Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1903-01-15

zell, Gordon and VIM. Brown, John and
Abe Kiskaddon, Abe Austin, Billy
GRAY, Archie Lee, Israel Colt, John
Burkhard. Dutch Mike and French Joe
there never was known an Irish stage
driver.
John Seth-there was a great joke on
Seth-it was this. He had an impede
ment in his speech, there was man In
Butler who Kept hat store, he too had
an impediment in his speech, they We're
strangers, there was a style of hat
then called Castor hats, Seth wanted 10
buy one and he said, Mr.. G-G-Gll-
c-c-crist l w-w-wa C-C-C-tor h-hat.
''D-d-damn you, LII k-k-kick you into
the street"
So much for the old drivers. Peace
to their ashes.
met Mr.. James Adds of New Castle
in the CITIZEN Office recently. We had
never met, but we compared notes. He
was keeping a toll gate in Stewartstown,
now Etna, when | was born.
The drivers who drove on the plank
road were Billy Mitchell of Butler,
Howe Lyon of Butler, Dan Bulford,
Billy Powell, Lot Jewell. Arthur and
Tom Hays, Isaac, Andy and Sam Mill
iron. Alex and John Williamson, Jake
Cricks, John Reed, Sim Yeagle, j. Nc
Gowan, Tom Cunningham, Sile Oar
rah, Jas HARRISON and your humble
servent.
The old wagoners that hauled from
Butler to Pjttsburg were Dave Bean,
Rhody Waltermyer, Col. Dickson, Jon
athan Plummer, Martin Ramsey, Alex
Troutman and Vim. Richey.
When my father and Arthur McGill
first contracted to carry the mail from
Pittsburg to Erie they rode on horse
back to Washington, d. c. to bid for
the mail They would be gone month.
that is eighty years ago; people would
not like to travel from Butler to Pitts
burg in that style now and get out and
get rails and pry the old stage out of the
mud holes People were just as happy
then as now.
In the srring of one year when the
mud was pretty well dried up with only
hole here and there the stage had
stalled in one of them, Dan Rice's cir
Gus came along and the keeper motion
ed to the elephant to push the stage out
of the hole and he put his head against
the stage and heaved it out
Father had pet bear, very large
black fellow and when the weather was
the dinner table was set in the long
dining room for the stage passengers
the bear got loose. table was not COM
plete those times unless it had large
plates of honey, here and there all over
the table he jumped on the table, drew
the long chain after him, he hauled the
dishes off on the floor, the table looked
like the besom of destruction, and there
were some words said then that are not
down on the Sunday School catalogue.
I need hardly say that there was no
honey left, bears love honey.
/ often wonder what has become OF
the fine horses of those days; there was
a breed of horses then called the Con-
nestoga breed, they were fit for both
stage and wagon, they would weigh
from 15 to 16-hundred pounds, had
both weight and action. A great curse
fell upon this country when Wash
Bales of Freeport brought old Tom
from England, with his dinner plate
feet, and legs as thick and round as
churn and ruined our fine horses. He
exhibited him at the Butler County Fair
the fall of SO There was drunken
fellow there, he said to the keeper of
the horse, ''you have brought an old
run down dray horse to palm off on us
hoosiers. but you can't come it, Judge,
without horse.
1t was a fine sight to see the coaches
leave Pittsburg every morning on the
different routes. Twenty left every
day for Philadelphia on the old Greens
burg pike; there was an opposition line
and the drivers had fine time. racing.
One line had spears driven in the ends
of the lead bars to prevent the other
line from passing.
Simp Walker ran the last stage coach
into Butler. think in the year '73, it
was buried. procession following it.
An old stage coach stood in the rear
of where Troutnan's store now is,under
a shed. Gilmore Campbell often told
me to go and look at it. He said it
would remind me of old stage times
1T stands in stable yard under the
caves,
Leaning TO one side and covered with
leaves,
1t was once the pride Of the gay and the
fair,
But it has now gone to ruin-that old
stage there.
ALEX M. HAYS.