The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1898-05-11
,e OLD sTAGECOACHES.
profits Made by tho Companies
aD"'- xVbo Owned Them.

y-lI
# profits Made by the Companies
u fsD'' who Owned Them.
.rbe stagecoach days are. about
q =. in Montana and Idaho, said S.
q o'c Q ch,npon to arerorter. with the
IS l. .ansic of the Northern Pacific
snch into Lewiston, Ida, the little
4 u ao line into that town will have
s'' ~ Eve way. There are but three
g - lines left in Montana, and it is
f"s ,,, a matter of time before they
& III IN he zone But those were great
m we when the great Gilman-Sauls-
,,,v ~. lines were operating in Mon
no And Mr.. Shannon lapsed into
.;,orce moment as he thought of
.he old days when he was auditor ot
,h,t line, stationed Mt Helena.
With the stagecoach lines from
.hsr infancy to their days of power
q Iu1 I then with the railroad when it
a ras finally completed through to
,,o Pacific, and now in other business
- look back on those earlier and at
M ,sast equally happy days, has been
Ar Shannon's experience. He is in
8 ,,ma,ely acquainted with the heads
af the Northern Pacific and was with
81 hat road long before the present
management came to the helm. He
;s !, PERSONAL friend of the old timo
81 trontierslnan, withal good business
man of the later days.
II Staging now is not what it was
II in the early days" ho continued.
81 ..Thc trouble now is that whenever
& stage line begins to pay a railroad
n is bult and the stages have to move
farther off into the newer sections of
+ tho country. Itook ride up through
q Okanogan county to the British Co
81 lumbia line short time ago on the
q stages in operation there. and it was
Il one of the worse experiences ever
y had. The stages are little more than
4 mere wagons-not the easy going 6
q to 19 horse teamed luxurious coaches
81 with accommodations for any num-
% her up to &c that we had in Montana.
Il Tho roads are bad, and one jolts
4 along over the trails expecting every
j minute that the next will be his last.
4 he arrives at his destination thor
4 uushly exhausted.
q But in the old days we had
] stages. Equipment is the word for
! their furnishings. They were as
s luxurious as it was possible to make
q them. They rode like rocking chaire.
q On our lines running from Mandan
a to Missoula and from Corinne over
q in Idaho to Helena by way Of Deer
q Lodge, the coaches had accommodate
Il tons for 18, "a and SO and were
q drawn by teams of 6 to 12 horses.
Il i was a matter of get there with
q them. They had the mail contracts
= and were receiving 1884 fer every
4 mile they carried GOO pounds Of bag
a gage and $3.50 for each extra hun
a dred pounds. They had monopoly
q of that traffic. and that is what
4 caused the star route investigation
q in 1884. The coaches could carry
4 1000 pounds of express and the
Il same amount of mail and baggage,
4 besides their passenger lists. They
averaged 8 1-3 miles over this entire
distance, or 91a miles actual running
q time. This was over mountains and
i plains and in all kinds Of weather.
Il Our stages used to leave Bozeman in
the morning and arrive in Helena,
9S miles away, in tho evening.
Montana was in it's stage lines
second only to California. There
i will never be another country euoh
i as those two for stage lines. The
4 roads were all good and hard through
all kinds Of weather, and the horses
could fairly fly. There was money
in staging then. The Gilman -Sauls-
bury company is said to have made
$4,000, 600 out of their stage lines,
and guess that is true. The mail
j contracts and the heavy passenger
lists, to say nothing Of the express,
made the profits count up, even aft
er they had divided with those in
charge of the mail contracts and
/ after the government had forced
them to give ups part of their steal
! ings.
There were several hold ups by
road agents in those days, but as far
as can remember, and was con-
nected with the lines during the
seventies and early eighties, we new
er lost any bullion.
Montana has only three stage
nnes left now, and these run through
flch agricultural districts. Cattle
and sheep ranches are abundaat,
ahd 9be lines are doing a good busi-
ness. In q few years the railroads
Will become jealous OF them, if they
are not now, and build through
4 'nelr districts. Then the stage lines
Will be On1v a n, q ktow re H,So%1~x> An