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

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  Speaker 1: Chapter nine 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 nine Passing of the
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  Speaker 1: Pony Express. When Edward Creighton completed the Pacific Telegraph and
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  Speaker 1: on October fourth, eighteen sixty one, began sending messages by
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  Speaker 1: wire from coast to coast, the California Pony Express formally
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  Speaker 1: went out of existence. For over three months. Since July one,
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  Speaker 1: it had been paralleled by the daily overland Stage. Yet
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  Speaker 1: the great efficiency of the semi weekly Pony Line in
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  Speaker 1: offering quick letter service won and retained its popularity to
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  Speaker 1: the very end of its career. And this was in
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  Speaker 1: spite of the fact that for several weeks before its discontinuance,
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  Speaker 1: the pony Men had ridden only between the ends of
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  Speaker 1: the fast building Telegraph, which was constructed in two divisions
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  Speaker 1: from the Sierra Nevada Mountains and the Missouri River at
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  Speaker 1: the same time, the lines meeting near the Great Salt Lake.
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  Speaker 1: The people of the far West strongly protested against the
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  Speaker 1: elimination of the Pony Line service. Early in the winter
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  Speaker 1: of eighteen sixty two, it became rumored perhaps wildly, that
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  Speaker 1: the Committee on Finance in the House of Representatives had,
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  Speaker 1: for reasons of economy, stricken out the appropriation for the
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  Speaker 1: continuance of the Daily Stage. Whereupon the California Legislature addressed
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  Speaker 1: a set of joint resolutions to the state's delegation in Congress,
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  Speaker 1: imploring not only that the Daily Stage be retained, but
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  Speaker 1: that the Pony Express be re established. The Stage was continued,
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  Speaker 1: but the Pony Line was never restored. As a financial venture,
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  Speaker 1: the Pony Express failed completely. To be sure, Its receipts
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  Speaker 1: were sometimes heavy, often aggregating one thousand dollars in a
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  Speaker 1: single day, but the expenses, on the other hand, were enormous.
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  Speaker 1: Although the line was so great a factor in the
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  Speaker 1: California crisis and in assisting the federal government to retain
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  Speaker 1: the Pacific Coast, it was the irony of fate that
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  Speaker 1: Congress should never give any direct relief or financial assistance
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  Speaker 1: to the Pony Service. So completely was this organization neglected
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  Speaker 1: by the government in so far as extending financial aid
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  Speaker 1: was concerned that its financial failure, as foreseen by Messrs
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  Speaker 1: Waddell and Majors, was certain from the beginning. The War
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  Speaker 1: Department did issue army revolvers and cartridges to the riders,
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  Speaker 1: and the federal troops, when available, could always be relied
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  Speaker 1: upon to protect the line. Yet it was generally left
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  Speaker 1: to the initiative and resourcefulness of the company to defend
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  Speaker 1: itself as best it could when most seriously menaced by Indians.
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  Speaker 1: The apparent apathy regarding this valuable branch of the postal
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  Speaker 1: service can of course be partially excused from the fact
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  Speaker 1: that the Civil War was in eighteen sixty one absorbing
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  Speaker 1: all the energies which the government could summon to its command,
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  Speaker 1: and the war furthermore was playing havoc with our national
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  Speaker 1: finances and piling up a tremendous national debt, which made
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  Speaker 1: the extension of pecuniary relief to quasi private operation of
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  Speaker 1: this kind, no matter how useful they were. A remote
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  Speaker 1: possibility that the stage lines received the assistance they did
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  Speaker 1: under such circumstances is to be wondered at. Yet it
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  Speaker 1: must be borne in mind that at the outset, much
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  Speaker 1: of the political support necessary to secure appropriations for overland
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  Speaker 1: mail routes was derived from Southern Congress, who were anxious
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  Speaker 1: for routes of communication with the West Coast, especially if
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  Speaker 1: such routes ran through the Southwest and linked the cotton
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  Speaker 1: growing states with California. At the very beginning, it cost
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  Speaker 1: about one hundred thousand dollars to equip the Pony Express
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  Speaker 1: Line in those days, a very considerable outlay of capital
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  Speaker 1: for a private corporation. Besides the purchase of more than
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  Speaker 1: four hundred high grade horses, it cost large sums of
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  Speaker 1: money to build and equip stations at intervals of every
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  Speaker 1: ten or twelve miles throughout the long route. The wages
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  Speaker 1: of eighty riders and about four hundred station men, not
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  Speaker 1: to mention a score of division superintendents, was a large item.
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  Speaker 1: Most of the grain used along the line between Saint
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  Speaker 1: Joseph and Salt Lake City was purchased in Iowa and
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  Speaker 1: Missouri and shipped in wagons at a freight rate of
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  Speaker 1: from ten cents to twenty cents a pound. Grain and
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  Speaker 1: foodstuffs for use between Salt Lake City and the Sierras
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  Speaker 1: were usually bought in Utah and hauled from two hundred
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  Speaker 1: to seven hundred miles to the respective stations. Hay gathered
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  Speaker 1: wherever wild grasses could be found and cured, often had
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  Speaker 1: to be freighted hundreds of miles. The operating expenses of
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  Speaker 1: the line aggregated about thirty thousand dollars a month, which
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  Speaker 1: would alone have ensured a deficit, as the monthly income
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  Speaker 1: never equaled that amount. A conspicuous bill of expense which
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  Speaker 1: helped to bankrupt the enterprise, was for protection against the Savages.
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  Speaker 1: While this should have been furnished by the government or
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  Speaker 1: the local state or territorial militia, it was the fate
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  Speaker 1: of the company to bear the brunt of one of
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  Speaker 1: the worst Indian outbreaks of that decade. Early in eighteen sixty,
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  Speaker 1: shortly after the Pony Express was started, the pah Utes,
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  Speaker 1: mentioned of whom has already been made began hostilities under
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  Speaker 1: their renowned chieftain, Old Winnimuka. The uprising spread. Soon the
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  Speaker 1: Bannocks and Shoshones espoused the cause of the Utes, and
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  Speaker 1: the entire territory of Nevada, eastern California, and Oregon was
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  Speaker 1: aflame with Indian revolt. Besides devastating many white settlements wherever
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  Speaker 1: they found them, the Indians destroyed nearly every pony station
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  Speaker 1: between California and Salt Lake, murdered numbers of employees, and
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  Speaker 1: ran off scores of horses. For several weeks. The service
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  Speaker 1: was paralyzed, and had it been in the hands of
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  Speaker 1: faint hearted men, it would have been ended then and there.
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  Speaker 1: The climax came with the defeat and massacre of major
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  Speaker 1: ormsby before of about fifty men by the Utes at
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  Speaker 1: the Battle of Pyramid Lake in western Nevada. Help was
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  Speaker 1: finally sent in from a distance, and before the first
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  Speaker 1: of June, eight hundred men, including three hundred regulars and
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  Speaker 1: a large number of California and Nevada volunteers, had taken
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  Speaker 1: the field. This formidable campaign finally served the double purpose
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  Speaker 1: of protecting the Pony Express and Stage line and in
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  Speaker 1: subduing the Indians in a primitive and defective manner. Order
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  Speaker 1: was restored and the Express service resumed on June nineteen.
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  Speaker 1: Desultory outbreaks, of course, continued to menace the line and
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  Speaker 1: all forms of transportation for months afterwards. During this campaign,
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  Speaker 1: the local officers and employees of the Express gave valiant service.
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  Speaker 1: It was remarkable that they could restore the line so
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  Speaker 1: quickly as they did. The total expense of this war
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  Speaker 1: to the company was seventy five thousand dollars, caused by
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  Speaker 1: ruined and stolen property and outlays for military supplies incidental
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  Speaker 1: to the equipment of volunteers. This onslaught, coming so soon
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  Speaker 1: after the enterprise had begun, and when there was already
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  Speaker 1: so little encouragement that the line would ever pay out financially,
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  Speaker 1: must have disheartened less courageous men than Russell, Majors and
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  Speaker 1: Waddell and their associates. It is to their everlasting credit
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  Speaker 1: that this group of men possessed the perseverance and patriotic
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  Speaker 1: determination to continue the enterprise, even at a certain loss,
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  Speaker 1: and in spite of federal neglect, until the telegraph made
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  Speaker 1: it possible to dispense with the fleet pony Rider. Not
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  Speaker 1: only did they stick bravely to their task of supplying
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  Speaker 1: a wonderful mail service to the country, but they e
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  Speaker 1: even improved their service, increasing it from a weekly to
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  Speaker 1: a semi weekly route immediately after the disastrous raids of
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  Speaker 1: June eighteen sixty. Nor did they hesitate, at the instigation
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  Speaker 1: of the government a little later to reduce their postal
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  Speaker 1: rates from five dollars to one dollar a half ounce.
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  Speaker 1: This condensed statement shows the approximate deficit which the business
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  Speaker 1: incurred to equip the line one hundred thousand dollars, maintenance
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  Speaker 1: at thirty thousand dollars per month for sixteen months, four
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  Speaker 1: hundred and eighty thousand dollars, war with the Utes and
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  Speaker 1: allied tribes, seventy five thousand dollars, sundry items forty five
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  Speaker 1: thousand dollars total seven hundred thousand dollars. The receipts are
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  Speaker 1: said to have been about five hundred thousand dollars, leaving
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  Speaker 1: a debit balance of two hundred thousand dollars. That the
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  Speaker 1: company changed hands in eighteen sixty one is not surprising.
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  Speaker 1: While the Pony Express failed in a financial way, it
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  Speaker 1: had served the country faithfully and well. It had aided
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  Speaker 1: an imperiled government, helped to tranquilize and retain to the
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  Speaker 1: Union a giant commonwealth. And it had shown the practicability
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  Speaker 1: of building a transcontinental railroad and keeping it open for
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  Speaker 1: traffic regardless of winter snows. All this Pony Express did
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  Speaker 1: and more, it marked the supreme triumph of American spirit
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  Speaker 1: of God fearing, mandifying American pluck and determination, qualities which
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  Speaker 1: have always characterized the winning of the West. End of
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  Speaker 1: Chapter nine recording by Roger momae end of the story
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  Speaker 1: of the Pony Express by Glen D. Bradley,