The Hardin tribune-herald. [volume] (Hardin, Mont.) 1925-1973, 1935-08-09

N
Il lings in Early Days.
) youthful gentiles peddled their wares
at a neat profit and Halliday was Oh
his way to his first million.
He acquired the forerunner of the
overland company as a birthday pres
ent when he became 80. The ground
work for the gift was laid through
Judicious loans and timely foreclosures
on the part of the recipient.
He set up the Overland company in
1861 and in seven years had the long
est line in the world, extending from
Leavenworth to the Pacific. with
branches in Montana and Idaho. In
addition, shrewed bargaining brought
n MiSSourian no less than 16 Pacific
ocean packets in the same period of
time.
Halliday had a flare for the spec
tacular and never passed up an OPP
portunity to use it. For instance, once
wishing to impress the post office de
partment with the speed of his line he
staged from Salt Lake to Atchison,
Kan, about 1900 miles, in the then
phenomenal time of eight days and six
hours.
Halliday rolled up the bulk of his
fortune by hauling gold from diggings
in California, Idaho and Montana. The
value of gold shipments and it did not
take long before the Halliday bank
account grew to the proportions of the
Fifth avenue town house and a palatial
ocean-going yacht.
But when the Spectator was given
the Virginia City contract only he alone
knew how close the Overland company
was to out-and-out bankruptcy.
and constantly rebuilding and replace
ing stations and equipment in the
hostile Cheyenne country ate heavily
into the firms fortune through 1868
and 1864. On top of this outlay, Hal
J ladays' remuneration for the overland
mail contract, from Leavenworth to the
Pacific coast, was slashed so per cent
from the 81 900 900 a year he had been
paid.
The Montana contract brought the
company's mail-hauling earnings to
$40 900 a year, an amount sufficient to
keep it out Of bankruptcy. In 1886 Hal
laday disposed of his interests to the
W~ells-Fargo company, receiving ST.
900 900 in cash and $250,000 in paid-up
stock. He was paid an additional $780,
600 for hay, grain and provisions in his
stations.
Yet when Halliday died in Portland
s 81 9S 3 at the age Of S. he left scarcely
BY the middle SOS stage routes were
firmly established south Of Montana
and as far north as Virginia City and
! Bannack. It was not, however, until
the Indians were driven from the Vel
lowstone or rounded up by Miles and
! Terry that stage coaching blazed the
way across southeastern Montana.
man to Miles City. Coulson and, later,
Billings, became the junction for a line
running north to Lavina and Fort Ben
ton. The ghostly Junction City SIM
ilarly served for a route south into
Wyoming.
Many names were connected with
these enterprises. The most successful
operators were Gilman and Salisbury,
who became partners and operated the
Bozeman-Mile City line until the COM
ing of the Northern Pacific.
Wiley King drifted out Of Virginia
City when the diggings petered away
and the population abandoned the camp
for more lucrative fields.
He turned up in Bozeman at the
age of 20 and Immediately went to work
for Gilman and Salisbury.
The year previously n of their
stages had fallen into the hands of the
willy Chief Joseph who used it as his
royal carriage on his triumphal march
down the Yellowstone almost to Coul-
son. The rig was abandoned a few
miles west of Billings when tie Nez
Perez were driven into the hills by
General Sturgis. Eventually the
coach, a jerky, by the way, was restored
to service.
1t was on such a vehicle that King
spent most of his nights. For the un-
initiated the jerky was no more than
a %springless wagon with a covered body
and two boots. fore and aft. In these
the mail and freight were carried, the
driver perched over the forward boot
so his feet rested on his cargo.
The passengers. if they were lucky,
rode inside. But the driver had no
such protection and vas exposed to
whatever the weather had to offer.
The Concord coach was slow in arrlv-
ing in southern Montana. 1t was not
until the populace threatened divers
unpleasant things that the G. & S.
finally acquiesced and put on the heav-
Ter but more comfortable equipage.
BY that time Wiley King had given
up staging in favor of horse raising,
an occupation which occupied him n
til the panic of 1907.
Gilman and Salisbury used common
sense in meeting the demands of the
trade. AS late as the spring of 1882
the Coulson Post was highly uncomp-
limentary about the service and letters
to the editor forboded evil things IN
less the company agreed to let passen-
gers ride in any kind of weather. In
wet weather freight and mail were
placed in the passenger compartment
and travelled forthwith were put off un-
til skies cleared and another coach
came along.
Inasmuch as citizens Of Miles City
had recently hanged a gentleman for