The Black Hills union and western stock review. [volume] (Rapid City, S.D.) 1904-19??, 1910-12-30
WHEN THE RAILROADS MAO
NOT REACHED THE HILLS

tBy Harry Ashton, Superior, Wis.
The meal stations were Lance
Creek, Medicine Creek, Cheyenne
River, Rapid City, Sturgis City and
Deadwood. The others were way
stations where the teams were chang
ed and fed. The run could be made
in 36 hours with good roads, but
often took week. The drivers
would generally know within a few
minutes when the coaches would ar
rive on good roads and would have
their teams harnessed and ready to
lead out Immediately on the arrival
of the coach. The horses were train
ed like the fire horses and knew
their respective places. A change
could be made in three minutes.
Horse was the chief topic of CONVEX
sation among the drivers. Their off
leader and nigh wheeler were topics
of general interest. Their ambition
was to swap horses and match up
their teams to suit themselves, and
when the superintendent, Old Gid,
as he was called, came around on a
tour of inspection they would use
their powers Of persuasion for him to
make change. Sometimes he would
and then row would ensue. The
names Of some of the drivers that OPP
Grated along the route were: Hank
Williams, Red Raymond, Ben Gee,
Geo. Dean, Jack Matlock, James CAL
lahan, Kid Ellis, Dick Wright, called
Suffering Dick, and MIR. Bronson,
who was at Rapid City and after
wards acted as agent there. A mes
senger accompanied every regular
coach. messengers duty was to
time between the stations, they hav-
ing an allotted time to make a sta
ton, and to deliver all mail and col
iect all money at meal stations. The
messengers had charge of all mail
and express, and We're expected to
make themselves useful general
iy along the route. The names Of
some of the messengers were Mr..
Seebold, Joe Slattery, John Hunter,
Joe Goss and Harry Ashtons~ The com
pany had a treasure coach that left
Deadwood the first and fifteenth of
each month, taking out the bullion
from the Homestake mine. The bave-
est men and the best shots the coun-
try could produce accompanied this
coach. They were heavily armed
with leather belts filled with cart
RIGGS and two Colts revolvers; also
shot gun loaded with buckshot.
They were called shot gun messen-
gers. They were surely the right
men in the right place, and looking
over my list of acquaintance today
it does not seem that l could select
a bunch of men that would COM
pare favorably with them at all.
They filled their little niche in this
life. They virtually took their life in
their own hands many time in the
discharge of their duty, asking no
questions, showing no fear. They
were western men, some of them
oorn in the west, all of them reared
in the west, and they realized that
the west, at that time, was no place
for weakling. Quite a number Of
them have passed on to the Great
Beyond. While some of theme per-
haps were not angels, let us hope
there is some peace for them on the
other side. The names of some of
them were Scott Davis, William
Sample, John Corcoran, Jesse Brown,
William Lynn and Ross Davis.
There were many distinguished men
that used to ride over the line
Among them were Judge Gaffey,
Judge Moody, first United States
Senator from South Dakota, Judge
Church, afterwards governor of Da-
kota and Alaska Territories, and the
sheriff of Lawrence county, John
Manning, used to carry prisoners
troit, Michigan. The writer we'll re-
members Judge Church's advent into
the Hills. 1t happened to be on my
run. The next morning he embarked
for Deadwood. I had two coaches
out that morning, regular and an
extra. William Sample, one of the
sotgun messengers was aboard of the
extra. The passengers aboard my
coach were the judge and family and
the wife of bookkeeper for the
Homestake mine at that time. The
stage and freight traffic used to pass
across the river on a steam ferry
boat. The weather was stormy and
the roads bad. About a mile from
Fort Pierre we he'd to pass through
a canyon and came near upsetting.
the judge gave yell and scrambled
for the upper side and being large
man kept the coach from going over.
The soil was sticky blue clay called