Benjamin Franklin Ficklin Benjamin Franklin Ficklin ( 1827 – 1871 ) was a graduate of the Virginia Military Institute , Class of 1849 . He is famous for his help in starting the Pony Express and for establishing other stage coach and mail routes in the United States during the nineteenth century . Ficklin was also one of the people responsible for the creation of the Pacific Telegraph Company in 1861 . Born in Albemarle County , Virginia in 1827 , Ficklin had a reputation for misbehaving . So in 1845 , his father sent young Ficklin to attend the Virginia Military Institute . As a cadet , Ficklin was known for his pranks , and he often got in trouble for them . One night , he filled a howitzer with gunpowder , turned it toward the cadet barracks , and discharged it ( Virginia Military Institute Archives , 2005 ) . This action resulted in his suspension in 1846 . With his suspension , Ficklin entered the Army . He ultimately served as a corporal in the Mexican - American War , where he was injured but recovered . Ficklin requested to be readmitted into the corps of cadets at the Virginia Military Institute , and his request was approved . Upon graduation , Ficklin attempted to work as a teacher . Dissatisfied , he sought employment with an express company in Alabama . Later , he worked as a surveyor for varied freight lines . In 1859 , Ficklin returned to the express and stage business which now boomed with the western expansion precipitated in the wave of Gold Rush fever . In 1860 , some credit him with the idea of the Pony Express . Yet , William Hepburn Russell , Alexander Majors , and William B . Waddell are more often credited as the founders , owners , and operators of the Pony Express . Ficklin did serve as general manager for the venture , until a disagreement with Russell . Russell allegedly became jealous of Ficklin ’ s popularity and suspicious of Ficklin ’ s loyalties . Learning of this , Ficklin immediately resigned . In 1860 , the Pacific Telegraph Act of 1860 called for the facilitation of communication between the east and west coasts of the United States of America . Hiram Sibley of the Western Union Telegraph Company won the contract . In 1861 , Ficklin joined Hiram Sibley in helping to form the Pacific Telegraph Company of Nebraska . At the same time , Jeptha Wade was asked by Hiram Sibley to consolidate smaller telegraph companies in California . While the Pacific Telegraph Company built west from Omaha , Nebraska , the Overland Telegraph Company of California was thus formed and built east from Carson City , Nevada . With their connection in Salt Lake City , Utah on October 24 , 1861 , the final link between the east and west coasts of the United States of America was made . The First Transcontinental Telegraph would ironically lead to the immediate demise of the Pony Express . The Pacific Telegraph Company and Overland Telegraph Company of California were eventually absorbed into the Western Union Telegraph Company . During the Civil War , Ficklin joined the Confederate States of America ’ s war effort in Virginia . He eventually served as a Confederate purchasing agent in Europe and as an intelligence officer . During the war , he achieved some status . In 1864 , he even bought Thomas Jefferson ’ s Monticello , but it would be stripped from him under Reconstruction . In 1865 , Ficklin was sent on a secret peace mission to Washington , D . C . . While there , Abraham Lincoln was assassinated , and Ficklin was arrested . He was cleared of suspicion and released upon his swearing a loyalty oath to the Union . After the Civil War , Major Ficklin opened an express stagecoach business in Texas . The route served from Fort Smith , Arkansas , to California . He founded a town in Texas to serve his enterprise . After his death , the town was named after him . Today , Ben Ficklin , Texas , is a ghost town . In the course of his final business venture , which included a U . S . Post Office subcontract , Ficklin frequently visited Washington , DC where , in March 1871 , he was dining at a Georgetown restaurant when a fishbone lodged in his throat . He died a few days later , after a physician cut an artery while trying to remove the bone . He is buried in Maplewood Cemetery in Charlottesville , Virginia . One of his descendants , Jared Ficklin , would later appear on the PBS reality show Texas Ranch House portraying a cowboy .