Today I walk by the Johnston Outpost YMCA. I had never stopped to read the historical marker in front which says:
This site was donated in 1960 to Town North Branch of the Young Men’s Christian Association of Dallas by Ben Johnston, Mary Johnston and Ava Johnston, children of pioneers Marion Johnston (1834-1922) and wife, Elizabeth Dean Johnston (1849-1929), who acquired this property in 1867. It was the birthplace of their children, Tom, Mary, Ben, Bob, Amy and Ava.
This Johnston homestead was the site of many events of early Dallas County history. The first business enterprises in this area were situated here, a blacksmith shop and a gristmill built by the Rev. William Bowles, original Peters County settler. In 1844. On it was a muster ground used to train 125 men under Capt. William Jackson for cavalry service for the Confederacy during the Civil War. Over it was the route of the Butterfield Stage Line, delivering mail from Bonham,Texas, to Farmers Branch and Cedar Springs (now a part of Dallas) in 1848-1866. The first one-stand gin was operated here by Marion Johnston and John A. Johnston about 1875-1880. It was the site of an unfailing watering place for early day travelers, and on this land David Shahan, for whom the survey is named, built his original cabin in 1846 under Peters Colonization Contract.
Can’t you just imagine the loud clanging of the blacksmith shop and grinding gears of the gristmill and cotton gin? Confederate soldiers learning to use guns to kill their Union compatriots — who could have been their friends or members of their family. Women sweating in corsets underneath long dresses, the smell of horses on a hitching post, the taste of cool, clear well water. Into the midst of this real-life western came news from the outside world from a trusted transport, the Butterfield Stage Line.
According to the Texas History Notebook blog, there were apparently two routes through Texas. From east to west, the line entered Texas by crossing the Red River near current-day Denison and then came through or close to these towns: Sherman, Gainesville, Jacksboro, Fort Belknap, Woodson, west of Albany, west of Abilene, Bronte, Grape Creek and angled southwest to between Crane and McCarey. It split west of there with the southern leg going to Fort Stockton, Fort Davis, up to Van Horn, westerly to Fort Quitman and then following the Rio Grande to current-day El Paso. The northern leg angled westerly to Pecos, generally followed the Pecos River to the current New Mexico border and from there went west to current-day El Paso.
The Butterfield Stage Line was part of Butterfield Overland Mail — officially the Overland Mail Co. — a stagecoach service in the United States operating from 1858 to 1861. It carried passengers and U.S. mail from two eastern points — Memphis, Tennessee, and St. Louis, Missouri — to San Francisco, California. The routes from each eastern terminus met at Fort Smith, Arkansas, and then continued through Indian Territory (Oklahoma), Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Mexico and California ending in San Francisco. The route, known as the Oxbow Route because of its long curving route through the southwest, was 600 miles longer than the Central Overland Trail, but had the advantage of being snow free. On March 3, 1857, Congress authorized the U.S. Postmaster General, at that time Aaron V. Brown, to contract for delivery of the U.S. mail from St. Louis to San Francisco. Prior to this, U.S. mail bound for the Far West had been delivered by the San Antonio and San Diego Mail Line (Jackass Mail) since June 1857.
Overland Mail Co. contract
Through the 1840s and 1850s there was a desire for better communication between the east and west coasts of the United States. There were several proposals for railroads connecting the two coasts. A more immediate realization was an overland mail route across the west. Congress authorized the Postmaster General to contract for mail service from Missouri to California to facilitate settlement in the west. The Post Office Department advertised for bids for an overland mail service on April 20, 1857. Bidders were to propose routes from the Mississippi River westward. Nine bids were made by some of the most experienced stage men.
None of the express companies — such as American Express, Adams Express or Wells Fargo & Co. Express — bid on the contract because, as of yet, they had no experience running stage lines. A suggestion by the New York Times that the express companies could do a better job than the Overland Mail Co. drew a sharp rebuttal from a Washington, D.C., newspaper.
Mail Contract No. 12,578 for $600,000 per annum for a semi-weekly service was assigned to John Butterfield of Utica, New York, who was president for the contract that was named the Overland Mail Company. This was the longest mail contract awarded in the United States.
John Butterfield was a descendant of Benjamin Butterfield, who brought his family from England to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1638. His father, Daniel Butterfield, lived at Berne, in the Helderberg, near Albany, N. Y., where John was born in 1801. He attended schools near his boyhood home, but his education was meager.
John's early involvement with stage lines started about 1820.
"In early life we find him in the employment of Thorpe & Sprague in Berne as a driver and through the solicitation of Mr. Theodore S. Faxton came to Utica [NY], where he for a time was employed in picking up passengers from the taverns and boats for Parker's stages. After a time he started a livery [1827] with but small accommodations… His connection to Parker & Co. continued so long as they were still in business, and was succeeded by lines of his own, wherein he was a leading manager in the state until staging was superseded by railroads."
After his employment with other stage lines, John decided to use this experience for running his own stage lines in upstate New York.
"Mr. Butterfield devoted his attention largely to lines running north and south. At the height of stage coaching, he had 40 lines running from Utica as headquarters to Ogdensburg and Sacketts Harbor on the north, and south to the Pennsylvania line, and through Chemung and Susquehanna valleys."
By 1857, when John was awarded the Overland Mail Co. contract, he had had 37 years of experience working for and running stage lines. This was one of the reasons that Postmaster General A.V. Brown awarded him the contract.
Overland Mail Co. was a stockholding company and the main stockholders, besides John Butterfield who were also the directors, were William B. Dinsmore of New York City; William G. Fargo of Buffalo, New York, (actually he was from Pompey, New York); James V. P. Gardner of Utica, New York; Marquis L. Kenyon of Rome, New York; Alexander Holland of New York City; and Hamilton Spencer of Bloomington, Illinois. There were four others known as sureties — security against loss.
Almost all of the stockholders were connected to other businesses in upstate New York and most lived not far from Butterfield's home in Utica, New York. Alexander Holland was Butterfield's son-in-law and treasurer of the Overland Mail Co. Dinsmore was vice-president of the company. The office for the company was in New York City.
Marquis Kenyon and John Butterfield Jr. — architects of the Butterfield Trail
John Butterfield Sr. turned to two of his most trusted and experienced employees to put in place the Butterfield Trail. In 1858, with expedition leader Marquis L. Kenyon, John Butterfield Jr. helped to select the route and sites for the stage stations. Kenyon was also a stockholder/director of the Overland Mail Company and the only stockholder, other than John Butterfield, to have significant staging experience. Marquis moved from Mannsville, Jefferson County, to Rome, New York, in 1838. Rome was twelve miles from John Butterfield's home in Utica. He immediately became involved with staging. His obituary gives a good summation of his staging activities in Upstate New York and what led him to be involved with the Overland Mail Company:
"His prior occupation was a humble one—that of driver of a stage-coach between Utica and Oswego. It was but two or three years before he had saved enough money from his wages to purchase an interest in the stage-coach line of which he was an employee; and once having placed his foot on the first steps of the ladder, he soon rose, by his business tact and assiduity, to be the principal proprietor of the stage-coach lines converging to this point. At the time that railroads supplanted stages on the leading routes, Mr. Kinyon [Kenyon] was one of the most extensive owners of stage-coach property in Central New York."
According to Chip Twellman Haley’s January 17, 2016 article “Rome man helped build stagecoach trail” in the Rome Sentinel, Gerald T. Ahnert of Syracuse has done extensive research into the Butterfield Overland Trail and about Kenyon. The information below is taken from that research, with Ahnert’s permission, and from other sources:
Kenyon moved to Rome from Jefferson County in 1838. He began driving a stagecoach from Utica to Oswego. Before long, he became a partner in the business, and then the principal owner.
As railroad routes started to expand, Kenyon moved on to work carrying mail on short routes in his stagecoaches. In 1857, the federal government advertised for bids on a long-distance mail service between Missouri and California. The $600,000 contract was awarded to John Butterfield Sr. of Utica, Marquis Kenyon and nine others.
Under Butterfield’s direction, Kenyon surveyed the trail, obtained equipment for the route, and organized it. He established stagecoach stops along the trail. In Arizona he named some stops after people and places in upstate New York: “Kenyon” for himself, “Stanwix” for his Stanwix Hall Hotel in Rome and “Seneca,” “Oneida” and “Mohawk” for the Indian tribes, which were also the names of towns and counties.
Kenyon traveled by steamship from New York City to San Francisco to arrange for a terminal there. Kenyon’s party left San Francisco on Jan. 16, 1858, to work its way eastward. At about the same time, a second party left Missouri. Kenyon’s group traveled about 35 to 45 miles per day. The two groups planned to meet in El Paso, Texas. A few years after the trail was completed, Kenyon retired from his positions as director of the company and superintendent, stationed in San Francisco, and returned to his home in Rome.
According to Wikipedia, John Butterfield Jr.'s obituary summarized his accomplishment:
"John Butterfield [Jr.], the man who helped link the East to the West in establishing his famous Overland Mail Route more than half a century ago, died recently at his house in Utica, aged 82 years. His father, John Butterfield, was a superintendent of the Overland Mail Route from San Francisco to St. Louis and thence to eastern cities. The younger Butterfield first traversed the famous route, marked the stations, superintended the work of organization and drove the first stage over the route."
According to Chip Twellman Haley’s January 17, 2016 article “Rome man helped build stagecoach trail” in the Rome Sentinel, the Overland Mail Co. employed about 800 workers and used 100 stages and about 1,800 wild mules and mustangs. Many of the drivers were from upstate New York. They made brief stops — to change stages and mules and drivers — at some of the 175 stations. The coaches made two trips each week. The hardy travelers rode in the crowded stagecoaches or stage wagons 24 hours a day, for up to 25 days, to get from Missouri to California. Riders were often tired, dirty and worried about attacks by robbers or Indians. Through tickets cost $200.
According to Wikipedia, for the 25-day trip, the Butterfield stages did not stop for the passengers to sleep. They had to sleep on the stages. Many correspondents reported humorous stories about their experiences trying to sleep on the Butterfield stages. One of the most common problems was the losing of their hats while sleeping caused by the open-sided stage wagons providing little protection from the wind. National Park Service Historian Frank Norris stated in an interview that "According to historian Gerald T. Ahnert, 'Pulling up to a Butterfield stage station was like making a NASCAR pit stop.'"
Correspondent Ormsby reported: "Our horses were four in number, that being the allotment all along the line from Tipton [Missouri] to San Francisco [California]." Many correspondents' reports describe the problems for the Overland Mail Company using unbroken wild mules and mustangs between Fort Smith, Arkansas, and Los Angeles, California. By most accounts, wild mules were used and some wild mustangs. It is surprising that the use of wild draft animals did not hinder the Overland Mail Company stages from accomplishing its contractual agreed to time schedule. The problem with the unbroken mules and mustangs was expressed in correspondent Farwell's report:
"We arrived at the station about 10 o'clock, A. M., about 1 mile to the eastward of the river. Some coffee was prepared for us, and we were soon ready to start again. This time, after we were all seated in the coach, the horses, which were said to have been always kind and gentle, refused to move. After a great deal of beating, coaxing and a trial of various methods suggested by almost every one present, we were all obliged to get out again, and after a great deal of trouble, the horses were started, but the passengers being out of the coach, the driver was obliged to stop again, and again, after they were in, the horses refused to go. After working with the might and main for some time, they were got off upon a run, and this time they were kept going. Hitherto, in starting from any station, a person was obliged to stand at the heads of the horses—they being with a few exceptions' wild ones—until the driver was seated on his box, the reins gathered and everything in readiness, when he would give the signal, "turn 'em loose," or "let 'em go," and they would go upon a run. As we get further along, however, they are growing tame, and are more easily handled."
When the Overland Mail Company Contract No. 12578 was transferred to the Central Overland Trail, the contract was amended on March 12, 1861, to include the Pony Express. The new contract stated the following:
"And to be required also, during the continuance of their contract, or until completion of the overland telegraph, to run a pony-express semi-weekly at a schedule time of ten days, eight months of the year, and twelve days four months of the year [presumably the winter months], and to convey for the Government free of charge five pounds of mail matter, with liberty of charging the public for transportation of letters by said express not exceeding $1 per half ounce. The compensation for the whole service [which included the stage line mail service] to be $1,000,000 per annum, to take effect on or before the 1st of July, 1861 and to expire the 1st of July, 1864 [the same date for the end of the old contract No. 12578]. The number of the route to be changed to 10773 and the service to be recorded in the route register for Missouri."
No one on a Butterfield stage was ever killed by outlaws or Indians, but some died in accidents caused by the mostly unbroken mules or mustangs running wild. Butterfield's stages were not allowed to carry shipments of valuables. In Butterfield's instructions to his employees was "No money, jewelry, bank notes, or valuables of any nature, will be allowed to be carried under any circumstances whatever." For this reason, the idea of a "shotgun" rider next to the driver was not employed by Butterfield. When correspondent Ormsby asked one of the stage drivers, "Have you any arms?", the stage driver answered, "No, I don't have any; there's no danger." However, most people on the Butterfield stages were armed, especially in Comanche and Apache territory. In October 1859 correspondent Farwell was a passenger heading east on a Butterfield stage and wrote the following:
"After leaving this station [Arizona's San Pedro River Stage Station], the conductor asked 'how many of us were armed', and requested that those who had arms should have them ready for use, as we now were in the Apache country. Guns and pistols were produced, and we rode all night with them in our hands."
Butterfield stagecoach ride at Knott's Berry Farm in California
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