, by
Fort Smith, FL Paso, Yuma and Los An
geles, was transferred to the new line by
Denver and Salt Lake. the former having
been located within the Confederate States,
and with the contract came a subsidy of
$500. 900 a year, but before the first Install
ment OF this subsidy became due Russell,
Majors & Waddell sold their line to the
man who was to become most famous as
the owner of a transcontinental stage line,
Mr.. Ben Holiday. Mr.. Holiday charged
twenty-five cents per mile for passengers on
his lines running westward from Kansas
City. Leavenworth, st, Joe. Mo-, Nebraska
City, Neb., and Omaha, by Denver and
Salt Lake TO the Pacific coast, making the
fare from the Missouri river to Denver Sl25,
to Salt Lake $500 and TO San Francisco
800. with a charge OF one dollar per pound
for all baggage in excess OF twenty-five
pounds for each passenger, and the yearly
subsidy as before said of $4,000.
~ NhC AA6h III vi 4dOOls nv 0ioNdhOC
food and shelter for man and beast had
to be transported with the de~predations of
white robbers and red marauders, who held
sway in this lawless empire of the West,
the business was not profitable. and Ben
Holiday, VIC once controlled millions of
money and armies of men, horses and
mules on a thousand hills, died a financial
wreck. leaving no assets except a claim
for hundreds of thousands of dollars against
the government for property that had been
taken from him by the wards of the gov
eminent. the thieving Indians.
In so deplorable a financial condition at
his death that even his bones were not al
lowed to rest in the place he had prepared
for them overlooking the beautiful Hudson,
but were hustled to an unknown and. I be-
lieve, unmarked grave by his merciless
creditors.
DIDN'T ROB HOLIDAY.
One lar night a special coach contain
ing the great stage owner and some MEM
bers Of his family was crossing slowly east
ward over the Green river desert, when out
of the still night air rang the ominous cry:
Halt. Hands up
And as the cloud of choking alkali dust
was waited across the sage brush covered
plain. the coach and six horses were re-
veaied at a standstill in the bright star
light OF these high attitudes. The burly
form of a horseman at each side of the
coach and another at the head of the lead
horses doomed against the star-lit sky.
Hands up, there, driverr" shouted the
man by the leaders, while the glistening
barrel of a gun emphasized the remark.
ssTumble out of there. damn ouickr' sa id
one of the men at the side OF the coach.
while the cold, cruel muzzles of a couple
OF guns connected the pair of robbers with
the gloomy inside of the coach. In answer,
came a voice from the inside:
ssC1nIar,nr ~ a SfcE !, ..I A.