The San Francisco call., 1910-05-01

VERY now and then my attention is drawn to
/ the passing the great divide OF some stage
/ driver who held the ribbons 40 and so years ago.
when staging over the Sierra Nevada mountains
was the only means of passenger transportation
One by one these knights of the lash have passed
away They were the last of their calling and there
have been to succeed them in elegance and per-
sonality Indeed, the who guided a SIX horse
stage over the Sierra SUBMITS in the ftes, sixties and
seventies the most prominent and engaging per-
son be met
From 1865 to 1876 was the travelling representa-
tive OF prominent business concern in San francisco
and my duties took most all the stage routes
OF California, Oregon and Nevada became more or
less friendly with nearly all stage drivers 1t IS not
too much to say that the Sierra driver was OF more
local account and more highly esteemed than the
millionaire, the miner or the statesman who rode
with him He was the autocrat of the road at all
time when driving his run and his orders were
obeyed with the greatest cheerfulness and celer1ty
He always the first be sauted by the wayfarer,
the passenger the hostler, the postmaster and the
man at the wayside tavern.
George w. Spencer, who came to California from
Vermont in 184o and became of the best drivers
the Sierra route early afflicted with con-
sumption and was sent from San Francisco to the
mountains. He lived for so years afterward dying at
Oakland in 1900 at the age of 70. He first drove
between San Francisco and San Jose and had several
adventures with highwayme generally escaping them.
when s wo Duras sprang oas Of a pile Of brush and
ordered him to stop, eyellng their revoivers at him.
Spence gave the lash and shout to his SIX mus
tangs, and they dashed furiously away. He and his
passengers escaped unharmed, although dozen bull
lets had been sent after them
WHEN CURLY BILL" WAS FAMOUS
Curly Bill" who was a splendid whip, com
menced driving for the California stage company in
the late ifes and was famous in the sixties and
enties He was a great favorite of John w Mackay
and James G. Fair, whom he outlived. For many
years he held the ribbons between Sacramento and
Grass Valley, and later he drove for the Placerve
stage company between Strawberry and Carson and
between Carson and Virginia Cty His was
William Gerhardt and he died in San Francisco in
1904, aged 70 years. He known to every promi-
ncnt miner the Comstock and i'll his day his name
was household word.
Fn December in the late sixties rode with Curly
Bi' from Summit station ON the Placerville road to
Strawberry, There were ten dozen passengers in
a big sleigh drawn by roam horses There was the
deepest snow known by any of the drivers or other
old time residents and glided over the milk white
highway from which no telegraph poles for long dis
tances visible the rate of 10 miles hour.
At last arrived at place the line, the edge
of Tahoe, called Yanks. where we obtained fine
mess OF trout, which we had cooked at Strawberry
for dinner. have never seen such good natured
looking couple "Yank" and his wife, the edge of
the big, black, frownng lake, with the more
than 20 feet all around them, and neighbor nearer
than 10 or II miles
Hank" (IIenryl Knight was one of the queerest
drivers have met. He was a native of Missouri,
and thought Tom Benton and John c. Fremont