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06 - Story of the Pony Express by Glenn D. Bradley · Story of the Pony Express

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Speaker 1: Chapter six of the Story of the Pony Express by
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Speaker 1: Glen D. Bradley. This LibriVox recording is in the public
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Speaker 1: domain recording by Roger Moline, Chapter six Riders and Famous Rides.
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Speaker 1: Bart Ryles, the Pony Rider died this morning from wounds
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Speaker 1: received at Cold Springs, May sixteenth. The men at Dry
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Speaker 1: Creek Station have all been killed, and it is thought
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Speaker 1: those at Robert's Creek have met with the same fate.
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Speaker 1: Six Pike's peakers found the body of the station keeper
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Speaker 1: horribly mutilated, the station burned, and all the stock missing
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Speaker 1: from Simpson's eight horses were stolen from Smith's Creek on
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Speaker 1: last Monday, supposedly by road agents. The above are random
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Speaker 1: extracts from Frontier newspapers printed while the Pony Express was running.
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Speaker 1: The Express could never have existed on its high plane
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Speaker 1: of efficiency without an abundance of cool headed, hardened men,
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Speaker 1: men who knew not fear, and who were expert, though
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Speaker 1: sometimes in vain, in all the wonderful arts of self
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Speaker 1: preservation practiced on the old Frontier. That these employees could
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Speaker 1: have performed even the simplest of their duties without stirring
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Speaker 1: and almost incredible adventures. It is needless to assert the
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Speaker 1: faithful relation of even a considerable number of the thrilling
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Speaker 1: experiences to which the pony men were subjected would discount fiction.
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Speaker 1: Yet few of these adventures have been recorded to day.
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Speaker 1: After a lapse of over fifty years, nearly all of
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Speaker 1: the heroes who achieved them have gone out on that
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Speaker 1: last long journey from which no man returns. While history
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Speaker 1: can pay the tribute of preserving some anecdotes of them
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Speaker 1: and their collective achievements, it must be forever silent as
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Speaker 1: to many of their personal acts of heroism. While lasting
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Speaker 1: praise is due the faithful station men, who, in their
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Speaker 1: isolation so often bore the murderous attacks of Indians and bandits,
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Speaker 1: it is perhaps to the riders that the seekers of
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Speaker 1: romance is most likely to turn. It was the rider's
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Speaker 1: skill in fortitude that made the operation of the line possible.
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Speaker 1: Both riders and hostelers shared the same privations, often being
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Speaker 1: reduced to the necessity of eating wolf meat and drinking
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Speaker 1: foul or brackish water. While each rider was supposed to
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Speaker 1: average seventy five miles a trip, riding from three to
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Speaker 1: seven horses, accidents were likely to occur, and it was
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Speaker 1: not uncommon for a man to lose his way. Such
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Speaker 1: delays meant serious trouble in keeping the schedule keyed up
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Speaker 1: as it was to the highest possible speed. It was
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Speaker 1: confronting such emergencies and in performing the duties of comrades
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Speaker 1: who had been killed or disabled while awaiting their turns
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Speaker 1: to ride, that the most exciting episodes took place. Among
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Speaker 1: the more famous riders was Jim Moore, who later became
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Speaker 1: a ranchman in the South Platte Valley, Nebraska. Moore made
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Speaker 1: his greatest ride on June eighth, eighteen sixty. He happened
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Speaker 1: to be at Midway Station, halfway between the Missouri River
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Speaker 1: and Denver, when the westbound messenger arrived with important government
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Speaker 1: dispatches to California. Moore took up the run, riding continuously
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Speaker 1: one hundred and forty miles to Old Jewlesburg, the end
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Speaker 1: of his division. Here he met the eastbound messenger, also
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Speaker 1: with important missives from the coast to Washington. By all
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Speaker 1: the rules of the game, Moore should have rested a
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Speaker 1: few hours at this point, but his successor, who would
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Speaker 1: have picked up the pouch and started eastward, had been
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Speaker 1: killed the day before. The the mail must go and
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Speaker 1: the schedule must be sustained. Without asking any favors of
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Speaker 1: the man who had just arrived from the west, Moore
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Speaker 1: resumed the saddle after a delay of only ten minutes,
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Speaker 1: without even stopping to eat, and was soon pounding eastward.
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Speaker 1: On his return trip, he made it too, in spite
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Speaker 1: of lurking Indians, hunger, and fatigue, covering the round trip
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Speaker 1: of two hundred and eighty miles in fourteen hours and
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Speaker 1: forty six minutes, an average speed of over eighteen miles
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Speaker 1: an hour. Furthermore, his westbound mail had gone through from
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Speaker 1: Saint Joseph to Sacramento on a record making run of
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Speaker 1: eight days and nine hours. William James, always called Bill James,
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Speaker 1: was a native of Virginia. He had crossed the plains
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Speaker 1: with his parents in a wagon train when only five
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Speaker 1: years old. At eighteen, he was one of the best
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Speaker 1: Pony Express riders in the service. James's route lay between
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Speaker 1: Simpson's Park and Coal Springs, Nevada, in the Smoky Valley
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Speaker 1: range of mountains. He rode only sixty miles each way,
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Speaker 1: but covered his round trip of one hundred twenty miles
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Speaker 1: in twelve hours, including all stops. He always rode California mustangs,
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Speaker 1: using five of these animals each way. His route crossed
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Speaker 1: the summits of two mountain ridges, lay through the Shoshonee
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Speaker 1: Indian country, and was one of the loneliest and most
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Speaker 1: dangerous divisions on the line. Yet Bill never took time
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Speaker 1: to think about danger, nor did he ever have any
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Speaker 1: serious trouble. Theodore Rand rode the Pony Express during the
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Speaker 1: entire period of its organization. His run was from box
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Speaker 1: Elder to Julesburg one hundred and ten miles, and he
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Speaker 1: made the entire distance both ways by night. His schedule
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Speaker 1: night run, though it was required a gate of ten
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Speaker 1: miles an hour, but Rand often made it at an
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Speaker 1: average of twelve, thus saving time on the thru schedule
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Speaker 1: for some unfortunate rider who might have trouble and delay. Originally,
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Speaker 1: Rand used only four or five horses each way, but
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Speaker 1: this number, in keeping with the revised policy of the company,
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Speaker 1: was afterward doubled, an extra amount being furnished him every
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Speaker 1: twelve or fifteen miles. Johnny Frye, who has already been
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Speaker 1: mentioned as the first rider out of Saint Joseph, was
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Speaker 1: little more than a boy when he entered the pony's service.
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Speaker 1: He was a native Missourian, weighing less than one hundred
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Speaker 1: and twenty five pounds. Though small in stature, he was
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Speaker 1: every inch a man. Fry's division ran from Saint Joseph
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Speaker 1: to Seneca, Kansas, eighty miles, which he covered at an
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Speaker 1: average of twelve than one half miles an hour, including
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Speaker 1: all stops. When the war started, Fry enlisted in the
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Speaker 1: Union Army under General Blunt. His short but worthy career
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Speaker 1: was cut short in eighteen sixty three when he fell
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Speaker 1: in a hand to hand fight with rebel bushwhackers in Arkansas.
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Speaker 1: In this his last fight, Fry is said to have
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Speaker 1: killed five of his assailants before being struck down. Jim Beatley,
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Speaker 1: whose real name was Foot, was another Virginian about twenty
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Speaker 1: five years of age. He rode on an eastern division,
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Speaker 1: usually west out of Seneca. On one occasion, he traveled
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Speaker 1: from Seneca to Big Sandy fifty miles and back, doubling
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Speaker 1: his route twice in one week. Beatley was killed by
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Speaker 1: a stage hand in a personal quarrel, the affair taking
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Speaker 1: place on a ranch in southern Nebraska. In eighteen sixty two.
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Speaker 1: William Bolton was one of the older riders in the service.
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Speaker 1: His age at that time as given at about thirty five.
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Speaker 1: Bolton rode for about three months with bately. Note pony
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Speaker 1: riders often alternated runs with each other over their respective divisions,
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Speaker 1: in the same manner as do railroad train crews at
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Speaker 1: the present time. On one occasion, while running between Seneca
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Speaker 1: and Guitard's, Bolton's horse gave out when five miles from
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Speaker 1: the latter station, without a moment's delay. He removed his
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Speaker 1: letter pouch and hurried the mail in on foot, where
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Speaker 1: a fresh horse was at once provided, and the schedule resumed.
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Speaker 1: Melville Bond, usually known as Mel, had a pony run
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Speaker 1: between Fort Carney and thirty two mile Creek. Once, while
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Speaker 1: laying off between trips, a thief made off with his
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Speaker 1: favorite horse, scarcely had the misc gotten away. When Bond
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Speaker 1: discovered the loss, hastily saddling another steed, Mel gave pursuit, and,
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Speaker 1: though handicapped because the outlaw had the pick of the stable,
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Speaker 1: bond superior horsemanship, even on an inferior mount soon told.
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Speaker 1: After a chase of several miles, he forced the fellow
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Speaker 1: so hard that he abandoned the stolen animal at a
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Speaker 1: place called Loop Fork and sneaked away recovering the horse.
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Speaker 1: Bond then returned to his station, found a male awaiting him,
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Speaker 1: and was off on his run without further delay. With
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Speaker 1: him and his fellow employees. Running down a horse thief
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Speaker 1: was but a trifling incident and an annoyance merely because
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Speaker 1: of the bother and delay which it necessitated. Bonn was
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Speaker 1: afterward hanged for murder at Seneca, but his services to
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Speaker 1: the Pony Express were above reproach. Another e Eastern Division
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Speaker 1: man was Jack Keatley, who also rode from Saint Joseph
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Speaker 1: to Seneca, alternating at times with Fry and Bond. Keatley's
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Speaker 1: greatest performance and one of the most remarkable ever achieved
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Speaker 1: in the service, was riding from Rock Creek to Saint Joseph,
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Speaker 1: then back to his starting point and on to Seneca,
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Speaker 1: and from Seneca once more to Rock Creek, three hundred
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Speaker 1: and forty miles without rest. He traveled continuously for thirty
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Speaker 1: one hours, his entire run being at the rate of
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Speaker 1: eleven miles an hour. During the last five miles of
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Speaker 1: his journey, he fell asleep in the saddle, and in
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Speaker 1: this manner concluded his long trip. Don C. Rising, who
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Speaker 1: afterwards settled in northern Kansas, was born in Painted Post,
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Speaker 1: Steuben County, New York, in eighteen forty four, and came
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Speaker 1: west when thirteen years of age. He rode in the
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Speaker 1: Pony service nearly a year from November eighteen sixty until
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Speaker 1: the line was abandoned the following October, most of his
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Speaker 1: service being rendered before he was seventeen. Much of his
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Speaker 1: time was spent running eastward out of Fort Carney until
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Speaker 1: the telegraph had reached that point and made the operation
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Speaker 1: of the express between the Fort and Saint Joseph no
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Speaker 1: longer necessary. On two occasions, Rising is said to have
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Speaker 1: maintained a continuous speed of twenty miles an hour while
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Speaker 1: carrying important dispatches between Big Sandy and Rock Creek. One rider,
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Speaker 1: who was well known as Little Yank, was a boy
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Speaker 1: scarcely out of his teens and weighing barely one hundred pounds.
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Speaker 1: He rode along the Platte River between Cottonwood Springs and
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Speaker 1: Old Jewlesburg, and frequently made one hundred miles on a
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Speaker 1: single trip. Another man named Hogan, of whom little is known,
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Speaker 1: rode northwesterly out of Jewlesburg, across the Platte and to
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Speaker 1: Mud Springs eighty miles. Jimmy Clark rode between various stations
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Speaker 1: east of Fort Carney, usually between Big Sandy and Hollenburg.
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Speaker 1: Sometimes his run took him as far west as Liberty
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Speaker 1: Farm on the Little Blue River. James W. Brink, or
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Speaker 1: dock Brink, as he was known to his associates, was
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Speaker 1: one of the early riders, entering the employ of the
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Speaker 1: Pony Express Company in April eighteen sixty. While Doc made
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Speaker 1: a good record as a courier, his chief fame was
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Speaker 1: gained in a fight at Rock Creek Station, in which
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Speaker 1: Brink and wild Bill cleaned out them candless gang of outlaws,
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Speaker 1: killing five of their number. Note. Wild Bill Hickock was
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Speaker 1: one of the most noted gun fighters that the West
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Speaker 1: ever produced. As marshal of Abilene, Kansas and other Wild
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Speaker 1: Frontier towns, he became a terror to bad men and
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Speaker 1: compelled them to respect law and order when under his jurisdiction.
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Speaker 1: Probably no man has ever equalled him in the use
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Speaker 1: of the six shooter. Numerous magazine articles describing his career
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Speaker 1: can be found. Charles Cliff had an eighty mile Pony
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Speaker 1: run when only seventeen years of age. But like Brink,
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Speaker 1: young Cliff gained his greatest reputation as a fighter, in
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Speaker 1: his case fighting Indians. It seems that while Cliff was
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Speaker 1: once freighting with a small train of nine wagons, it
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Speaker 1: was attacked by a party of one hundred Sioux Indians
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Speaker 1: and besieged for three days until a larger train approached
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Speaker 1: and drove the Redskins away. During the conflict, Cliff received
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Speaker 1: three bullets in his body and twenty seven in his clothing,
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Speaker 1: but he soon recovered from his injuries and was afterward
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Speaker 1: nonetheless valuable to the Pony Express Service. J. G. Kelly,
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Speaker 1: later a citizen of Denver, was a veteran pony man.
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Speaker 1: He entered the employee of the company at the outset
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Speaker 1: and helped Superintendent Roberts to lay out the route across
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Speaker 1: Nevada along the Carson River. Tiresome stretches of Corduroy Road
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Speaker 1: had to be built. Kelly relates that in constructing this highway,
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Speaker 1: willow trees were cut near the stream and the trunks
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Speaker 1: cut into the desired lengths before being laid in place.
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Speaker 1: The men often had to carry these timbers in their
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Speaker 1: arms for three hundred yards, while the mosquitoes swarmed so
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Speaker 1: thickly upon their faces and hands as to make their
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Speaker 1: real color and identity hard to determine. At the sink
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Speaker 1: of the Carson, a great depression of the river on
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Speaker 1: its course through the desert, Kelly assisted in building a
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Speaker 1: fort for protecting the line against Indians. Here there were
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Speaker 1: no rocks nor timber, and so the structure had to
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Speaker 1: be built of adobe mud. To get this mud to
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Speaker 1: a proper consistency, the men tramped it all day with
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Speaker 1: their bare feet. The soil was soaked with alkali, and
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Speaker 1: as a result, according to Kelly's story, their feet were
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Speaker 1: swollen so as to resemble hams. They next erected a
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Speaker 1: fort at Sand Springs, twenty miles from Carson Lake, and
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Speaker 1: another at Cold Springs, thirty two miles east of Sand Springs.
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Speaker 1: At Cold Springs, Kelly was appointed assistant station keeper under
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Speaker 1: Jim McNaughton. An outbreak of the pay Ute Indians was
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Speaker 1: now in progress, and as the little station was in
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Speaker 1: the midst of the disturbed area, there was plenty of excitement.
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Speaker 1: One night, while Kelly was on guard, his attention was
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Speaker 1: attracted by the uneasiness of the horses. Gazing carefully through
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Speaker 1: the dim light, he saw an Indian peering over the
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Speaker 1: outer wall or stockade. The orders of the post were
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Speaker 1: to shoot every Indian that came within range, so Kelly
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Speaker 1: blazed away but missed his man. In the morning, many
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Speaker 1: tracks were found about the place. This wild shot had
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Speaker 1: probably frightened the prowlers away, saving the station from attack
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Speaker 1: and certain destruction. During this same morning, a Mexican pony
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Speaker 1: rider came in mortally wounded, having been shot by the
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Speaker 1: savages from ambush while passing through a dense thicket in
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Speaker 1: the vicinity known as Quaking asp Bottom. Although given tender care,
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Speaker 1: the poor fellow died within a few hours after his arrival.
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Speaker 1: The mail was waiting and it must go. Kelly, who
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Speaker 1: was the lightest man in the place. He weighed but
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Speaker 1: one hundred pounds, was now ordered by the boss to
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Speaker 1: take the dead man's place and go on with the dispatches.
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Speaker 1: This he did, finishing the run without further incident. On
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Speaker 1: his return trip, he had to pass once more through
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Speaker 1: the aspen thicket where his predecessor had received his death wound.
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Speaker 1: This was one of the most dangerous points in the
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Speaker 1: entire trail. For the road. Zigzagged through a jungle, following
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Speaker 1: a passageway that was only large enough to admit a
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Speaker 1: horse and rider. For two miles, a man could not
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Speaker 1: see more than thirty or forty feet ahead. Kelly was
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Speaker 1: expecting trouble and went through like a whirlwind, at the
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Speaker 1: same time holding a repeating rifle in readiness should trouble occur.
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Speaker 1: On having cleared the thicket, he drew rein on the
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Speaker 1: top of a hill, and looking back over his course,
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Speaker 1: saw the bushes moving in a suspicious manner. Knowing there
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Speaker 1: was no live stock in that locality and that wild
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Speaker 1: game rarely abounded there, he sent several shots in the
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Speaker 1: direction of the moving underbrush. The motion soon ceased, and
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Speaker 1: he galloped onward unharmed. A few days later, two United
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Speaker 1: States soldiers, while traveling to join their command, were ambushed
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Speaker 1: and murdered in the same thicket. This was about the
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Speaker 1: time when Major Ormsby's command was massacred by the Utes
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Speaker 1: in the disaster at Pyramid Lake, and the Indians everywhere
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Speaker 1: in Nevada were unusually aggressive and dangerous. There were seldom
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Speaker 1: more than three or four men in the little station,
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Speaker 1: and it is remarkable that Kelly and his companions were
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Speaker 1: not all killed. One of Kelly's worst rides, in addition
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Speaker 1: to the episode just related, was the stretch between Cold
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Speaker 1: Springs and Sand Springs for thirty seven miles without a
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Speaker 1: drop of water along the way. Once, while dashing past
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Speaker 1: a wagon train of immigrants, a whole fusel out of
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Speaker 1: bullets was fired at Kelly, who narrowly escaped with his life.
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Speaker 1: Of course, he could not stop the mail to see
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Speaker 1: why he had been shot at. But on his return
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Speaker 1: trip he met the same crowd and in unprintable language,
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Speaker 1: told them what he thought of their lawless and irresponsible conduct.
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Speaker 1: The only satisfaction he could get from them in reply
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Speaker 1: was the repeated assertion, we thought you was an Indian note.
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Speaker 1: Indians would sometimes gaze in open mouthed wonder at the
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Speaker 1: on rushing ponies. To some of them, the pony outfit
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Speaker 1: was bad medicine and not to be molested. There was
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Speaker 1: a certain air of mystery about the wonderful system and
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Speaker 1: untiring energy with which the riders followed their course. Unfortunately,
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Speaker 1: a majority of the red men were not always content
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Speaker 1: to watch the pony in simple wonder. They were too
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Speaker 1: frequently bent upon committing deviltry to refrain from doing harm
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Speaker 1: whenever they had a chance. Nor was Kelly the only
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Speaker 1: pony rider who took narrow chances from the guns of
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Speaker 1: excited immigrants traveling rapidly and unencumbered. The rider, sunburned and
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Speaker 1: blackened by exposure, must have borne on first glance no
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Speaker 1: little resemblance to an Indian, and especially would the mistake
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Speaker 1: be natural to excited wagonmen, who were always in fear
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Speaker 1: of dashing attacks from mounted Indians, a tax in which
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Speaker 1: a single rider would often be deployed to ride past
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Speaker 1: the white man at utmost speed in order to draw
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Speaker 1: their fire. Then, when their guns were empty, a hidden
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Speaker 1: band of savages would make a furious onslaught. It was
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Speaker 1: the established rule of the West in those days, in
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Speaker 1: case of suspected danger, to shoot first and make explanations afterward.
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Speaker 1: To do to the other fellow as he would do
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Speaker 1: to you, and do it first. Added to the perils
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Speaker 1: of the wilderness, deserts, blizzards, and wild Indians. The pony
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Speaker 1: riders then had at times to beware of their white
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Speaker 1: friends under such circumstances as have been narrated, and that
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Speaker 1: added to the tragical romance of their daily lives. Yet
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Speaker 1: they courted danger, and were seldom disappointed, for danger was
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Speaker 1: always near them. End of Chapter six, recording by Roger Moline,