Pike's Peak Express Companies, 2

Richardson did not mention this station, but remarked:

To-day we have been among prairie-dog towns, passing one more than a mile long.

Some of their settlements are said to be twenty miles in length, containing a larger population than any metropolis on the globe. . . . This evening we supped on his flesh, and found it very palatable, resembling that of the squirrel." [164]

STATION 15.-On the 100th meridian at approximately the point where it crosses the Prairie Dog, about five miles southwest of present Norton.

Boyd's Notes:

Richardson:

We spent the night at Station Fifteen, kept by an ex-Cincinnati lawyer, who with his wife, formerly an actress at the Bowery Theater, is now cooking meals and making beds for stage passengers on the great desert three hundred miles beyond civilization.

Our road, following the valley of the Republican river, is here two thousand three hundred feet above sea-level. . . . Day's travel fifty-six miles. [166]

Greeley:

[Dated Station 15, Prairie Dog creek.] We have made fifty-six miles since we started about nine this morning, and our present encampment is on a creek running to the Republican, so that we have bidden a final adieu to Solomon's Fork, and all other affluents of the Smoky Hill branch of the Kansas. We traveled on the "divide" between this and the northern branch of the Kansas for some miles today, and finally came over to the waters of that stream (the Republican), which we are to strike some eighty miles further on. We

230 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

are now just half way from Leavenworth to Denver, and our coach has been a week making this distance; so that with equal good fortune we may expect to reach the land of gold in another week. [167]

STATION 16.-Probably northeast of present Oberlin. [168]

Boyd's Notes:

Dined at Station Sixteen, kept by a Vermont boy who has roamed over twenty-seven States of the Union. Near it was encamped a party of Arapahoes, with thirty or forty children playing upon the grass. Those under four or five years were entirely naked. The older boys wore breech-clouts of buffalo skin, and the girls were wrapped in robes or blankets. All were muscular and well developed. [169]

STATION 17.-Probably on Beaver creek, near present Ludell, Rawlins county.170 A less probable location is on Driftwood creek, north of Ludell, near the present Kansas Nebraska boundary. (See the map accompanying this installment.)

Boyd's Notes:

PIKE'S PEAK EXPRESS COMPANIES 231

Richardson:

Descending an abrupt hill, our mules, terrified by meeting three savages, broke a line, ran down a precipitous bank, upsetting the coach. . . . He [Greeley] was soon rescued from his cage, and taken to Station Seventeen, a few yards beyond, where the good woman dressed his galling wounds [172]

Greeley:

We left this morning Station 17, on a little creek entitled Gouler, [173] at least thirty miles back [from Station 181, and did not see a tree and but one bunch of low shrubs in a dry water-course throughout our dreary morning ride, till we came in sight of the Republican, which has a little-a very little-scrubby cotton-wood nested in and along its bluffs just here. . . . Of grass there is little, and that little of miserable quality. . . . Soil there is none but an inch or so of intermittent grass-root tangle.

The dearth of water is fearful. Although the whole region is deeply seamed and gullied by water-courses-now dry, but in rainy weather mill streams-no springs burst from their steep sides. We have not passed a drop of living water in all our morning's ride. Even the animals have deserted us. [174]

STATION 18.-Probably just below the forks of the Republican river, near present Benkelman, Neb. [175]

Boyd's letter of May 31, 1859 (Freedom's Champion, Atchison, June 18, quoted in first installment):

232 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

From that camp (49 miles from our ferry over the Republican) our course was nearly due west for 73 miles, at which distance we crossed the "divide" between Solomon's Fork and Republican Fork; latitude 39° 48'; longitude 99° 47' [southeast of present Norton]. Thence our course was North of West till we reached station 18 on the Republican, 221 miles from Republican ferry-latitude 40° 8'; longitude 101° 17'. . . .176 Thence the road runs in a south-west direction, parallel with the Republican to 366 miles, in latitude 39° 8', longitude 103° 27', eight miles east of station 24 [a few miles east of present Hugo, Colo.]

Boyd's Notes:

dated Denver, May 9, 1859, in Leavenworth Herald, May 28, 1859:

Leaving the waters of the Solomon, we struck over to those of the Republican, and struck Prairie Dog, Sappa, and Cranmer's creek, near their head, then traveling a long divide of twenty-six miles we reached the main Republican, just above the mouth of Rock Creek, and made Station No. 18 in a beautiful grove of cotton-woods. . . [178] After leaving No. 18 we kept up on the southern side of the Republican to near its head.

Greeley (dated Station 18, June 2):

For more than a hundred miles back, the soil has been steadily degenerating, until here, where we strike the Republican, which has been far to the north of us since we left it at Fort Riley, three hundred miles back, we seem to have reached the acme of barrenness and desolation.

I would match this station and its surroundings against any other scene on our continent for desolation. From the high prairie over which we approach it, you overlook a grand sweep of treeless desert, through . . . which flows the Republican. . . . [179]

PIKE'S PEAK EXPRESS COMPANIES 233

The same author, dated Station 21:

Since I wrote the foregoing [quoted above], we have traveled ninety miles up the south branch of the Republican (which forks just above Station 18) and have thus pursued a course somewhat south of west. In all these ninety miles, we have passed just two live streams making in from the south-both together running scarcely water enough to turn a grind-stone. In all these ninety miles, we have not seen wood enough to make a decent pigpen [180]

STATION 19.-On the South Fork of the Republican in Cheyenne county, probably a few miles northeast of present St. Francis. [181]

Boyd's Notes:

Richardson (entry of June 2)

we continued on by the sandy valley of the Republican, destitute of tree and shrub and barren as Sahara. Spent the night at Station Nineteen. Day's travel sixty-four miles. [183]

Greeley:

A large Cheyenne village is encamped around Station 19, where we stopped last night; and we have been meeting squads of these and other tribes several times a day. The Kioways are camped some eight miles from this spot. They all profess to be friendly, though the Cheyennes have twice stopped and delayed the express-wagons on pretence of claiming payment for the injury done them in cutting wood, eating grass, scaring away game, etc. They would all like to beg, and many of them are deemed not disinclined to steal. [184]

STATION 20.-On the South Fork of the Republican in Cheyenne county, probably near the present Colorado line and

234 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

some eight miles northeast of what is now Hale, Colo. Neither Greeley nor Richardson mentions this station although the former describes this semi-desert region in his account of Station 21.

Boyd's Notes:

STATION 21.-On the South Fork of the Republican, near present Tuttle, Kit Carson county, Colo. (Probably below the Tuttle ranch.)

Boyd's Notes:

Greeley:

The bottom of the river is perhaps half a mile in average width. Water is obtained from the apology for a river, or by digging

236 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

in the sand by its side; in default of wood, corrals (cattle-pens) are formed at, the stations by laying up a heavy wall of clayey earth flanked by sods, and thus excavating a deep ditch on the inner side, except at the portal, which is closed at night by running a wagon into it. The tents are sodded at their bases; houses of sods are to be constructed so soon as may be. Such are the shifts of human ingenuity in a country which has probably not a cord of growing wood to each township of land. [188]

Six miles farther up, the stream disappears in the deep, thirsty sands of its wide bed, and is not seen again for twenty-five miles. [189]

Richardson

At Station Twenty-one where we spent the night, we first encountered fresh fish upon our table. Here the enormous cat-fish of Missouri and Kansas has dwindled to the little horned-pout of New England, lost its strong taste and regained its legitimate flavor. Day's travel fifty-nine miles.

June 4.-We still follow the Republican which at one point, sinks abruptly into the earth, running under ground for twenty miles and then gushing up again. We saw one thirsty emigrant digging in the dry bed for water. At the depth of four or five feet he found it. [190]

STATION 22.-About 5ú miles northwest of Seibert, Colo., at the junction of the express road and a branch of the Smoky Hill trail to Denver (by way of the Platte river). [191]

Boyd's Notes:

PIKE'S PEAK EXPRESS COMPANIES 237

Richardson:

After riding twenty-five miles without seeing a drop of water, at Station Twenty-two we crossed the Smoky Hill route which from a point far south of ours, abruptly turns northward across the Republican to the Platte. Emigrants who have come by the Smoky Hill tell us they have suffered intensely, one traveling seventy-five miles without water. Some burned their wagons, killed their famishing cattle and continued on foot.

We are still on the desert with its soil white with alkali, its stunted shrubs, withered grass, and brackish waters often poisonous to both cattle and men. Day's travel forty-eight miles. [194]

Greeley:
After describing the subterranean course of the Republican, above Station 211-

At the head of this "sink," the stream disappears in like manner to that of its emergence. Here is Station 22, and here are a so-called spring, and one or two considerable pools, not visibly connected with the sinking river, but doubtless sustained by it. And here the thirsty men and teams which have been twentyfive miles without water on the Express Company's road, are met by those which have come up the longer and more southerly route by the Smoky Hill, and which have traveled sixty miles since they last found water or shade. . . . The Pike's Peakers from the Smoky Hill whom I met here, had driven their ox-teams through the sixty miles at one stretch, the time required being two days and the intervening night. From this point westward, the original Smoky Hill route is abandoned for that we had been traveling, which follows the Republican some twenty-five miles further.

The bluffs are usually low, and the dry creeks which separate them are often wide reaches of heavy sand. . . . There is little grass on the rolling prairie above the bluffs. . . . Some of the dry-creek valleys have a little that is green but thin, while the river bottom-often half a mile wide-is sometimes tolerably grassed, and sometimes sandy and sterile. Of wood, there is none for stretches of forty or fifty miles: the corrals are made of earth, and consist of a trench and a mud or turf wall; one or two stationhouses are to be built of turf if ever built at all; and at one station the fuel is brought sixty miles from the pineries further west. [195]

Extract from special correspondence of the St. Louis Missouri Republican, June 7, 1859:

Denver City, May 20, 1859.

At the latter point [Station 221 a branch of the Smoky Hill route crosses the Express route, and I found a whole city of canvass, inhabited by weary emigrants who wanted to give them

238 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

and stock a few day's rest, at and about the junction of the two roads. I conversed freely with such as had come via the Smoky Hill route, and they were all unanimous in their denunciations of the same. The Indians had burned off all the early grass, and were themselves congregated in large numbers along the road and very overbearing and troublesome.

The travelers had an absolute desert of one hundred and fifty miles to cross. . .

[Details of the suffering on this route follow.]

I found every one of the western stations of the Express company beset by gangs of half-starved men-mostly of the handcart and walking gentry-that had consumed their last, days ago, and were now driven to appeal to the feelings of compassion of the employes of the Express company. And heartily and humanely was this appeal responded to in most cases. Otherwise, the road would be covered with the bleaching bones of such as had breathed their last in the merciless wilderness, for want of the means of physical subsistence. [196]

STATION 23.-On the South Fork of the Republican, about 16 miles east and a little north of present Hugo, Colo.197 Neither Greeley nor Richardson mentions this station.

Boyd's Notes:

Villard:

and last, but not least, a full aspect of the veritable snow-browed Pike's Peak, which becomes already visible at station 13 [231-a distance of 100 miles. It first looks like a cloud, but, as one comes nearer, assumes clearer and greater dimensions, and when arriving on the last ridge before running down into the Cherry

PIKE'S PEAK EXPRESS COMPANIES 239

Creek valley, its eastern front is completely revealed to the eye, together with a long chain of peaks, partly covered with snow and partly with pine, and extending in a northward direction as far as Long's Peak. I have seen the Alps of Switzerland and Tyrol, the Pyrenees and Appenines, yet their attractions appear to dwindle into nothing when compared with the at once grotesque and sublime beauty of the mountain scenery upon which my eyes feasted before descending into the valley above referred to. [199]

STATION 24.-About seven miles northwest of Hugo, Colo., on the Big Sandy (not the South Fork of the Republican, as claimed by Boyd and B. D. Williams).

Boyd's Notes:

Greeley:

A ride over a rolling "divide" of some twenty miles, brought us to the "Big Sandy," running south-west to become tributary (when it has anything to contribute) to the Arkansas. Like the Republican, it is sometimes a running stream, sometimes a succession of shallow pools, sometimes a waste of deep, scorching sand. A few paltry cotton-woods, a few bunches of low willow, may have graced its banks or those of some dry creek running into it, in the course of the twenty miles or so that we followed up its northern bank. I recollect only that the grass at intervals along its narrow bottoms seemed a little better than on the upper course of the Republican. One peculiarity of the Big Sandy I had not before observed-that of a thin, alkaline incrustration-mainly of soda, I believe-covering many acres of the smoother sands in its dry bed. [201]

STATION 25-Located on the west bank of East Bijou creek about five miles southwest of Godfrey, Elbert county, Colo.

240 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

Boyd's Notes:

Richardson:

At our dining station, Twenty-five, I met several old Kansas acquaintances, so dust-covered and sunburnt that for several minutes I did not know them. . . . Toward evening, Pike's Peak loomed up grandly in the southwest, wrapt in its ghostly mantle of snow and streaked by deep-cut gorges shining in the rays of a blazing sunset

'The seal of God
Upon the close of day.'

In the northwest Long's Peak was sharply defined against a mass of ominous black clouds which rising slowly left behind then a scattered trail, dark and wild as the locks of the storm-god. [203]

Greeley

At length we crossed its deep, trying sand and left it behind us [Big Sandy], passing over a high "divide" much cut up by gullies through which the water of the wet seasons tears its way to the Arkansas on the south or the Platte on the north, until we struck,

240 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

at five last evening, the first living tributary to the Platte-a little creek called Beaver (probably East Bijoul, which I have not seen on any map. It is about ten miles east of the Bijou, with which it probably unites before reaching the Platte.

After leaving the valley of Big Sandy, the grass of the uplands becomes better, and is no longer confined to the water-courses.

At Beaver Creek we saw, for the first time in many weary daysfor more than two hundred miles at the least-a clump of low but sturdy cotton-woods, thirty or forty in number. . . . And, six or seven miles further, just as night was falling, we came in sight of pines, giving double assurance that the mountains were at hand. [204]

STATION 26-Probably on Kiowa creek about ten miles north. of present Kiowa, Colo. [205]

Boyd's Notes:

PIKE'S PEAK EXPRESS COMPANIES 241

Richardson:

Supping at Station Twenty-six we made a comfortable bed in the coach, and rolling on at the rate of seven miles an hour, slept quietly through the night. [209]

STATION 27.-Denver.

Boyd's Notes:

Richardson (entry of June 6, 1859)

Woke at five, still in motion, and obtained a glorious view of the mountains, their hoary peaks covered with snow and their base, thirty miles across the valley into which we were descending, seeming not more than two miles away. At last we struck the old trail from Santa Fe to Salt Lake, rode a mile along the dry bed of Cherry Creek, and at eight this eleventh morning reached Denver City. . . . During our journey from Leavenworth we have doubtless passed ten thousand emigrants.

Greeley:

From the Bijou to Cherry Creek-some forty miles-I can say little of the country, save that it is high rolling prairie, deeply cut by several streams, which run north-easterly to join the Platte, or one of its tributaries just named. We passed it in the night, hurrying on to reach Denver, and at sunrise this morning stopped to change mules on the bank of Cherry Creek.

As to gold, Denver is crazy. She has been low in the valley of humiliation, and is suddenly exalted to the summit of glory. [212]

DENVER EXPRESS OFFICE.

The following Denver Dispatch (dated June 4) of the St. Louis Missouri Republican gives an account of the Denver office of the Leavenworth and Pike's Peak Express Company.

For the first two weeks after the opening of the express office in this place, it occupied a log cabin of a rather primeval description. A few days ago, however, the headquarters were removed, to a more civilized abode, consisting of frame, and affording a plentiful supply of light, of which the former windowless haunt had been entirely destitute.

242 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

The express company carries, as you are undoubtedly already aware, the United States mail, and their mail department is a branch of their business, of great importance, extent and profit. It is under the superintendency of Mr. Martin Field, formerly of the St. Louis, and lately of the Leavenworth City post office. Although but recently arrived, he has already succeeded in systematizing the discharge of his onerous duties, and his office now presents that perfect mechanism that alone is apt to secure satisfaction to the public in mail matters. The post office is, of course, a place of general rendezvous, crowds of emigrants and immigrants, diggers, traders, mountaineers, etc., can always be seen in and about it, retelling their hopes and disappointments. . . [214]

(Part III-The Platte Route-To Be Published in an Early Issue)

Notes

102. J. E. Bromley, route agent from Kearny to Laramie on the Platte river stage line of J. M. Hockaday and company, wrote to his employers as follows (April 28, in St. Joseph, Mo., Weekly West, May 8, 1859): "We are in a very tight place here [Cotton Wood Springs, Louisa Station]. On the road from the crossing down, we have five stations that are crammed full of wagons from morning till night. . Pike's Peak has turned out to be a humbug, and the road is lined with starving men; and God knows we have got to give them something to eat as long as we have it. . . . If you could do something to keep the poor deluded devils from starving, you would be doing a kindness to humanity."
103. White Cloud Kansas Chief, May 20, 1859, which remarked that "skiffs loaded with Pike's Peakers, who have had their eye teeth cut, may be seen going down the river [Missouri] at almost any hour of the day."
104. Dispatch dated May 14, in the New York Daily Tribune, May 31, 1859. This movement appears to have been an outstanding example of mob hysteria, which might afford interesting data on the working of the mass mind." It seems to have been motivated by a wild, unreasoning desire to escape the evils that threatened-a feeling which was greatly intensified by flight. Like the mob that accompanies a lynching, the individuals seem to have abandoned all pretense of considering the subject in an objective, reasonable manner.
105. Denver City correspondence, dated May 9, of the Leavenworth Weekly Herald, May 28, 1859. A letter of D. D. Cook, dated Auraria, May 11, 1859, in the same issue of this paper, remarked: "I was quite amused at a little incident the other day. A large four-horse wagon drove down to Cherry creek, where teams cross from Denver City to Auraria. On its arrival at the Creek one of the party lumped from the wagon and waded in the Creek, rolled up his sleeves, and pulled a handful of sand. After washing the sand and examining it, and not finding the color just as he expected, he turned immediately around and started for the States. Since their departure we have heard from them on more than one occasion. They report the two cities-Denver and Auraria-at war; that houseburning, horse stealing, murder and plunder is the order of the day; that there is no gold in the country, and that it is a humbug. The consequence is that their lies have turned an immense number back on the Platte route." 106. The issue of April 13, reviewed the whole "humbug," and concluded that there was "no such route, and no such facilities for taking emigrants to the mines." There was such a company, but they "have no stock on their route, and as yet have made no arrangements at all to transport passengers or anything else," having merely "sent out a company to explore the route over which they propose to run this great express! !"
107. Issue of May 21, 1859. The obvious unfairness of these assertions is apparent. The Kansas City paper wrongly assigns the Smoky Hill route to the express company, a mistake more or less common, but typical of this publication, which could see no good in Leavenworth. The whole subject should be viewed with due regard to the intense rivalry between towns which characterised the period.
108. The Kansas Chief of May 20, 1859, which gives an extended review of the whole "swindle," with their repeated condemnation. They blamed the Pike's Peak publicity campaign, and apparently did not condemn the express company, as did the Kansas City Journal of Commerce. The issue of June 2 described a trial on the plains of a "peaker" who was alleged to have circulated a false report of gold at the mines. As late as June 30 this paper was decrying the reports of gold and believed that when things "exploded" at Denver those interested at that point sent men into the mountains to bring back reports of great discoveries.
109. In a more or less modified form the suspicion of fraud persisted, probably encouraged by the fact that many failed at the mines, or at least failed to discover paying deposits.
110. Leavenworth Weekly Herald, April 30, 1859, which charged that the Gazette was alarmed for fear the emigrants would leave St Joseph.
111. St. Joseph Gazette, clipped in the Atchison Freedom's Champion, May 21, 1859.
112. Rocky Mountain News, May 14, in Leavenworth Weekly Herald, June 4, 1859.
113. See his signed statement, dated Denver City, May 12, 1859, in Henry Villard, "To the Pike's Peak Country in 1859 and Cannibalism on the Smoky Hill Route," in The Colorado Magazine, Denver, v. VIII, No. 6 (November, 1931), pp. 232, 233. Blue was the sole survivor of a party of four, who were forced to resort to human flesh as a means of subsistence. A friendly Indian took him to an express station, and he rested at Station 25 until able to complete the journey to Denver.
114. Ibid., pp. 225-236; also a reprint by the same author, entitled The Past and Present of the Pikes Peak Gold Regions (Princeton, 1932).
115. Villard, "To the Pike's Peak Country in 1859 and Canniblism on the Smokey Hill Route," loc cit., p. 234.
116. Leavenworth Weekly Herald, May 28, 1859 (the coaches left Denver May 13). Williams prophesied much more favorable news in ten days. He reported meeting about 800 persons bound for the mines, and none returning by the express road, although about 4,000 had left by way of the Platte.
117. Leavenworth Daily Times, May 30. 1859. The third coach carried J. Heywood, T. A. J. Withrow, W. W. Thompson, Capt. Fickland [Benj. F. Ficklinl, and J. H. McEwen, four of whom bore gold dust. The trip was said to have been pleasant, although at a lay-over station the stage drivers refused to accede to Captain Fickland's request for night driving until after much persuasion.
118. Leavenworth Weekly Herald, June 4, 1859. Both Greeley in his Overland Journey (p. 71) and Richardson in his Beyond the Mississippi (Hartford, 1875, p. 160), describe the wait at Rock creek, where a number of express coaches and wagons were congregated, until the high waters subsided. The Leavenworth Daily Times believed the mines "comparatively unprofitable," and in its issue of June 4 printed a letter of C. Davisson, a special newspaper correspondent, who had returned on the last stage with news that Denver City and Auraria were about half empty. "Of the gold 1 need say little, further than it is now the general belief that failure has been the lot of most if not all, so far, that have sought it. That some have made fair wages on some leads, for a little time, is true; but their success was of short duration; and it is certainly true that it has been a losing business as a general thing.
119. The trip is described in Greeley's Overland Journey, pp. 71-114, with a further chapter on the "Kansas Gold-Diggings" (pp. 115-127); Albert D. Richardson, Beyond the Mississippi, 159-192; and Martha B. Caldwell, "When Horace Greeley Visited Kansas in 1859," Kansas Historical Quarterly, v. XI, pp. 115-150.
120. Although it was first announced that a coach would leave daily, in actual practice the business of the company was far less than would have been required for so frequent service. A departure of one or several coaches at the same time was more nearly a weekly event. The presence of several vehicles traveling together across the plains also made for added safety. At about the time that more favorable news began to come from the mines, the Leavenworth Daily Times announced (June 9, 1859) that thereafter Jones & Russell would run a weekly express to the diggings, starting every Tuesday. A few weeks later the company announced that an express would leave daily when coaches are full of passengers," but none would leave, except on Tuesdays, unless there were six passengers. "One, Two or Three Coaches Will start Every Day if there are passengers enough to justify."-Daily Times, June 21, et seq.
121. Beyond the Mississippi, p. 159.
122. Ibid., p. 170.
123. Ibid., p. 173. As usual they slept that night in the coach, although the next morning they awoke so stiff and sore that he could not move a muscle without suffering." However, they continued their journey as usual, up the "sandy valley of the Republican, destitute of tree and shrub and barren as Sahara.."-Ibid., p. 175. Greeley's lameness remained with him for several days, even after the completion of the trip at Denver, but he attached no blame to the express company for this accident.
124. Leavenworth Weekly Herald, June 25, 1859-a detailed article on the gold region.
125. Greeley, Overland Journey, pp. 111, 112. "And it was a pleasure to see, last evening, the many parties of way-worn gold-seekers encamped beside our way, after their long journey through a woodless region, surrounding great, ruddy, leaping fires of the dead pitch-wood, and eolacing themselves for their long privation by the amplest allowance of blaze and warmth.
Be the day ever so warm in the sun's softened glare, the night that follows is sure to be chill and piercing, driving the musketoes and buffalo-gnats to their hiding-places directly after sunset."
126. Ibid., p. 114. Concerning Denver, Richardson termed it "a most forlorn and desolatelooking metropolis." He further asserted that there were only "five women in the whole gold region. . . The men who gathered about our coach on its arrival were attired in slouched hats, tattered woolen shirts, buckskin pantaloons and moccasins; and had knives and revolvers suspended from their belts." Greeley and Richardson lodged at the Denver House, whose occupants demanded a speech. "On one side the tipplers at the bar silently sipped their grog, on the other the gamblers respectfully suspended the shuffling of cards and the counting of money from their huge piles of coin, while Mr. Greeley standing between them, made a strong anti-drinking and anti-gambling address, which was received with perfect good humor. Beyond the Mississippi, pp. 177, 178.
127. Special correspondence of the Leavenworth Daily Times of June 21 (Henry Villard), dated Denver, June 10, 1859. Martin Field, in charge of the Denver mail office of the express company, also accompanied the party.-Letter of Frederick Kershaw, dated Denver City, June 10, in Hannibal, Mo., Messenger, June 26, 1859, copied in Hafen, Le Roy R., Colorado Gold Rush, Southwest Historical Series, v, X, p. 372. The trip is described by Richardson in his Beyond the Mississippi, pp. 179-203; also by Greeley in his Overland Journey, pp. 115-127, and 145-148, and by Villard in his The Past and Present of the Pike's Peak Gold Regions, pp. 40-62.
128. It is published entire in the Colorado Gold Rush Regions, pp, 376-382. The borde papers as a rule copied the manifesto, even though in some cases it ran counter to their beliefs.
Some questioned its authenticity, in particular doubting the signature of Greeley, whose name carried great weight the country over. Such charges seem to have been the last refuge of those "sold" on the humbug charge, like the Kansas City Journal of Commerce. The report did not appear in the Leavenworth Daily Times until the issue of June 21, when it was made a part of "Our Gold Budget."
129. Beyond the Mississippi, pp. 201 Villard estimated the output of gold as "at least $3,500 per day" (letter cited above).
130. Special correspondence of the Leavenworth Daily Times of June 21, dated Denver City, June 10, 1859. Richardson gives a very graphic picture of this gathering of some fifteen hundred people (Beyond the Mississippi, p, 183), which he termed "the first mass meeting ever held m the Rocky Mountains." A detailed account of this same event was published in the Leavenworth Weekly Herald, June 25, 1859: "He [Greeley] was followed by Mr. Williams who spoke of the high character, objects and designs of Jones & Russell's Express Com an of its ability to fulfill all engagements, and appealed to the people to know whether they would sustain a company, that had remained faithful through evil and good reports, whilst all others had abandoned the field. He was answered by a universal shout, 'We will! We will!'"
131. Leavenworth Daily Times, June 10, 1859. A copy of the Rocky Mountain News seemed to substantiate reports of the discovery. Two coaches arrived on the previous day, after a trip of eleven days, with four passengers and $229 in dust. Barring the above letter of an "insider," however, the news was still of a discouraging nature-provisions were not to be had, money was a thing "unknown," and emigrants were arriving and departing in about equal numbers all of which prompted more "humbug" comments in the border papers. 132. Letter dated May 31, 1859, in Colorado Gold Rush, pp. 364-366. Four days later he wrote to Jones & Russell that he was forwarding by express a sum of gold amounting to over $400, and added as his "firm belief that in two weeks I will be able to ship you as purchasers on consignments from five to ten thousand dollars [of gold]," and described the mines as "surprisingly rich."-Leavenworth Weekly Herald, June 18.
133. Issue of June 14, 1859-an article entitled "Pike's Peak Redivius."
134. In another column the Times pointed out that an express was about to leave for Denver, which would take "a number of passengers and an immense amount of mail matter. The reaction has already commenced. The tide is again turning towards the mines, and in a few weeks we may expect an emigration even larger than . . . early this year." Despite all this, the Kansas City Journal of Commerce was still continuing its tirades against Leavenworth, which it now asserted lay "helpless and deserted," the victim of a "false system" which made it a parasite upon its neighbors. The Leavenworth Times replied (June 16) : The dirty little paper, in the dirty little town aforesaid, is ever aping the frog in the fable. The frog insisted on swelling to ox-ish dimensions, and burst.
135. Ibid., June 21. The White Cloud Kansas Chief of June 30 still believed the golden bubble would finally burst, and rejected the numerous dispatches of the arrival of gold at Leavenworth as largely "bunk." It believed the Greeley report written at the request of B. D. Williams in order to boost the business of the express company.
136. Issue of June 21. This paper had published "thousands" of an extra edition of June 20, which sold in an "unparalleled" manner.
137. June 8, 1859, the first supply train sent out by Jones A Russell arrived in Denver, loaded principally with groceries. Twenty-five wagons, each drawn by six splendid mules that appeared as sleek as when they left Leavenworth, made up the train. "It is a real God-send in view of the general scarcity of almost all articles of trade in this place. "--Special correspondence of the Leavenworth Times, dated Denver City, June 8, copied in the New York Daily Tribune, June 20. A letter dated Denver, June 14, asserted that these goods were sold mainly at wholesale (chiefly to retailers of Denver, Auraria, and elsewhere). Owing to these large shipments, prices at Denver went down considerably-sugar was then only 25¢, coffee 35¢, and flour 15¢ per pound-much cheaper than the exorbitant prices previously in effect. Daily Times, July 4.
138. Ibid., June 21, 1859. At Station 26 they met fifteen of Jones do Russell's express wagons, loaded with corn and provisions for Denver, and at Station 16 Downing's train of 27 wagons, also loaded with provisions for the same place.
139. Ibid., June 24, 1859. The transfer of contract and related matters is treated in some detail in 36 Cong., 1 Sess., Senate Reports, v. 2 (Serial 1040), No. 259, which concerns the relief of John M. Hockaday and William Liggitt. The change of route to the Platte will be discussed in more detail in the next and final installment of this article.
140. "The Great Central Route to the Gold Mines of Western Kansas-Notes of Travel," which are referred to in this article as "Boyd's Notes." This original narrative is here republished in part, with further comments by Greeley, Richardson, and Villard. The reader is also referred to the documents included under the heading, "Leavenworth and Pike's Peak Express Route," which accompany "Boyd's Notes" in the publication Overland Routes to the Goldfields, 1859, particularly the annotated diary of Richardson; also the article by Dr. Margaret Long in The Colorado Magazine entitled "The Route of the Leavenworth and Pike's Peak Express," v. XII, pp. 186-194, and the more recent book by the same author, entitled The Smoky Hill Trail (Denver, 1943). see, also, the chart accompanying this installment
141. Reprinted in The Colorado Magazine, v. VIII, pp. 225-236, and entitled: "To the to Pike's Peak Country in 1859 and Cannibalism on the Smoky Hill Route." (Hereafter referred as "Pike's Peak Country.")
142. Overland Journey, p. 50. Richardson points out in his Beyond the Mississippi (p. 160): "Beyond Easton and Hickory Point we passed hundreds of freight and emigrant wagons stalled in the mud. William H. Russell the chief freighter of the plains, owns many of them. Last year he employed twenty-five thousand oxen and two thousand wagons, chiefly in transporting supplies for our army in Utah. He stipulates that any one of his teamsters who whips cattle unmercifully or utters an oath, shall forfeit his wages. Of course the precaution proves ineffective, for there is a logical connection between mud-holes and profanity." This oath is commonly attributed to Alexander Majors of the firm of Russell, Majors & Waddell.
143. Overland Journey, p. 51; also Martha B. Caldwell, "When Horace Greeley Visited Kansas in 1859," Kansas Historical Quarterly, v. IX, p. 127.
144. This station was at the log store of Sloan & Beaubien, which also served as the residence of Madore R. Beaubien, pioneer settler of this community. The son of Jean Baptiste Beaubien, famous French-Indian trader and business man of Detroit and Chicago, Madore came to Kansas in 1847 and settled on the Pottawatomie reserve, passing most of his later life at Silver Lake. He was a leading member of the Pottawatomie tribe, until it was naturalized, and also had a prominent career as a business man.-Unpublished manuscript of Mrs. Emma C. Reicherter, a resident of Silver Lake. For an account of the elder Beaubien and son, who were among the founders of Chicago, see A. T. Andreas, History of Chicago (3 vols., Chicago, 1884), v. I, pp. 84-86.
145. Beyond the Mississippi, p. 160. Because of the swollen state of Rock creek, Richardson was forced to remain an afternoon and night at Louisville, "a city of three houses. Its hotel affords the inevitable fat pork, hot biscuits and muddy coffee. The landlady is a halfbreed; and her two daughters with oval faces, olive complexions and bright black eyes the only pretty Indian girls I have ever seen."
146. Ibid., p. 161.
147. "Pike's Peak Country," p. 226. Richardson agreed with Villard in this conclusion, terming Fort Riley "one of our most beautiful military posts," and added: All the buildings are two stories high, of light limestone resembling marble."-Beyond the Mississippi. p. 161. Greeley also praised its location, but lamented the two millions of Uncle Sam's money" that had been used in its improvement. The barracks are comfortable, the hospital large and well placed, the officers' quarters spacious and elegant, and the stables most extensive and admirable."-Overland Journey, p. 72.
148. Beyond the Mississippi, p. 161.
149. "Pikes Peak Country," pp. 226, 227. While at this place Villard "fell in with some officers from the Fort" who were "celebrating" Easter, and proceeded to "enjoy" the "very last spree for some time to come." Greeley remarked that "Junction has a store, two hotels, and some thirty or forty dwellings, one of which is distinguished for its age, having been erected so long ago as 1858." The following morning: "A mile or two of progress carried us beyond any road but that traced only this spring for the Pike's Peak expresses; for ten miles onward, no house, no field. no sign of human agency. . . . '-Overland Journey, pp. 73, 74.
150. "Pike's Peak Country," pp, 227, 228. In reality the region along the upper Republican approached a desert area, but of course Villard traversed it early in the season when water and grass were probably at their best. His detailed account follows: "The express route keeps along the divide of the Republican and Solomon's Fork of Kansas River, crossing the heads of the tributaries of the latter named fork for some distance, then bearing a little northward, crossing, the heads of Prairie Dog, Sappa and Cranmer creeks, tributaries of the Republican, and striking that river between the 101 and 102 degrees of western longitude, it follows the south side of the Republican to a point near its source; thence striking due west it crosses the heads of Beaver, Bijou and Kiowa creeks, tributaries of the Platte, passing through a beautiful pine Country for sixty miles, and striking Cherry Creek and the Santa Fe Trail twenty miles below labovel the former's mouth, and running alongside of it to Denver City, its western terminus."-Ibid., p. 227.
151. Beyond the Mississippi, p. 163. "Timber disappearing; only straggling fringes remain along the creek. . . Began journeying now among the buffalo grass. Met thirty Cheyenne Indians on a begging and stealing expedition, who asked for whisky and tobacco.
152. Overland Journey, p. 75; also Martha B. Caldwell, "When Horace Greeley Visited Kansas in 1859," cited above, pp. 132, 133. Some distance below this they "passed the last settler on our road to Pike's Peak," who was located in a valley of "gloriously rich prairie," and already cultivating seventy-five acres of land, with splendid results.
Among the "equipment" furnished the keepers of the several "home" or "eating" stations on the line was one or more milk cows. The Leavenworth Times, May 8, 1859, pointed out that eighty such animals had been started west early that month, and added: "We are told that some of these stations are beautifully located in spots of choice fertility. Truly, in the ease of the Express route, cultivation and improvement follows closely upon the footsteps of the pioneer."
153. Beyond the Mississippi, p. 163.
154. Overland Journey, pp. 80, 81. Greeley was impressed by the great herds of buffalo he saw in this vicinity, along the Solomon river. Richardson described the large numbers of antelope, which he regarded as the exact opposite of the buffalo. "The antelope gallops airily over the hills, with an elasticity surpassing the fleetest race-horse. Miles away, when his earth-colored body is quite indistinguishable, one sees his white tail fluttering in the breeze like a shred of linen-a perpetual flag of truce to human enemies. Here he ventures near us, but on the older roads, rifles and shot-guns have made him shy and difficult to approach. From a close view his liquid eyes suggest infinite pathos and more than human tenderness."-Beyond the Mississippi, pp. 163, 165.
155. Ibid., pp. 165, 166. "Hundreds of deep buffalo trails cross our road; and through the whole afternoon the prairies for miles and miles away, quite black with the huge animals, look like bushes covered with ripe whortleberries, or like wood-land afar off." The next day Richardson gave a still more detailed account of these animals (pp. 166-168). He later asserted he had seen forty thousand buffalo from one vantage point and estimated that he had observed a total of a half million on the trip. Greeley thought he had seen a million in one day.-Overland Journey, p. 87.
156. This and succeeding quotations from "Boyd's Notes" is from the Freedom's Champion of Atchison, June 25, 1859, cited above. A brief account of the Parallel road was included in the first installment of this article (Footnote 55 gives a brief resume of the route from Atchison to Station 11), while Boyd's narrative, as found in Overland Routes to the Goldfields, 1859 (loc. cit., pp. 285-297) gives further details upon the eastern section. (See the map accompanying this installment.)
157. This statement is very confusing but it is clear that. the table of mileages was computed with the crossing of the Republican as the place of beginning and not Station 11. The longitude reading for this station appears to be too far east.
158. Beyond the Mississippi, p. 166. At about this point both Greeley and Richardson describe the large number of disillusioned "Peakers," who were returning with humbug stories.
159. Beyond the Mississippi, p. 169.
160. Located southwest of present Phillipsburg.
161. Beyond the Mississippi, p. 170.
162. Overland Journey, p. 89. This entire letter of Greeley's was devoted to the buffalo that "darkened the earth around us." He noted that "a party of our drivers, who went back seven miles on mules last evening, to help get our rear wagon out of a gully in which it had mired and stuck fast . . . , report that they found the road absolutely dangerous from the crowds of buffalo feeding on either side, and running across it. Greeley stated that the division superintendent, Mr. Fuller, had a narrow escape from the buffalo a few days before, when they knocked down his mule, and very nearly trampled its rider to death.
163. Ibid., p. 92.
164. Beyond the Mississippi, pp. 170, 171.
166. A trifle east of Norratur, near the present Norton-Decatur county line. 166. Beyond the Mississippi, p. 171.
167. Overland Journey, p. 91. That night they met the eastbound coaches, a week out from Denver. These coaches had been delayed a day by the begging and stealing propensities of the Arapahoe Indians who were at war with the Pawnees and were encamped along the express company route.
168. Boyd's assertion that there was "timber 1½ miles to north, on Sappa creek," would place this station northeast of Oberlin, although his mileage figures do not check as closely as to be desired.
169. Beyond the Mississippi, p. 172. Pages 172-175 contain comments upon the Indians of western Kansas. Greeley did not mention Station 16.
170. Boyd's table of mileages, along with his astronomical observation near present Norcatur, and Greeley's estimate of mileage east from the forks of the Republican near Benkelman, Neb., are the basis for this location. Boyd's repeated reference to Sappa creek over a distance of some thirty-five miles cannot be entirely correct. His later allusions to this stream probably should read Beaver creek, which is much closer to the Republican. The Sappa creek of pioneer days may have included Beaver creek of today, of which the latter is tributary.
171. In this locality the Republican is far more distant from the north fork of the Sappa than ten miles. Even Beaver creek is a good deal farther from this river than Boyd's estimate for Sappa creek would place it.
172. Beyond the Mississippi, P. 173. Richardson's description of the accident to Greeley has already been quoted in his account of the trip to the mines. (See p. 216.)
173. This comment of Greeley throws some doubt upon the proper location of Station 17. The authors are unable to identify "Gouler Creek," but if Boyd's description could be disregarded they would be tempted to locate this station upon Driftwood creek, which more nearly fits the description of Greeley.
174. Overland Journey, pp. 98, 99. Christian L. Long of Selinsgrove, Pa., made the trip to the Pike's Peak region in 1859 and kept a diary of his trip. He left Leavenworth over the military road and passed through Easton, Winchester, Osawkie, Indianola, Silver Lake, Cross Creek, Eldon, Louisville, Pittsburg, Manhattan, Ogden and Junction City. He spoke of taking the "cut off" at Station 17.-MS. diary, Manuscripts division, Kansas Historical Society. Boyd later refers to a cut-off between Stations 17 and 21.
175. In the article entitled "Leavenworth and Pike's Peak Express Route," which contains the travel diary of Albert D. Richardson, with added notes and interpretations, the editor of Overland Routes to the Gold Fields, 1859 (Le Roy R. Hafen) has given data contributed by E. S. Sutton, of Benkelman, Neb. Mr. Sutton states that the field notes of the survey of the fortieth parallel (the Kansas-Nebraska boundary), made in August, 1859, definitely locate the point where the express road left Nebraska, on the South Fork of the Republican. They quote the precise point where the road entered that state, about ten miles west of present Cornell, Neb. On the basis of these notes, the Nebraska surveys of 1869 and 1872 and a further study of the terrain, Messrs. Sutton and Arthur Carmody locate Station 18 about four miles west of Stratton, Neb. After a study of the descriptions of Boyd, Greeley and Williams, the authors of this article favor the Benkelman location, with the express road entering Nebraska considerably farther west. It must be conceded, however, that it is difficult to make the details of mileage and astronomical reading agree in this locality. It is even possible that the point of entrance was near Cornell, Neb., the express road making a curve toward the Republican, with Station 18 still located near the forks of that river. On their map of the express route the authors have charted an alternate road farther east as another possibility.
176. The reader will note that Boyd's longitude reading for a mile below this point is 101° 27', which is very close to present Benkelman, Neb. However, his longitude reading for a point nine miles farther southwest is exactly the same, indicating at least two errors by him in this locality. It seems probable that Boyd first struck the Republican in the vicinity of Benkelman, after traveling in a northwesterly direction from ' Sappa" (probably Beaver) creek.
177. It is very clear that there must be an error either here or at Station 18, although the turn of the Republican to the south apparently lessens its importance.
178. Rock creek empties into Arickaree Fork about nine miles west of Benkelman, Neb. This location of Station 18 so far west does not agree with the chief accounts. It is possible that Williams made the error of placing Rock creek before, instead of after Station 18. In another account Williams stated that he struck the Republican "near the mouth of Rock creek," which was true, in a general way. It is certain that the main route of the express company crossed northwestern Kansas very close to the southern bank of the Republican.
179. Overland Journey, pp. 98, 100.
180 Ibid., p. 103.
181. Sutton and Carmody place this station about twelve miles northeast of St. Francis, where they have found the remains of an earth enclosure that resembles the station ruins. Overland Routes to the Gold Fields, 1859, p. 258. If the Benkelman location is adopted for Station 18, however, the next stopping point probably would be much closer to St. Francis, perhaps a few miles northeast.
182. This reading is located on the Arickaree Fork of the Republican, which might lead one to believe that for a brief time this station was located in this locality and was later moved to the South Fork, when Williams straightened the route. The chief accounts agree that the express road went down the South Fork of the Republican, which makes it unreasonable to assume that a diversion up the Arickaree could have been a permanent arrangement Copies of the original plats of the federal township surveys are on file in the office of the Auditor of State, Statehouse, Topeka. These plats show the Jones & Russell Express road," (or simply "express road,") closely following the south bank of the South Fork from Nebraska to the Colorado line.
183. Beyond the Mississippi, p. 175. Richardson also mentions Indian villages in this locality.
184. Overland Journey, pp. 104, 105.
185. Located in southeastern Yuma county, northwest of the present town of Hale, Colo. The latitude mentioned above seems to be slightly too far north.
186. The chief basis for locating Station 21 at the above point. Dr. Long points out that there is water in the Republican at this place, below the junction with Spring creek, but none above for about twenty miles, until in the vicinity of Station 22 (loc. cit., p. 189).
187. About six miles southwest of Carey, Kit Carson county, Colo.
188. Overland Journey, p. 103.
189. Ibid., p. 107.
190. Beyond the Mississippi, p. 175. Villard also mentions "the sudden sinking of the Republican between 21 and 22 into a dry bed of sand, under which it continues its course subterranecusly to its sources."-"Pike's Peak Country," p. 229.
191. The authors have charted this route, which passed through Station 22 in a northwesterly direction, on the basis of the following accounts. It seems probable that this trail to Denver by a round-about detour to the Platte was the road in chief use in early 1859.
192. Evidently Boyd attempted to save time by deviating from or "shortening" the express road. Such minor changes appear to have been of frequent occurrence. Dr. Margaret Long points out in her article on the express road that Boyd's "North Fork" was really the South Fork of the Republican, and his `South Fork is now called the Big Sandy (loc. cit., p. 190).
193. South of Saugus, Colo., near the Lincoln-Kit Carson county line.
194. Beyond the Mississippi, pp. 175, 176.
195. Overland Journey, pp. 107-109.
196. Overland Routes to the Gold Fields, 1859, loc. cit., pp. 272, 273.
197. Dr. Long places this station on the Ketchem and Pugsley (K. P.) ranch (loc. cit., pp. 190, 191). This conforms with Boyd's astronomical reading, but not so well with his mileage figures. It seems possible that this station could have been some nine miles farther north, on the north branch of the South Fork, which might explain Boyd's reference to the "North Fork" of the Republican.
198. The latitude quoted in this reading is clearly too far south. In her article on the express route Dr. Long identifies many of the streams mentioned by Boyd.
199. "Pike's Peak Country," p. 229. Richardson's entry for June 5 seems to be a description of the same distant view of Pike's Peak as obtained from Station 23:
"At daylight Pike's Peak more than a hundred miles away, appeared dim and hazy on the horizon and we began to feel the inspiring breath of the mountains. Most emigrants were encamping out of respect for the Sabbath, and the sore feet of their cattle, which they carefully bandaged."-Beyond the Mississippi, p. 176.
200. Located near Riverbend, Colo., where the Big Sandy makes an abrupt turn to the southwest.
201. Overland Journey, pp. 109, 110.
202. Near the west fork of Bijou creek in northern Elbert county, Colo.
203. Beyond the Mississippi, Pp. 176, 177.
204. Overland Journey, pp. 110, 111.
205. See the comments of Dr. Long, loc. cit., p. 193.
208. About ten miles north of Kiowa, Colo.
207. Southeast of Denver near the present Arapahoe-Douglas (Colo.) county line.
208. Villard calls attention to the "beautiful pine groves from 24 up to 27."-"Pike's Peak Country," p. 229.
209. Beyond the Mississippi, p. 177.
210. The longitude reading for Denver is incorrect, being too far west.
211. Beyond the Mississippi, p. 177.
212. Overland Journey, pp. 112, 114. Both Greeley and Richardson lodged at the Denver House, which the latter described as "a long low one-story edifice, one hundred and thirty feet by thirty-six, with log walls and windows and roof of white sheeting. In its spacious saloon, the whole width of the building, the earth was well sprinkled to keep down dust. The room was always crowded with swarthy men armed and in rough costumes. The bar sold enormous quantities of cigars and liquors. At half a dozen tables the gamblers were always busy, day and evening. One in woolen shirt and jockey cap drove a thriving business at three-card monte, which netted him about one hundred dollars per day. . . .
-Richardson quotes the gambler's "spiel," Beyond the Mississippi, p. 187.
213. Issue of June 15, 1859, quoted in Colorado Gold Rush, loc. cit., pp. 369, 370.
214. In particular see the Reminiscences of General William Lorimer, previously cited, p. 172 et seq. The mail business of the Pike's Peak Express companies will be treated in more detail in the final installment of this article.