The Coolidge examiner., 1932-11-11
AN OLD STAGE COACH AT q
CALIFORNIA FIESTA


CALIFORNIA FIESTA
them, and we might have been pitched head
long down a precipice of 1000 feet; where
all the concern that could have been picked
up afterward would not have been worth two
bits per bushel."
Mark Twain, who supposed to have
authored the Monk anecdote, declared that he
had heard 1t either SCI or S62 times in six
years, but that it never had occurred, and was
a poor thing anyhow Joe Goodman, editor
of the Virginia City Enterprise, was going
East in 1869. Monks parting words to him
were: "You tell Horace Greeley 1 want to
come East and ask him TO send me pass"
One of the first acquaintances Goodman ran
across in New York was the editor. 'AIr
Greeley have a message for you from Hank
Monk" he began innocenty.
Greeley gared THAT scoundrel." he broke
in HE hay done me more injury than any
other man IN America" And that was that
Although we commonly think OF the stage
coach as a vehicle OF the trans Mississippi from
tier the old Concord coach, the use Of which
became so general on all the stage lines Of the
West that no other coach ever supplanted 1t,
was New England product. 1t was made by the
Abbott-Downing company of Concord, n. H.,
a firm that had its beginnings in a wheelwright
business, founded by Lewis Browning in 1918.
Back in Colonial days coaches at first were
imported from England. Coach building had be-
come an accepted English tradition in the Eight
eenth century, and the few colonial coach build
ers had served their apprenticeshps in the old
country.
The close of the Revolution brought independ-
ence to this country not only in political, but
in industrial domains. This evident in the
development of transportation. The fine Eng
licb a1o TO
and often precipitous roads of the United
States.
In such states as Vermont, with her Green
mountains, and In New Hampshire with her
White mountains, once one colony the demand
grew for a vehicle which would be as safe and
comfortable possible the steepest and
rockiest grades. The coach developed early in
the last century by the Abbotts of Concord met
this want.
The body of the coach was built of stout
white oak braced with iron bands. It was sus-
pended upon two leather thoroughbraces ex-
tending lengthwise of the coach and attached at
each end to a standard protruding up from the
axle These thoroughbraces were made of
straps of leather placed on top of each other
to a thickness of about three inches This leath-
er swing was used in the absence Of steel
springs to absorb the jars, and it permitted the
coach to rock slightly forward and back Be
hind the body was the triangular "boot' for
mail, express or baggage, and at the front
under the drivers seat, was another leather
compartment (the front "boot) for the car
riage of similar articles
The coach had three inside seats, capable of
holding nine passengers. The front seat faced
backward, and the middle one was often a
mere nch-shaped contrivance that could be
removed when the floor of the coach was needed
for mail or express There was room for an
other passenger sometimes still another was
squeezed in) on the box with the driver and the
messenger; and on some of the coaches a furth-
er seat set up above and behind the driver
capable of holding three passengers. An occas-
iOnal threepassenger seat at the rear of the
top not unknown; and on such stage IT
passengers might be found.
There was frequent crowding, especially when
one or more of the passengers happened to be
of unusual girth. Raphael Pumpelly who trav-
eled over the Butterfield route from Upton. Mo
to Tucson, Ariz., in what presumably a
Concord coach, gives this picture:
"The coach was fitted with three seats. and
these were occupied by nine passengers. AS
the occupants of the front and middle seats
faced each other, it was necessary for these
six people to interlock their knees: and there
being room inside for only 10 of the - leps
outside of the coach was graced by a foot now
dangling near the wheel, now trying in vain
to find a place of support. An unusually heavy
mail in the boot, by weighing down the rear
kept those of US who were on the front seat
constantly bent forward, thus by taking away
all support from our backs rendering rest at
all times out of the question"
&c by Western Newspaper Union)