Pony Express Historic Resource Study

LEAVENWORTH & PIKE'S PEAK EXPRESS COMPANY

While the firm Russell, Majors, and Waddell grappled with their financial difficulties associated with the Utah War, in the summer of 1858, gold was discovered near the mouth of Cherry Creek and the South Platte River by a prospector named William Green Russell. A year later, William Green Russell's modest discovery set into motion a rush of gold prospectors, or "fifty-niners," who soon dotted the mountain hillsides between Pike's Peak and Long's Peak in present-day Colorado with their mining claims and camps. [31] To reach the Cherry Creek diggings, prospectors took one of two routes. They either followed the Oregon Trail to the south fork of the Platte River and then followed that stream to the Denver area, or they used the Santa Fe Trail to Bent's Fort, and from there headed westward on the upper Arkansas River to Fountain River and then to the gold rush region. [32]

William H. Russell heard the news of the Pike's Peak gold rush during the late summer of 1858 while in Leavenworth. Convinced that the gold rush was not a "flash in the pan," Russell immediately attempted to capitalize on the situation by launching an express/passenger business to serve the almost "certain" heavy emigration to the Rocky Mountains. Together with several partners, including John S. Jones, his former freighting partner from the 1850s, Russell borrowed money to organize a stage and express line company to run between Leavenworth and Denver. They named the new service the Leavenworth City & Pike's Peak Express Company or L. & P.P. Express Co. This new firm hoped to transport mail and miners to the gold fields along a middle route between the Oregon and Santa Fe Trails. [33]

Russell and Jones, both promoters and speculators, immediately invested their energies in this new project. First, the L. & P.P. Express Co. surveyed and laid out a new road from Leavenworth to the Rocky Mountain gold diggings between the Republican and Smoky Hill forks of the Kansas River. Second, they located twenty-seven stations along the 680 mile route, approximately twenty-five miles apart. Third, they improvidently ordered fifty new Concord coaches (costing $12,500 and many more than were used on the Butterfield line) and bought 800 mules to pull these coaches. Fourth, to run the operation and attend the needs of the travelers, they employed 108 men as drivers, stocktenders, harness makers, blacksmiths, messengers, and division agents. [34]

By May 1859, the L. & P.P. Express Co. scheduled its first trip. This initial trip took nineteen days; however, when the problems were worked out, they reduced the schedule to six or seven days. The L. & P.P. Express Co. charged $125.00 for a passenger ticket, $1.00 a pound for express packages, and 25¢ for each letter carried. The blossoming town of Denver celebrated the occasion of the first arrival of the L. & P.P. Express Co. coach, and an "extra" was even published by the Rocky Mountain News. The returning coach to Leavenworth was heralded by an elaborate twelve-hour celebration there. Upon first impression, the L. & P.P. Express Co. mail/passenger service appeared to be a prosperous enterprise, albeit a speculative one. [35]

In the long run, this first impression was deceptive. Despite Russell's predictions, the anticipated emigration to the Rockies did not come, at least not by the stage route Russell and Jones had forged. Instead, many prospectors went by "wagon train, in small parties of their own, on horseback, or on foot." Many traveled by these means because they could not afford the cost of passenger service. This lack of paying passengers caused an immediate deficit problem for the L. & P.P. Express Co. Undaunted, Russell and Jones pushed their plan forward by eyeing an even larger prize—a central overland mail route contract. Russell hoped to eventually secure a United States postal contract for his new enterprise. [36]

On May 11, 1859, for the sum of for $144,000, the L. & P.P. Express Co. purchased Hockaday & Company's semi-monthly contract to transport United States mail between St. Joseph, Missouri, and Salt Lake City via Forts Kearney, Laramie, and Bridger. As noted in Chapter One, John M. Hockaday had been forced toward bankruptcy when the post office arbitrarily reduced compensation for the St. Joseph to Salt Lake City route from $190,000 per annum to $130,000, and reduced service from weekly to semi-monthly. By 1859, Hockaday & Company owned only a few light, cheap stages, and mules to go along with them, and apparently only seven stations existed along the route. These stations were at Independence (later St. Joseph), Big Blue, Fort Kearney, Fort Laramie, Independence Rock, Black's Fork, and Salt Lake City. Apparently, Hockaday & Company simply ran the same team for several hundred miles, and then changed teams or grazed and rested them in pasture. The Hockaday contract ran until November 30, 1860. [37]

Following their purchase of Hockaday & Company, Russell and Jones abandoned their Leavenworth to Denver route, transferring it northward to the Hockaday & Company route. This maneuver gave Russell and Jones "business over the eastern half of the route and put him in a position to secure a contract for carrying the mail to Denver, if and when such a contract was let." According to one source, this purchase was a "big step toward what Russell had wanted for a long time—a contract to carry United States mail to California over the central route." [38]

Because Hockaday & Company possessed only seven stations, Russell and Jones built additional stations along the route, which added to the expense of the already unprofitable route. Under the supervision of Beverly D. Williams, stations were erected at various intervals along the route. The stations ranged from "sixteen to forty-three miles apart, [and] were set up as permanent locations, some of them at or near ranches or trading posts already in operation." Each station had a barn large enough to house several fresh teams of mules ready for the road day and night. The larger stations were made "home" stations for drivers and passengers, and provided travelers with meals and lodging. [39]

The new L. & P.P. Express Co. was organized into three divisions. Under the supervision of Beverly Williams (later Benjamin Ficklin), the first division ran from St. Joseph to the South Platte near Julesburg. Nineteen stations stood along this part of the route. They included: "Leavenworth, Armors, Kinnekuk, Lochnane's [Log Chain?], Seneca, Guittard's, Cottonwood [Hollenburg], Rock Creek, Big Sandy, Kiowa Station, Liberty Farm, 32 Mile Creek, Fort Kearney, 17 Mile Station, Plum Creek, Cold Water, Cottonwood Springs, O'Fallon's Bluffs, and Lower Crossing South Platte." From here the "stage for Denver turned to the south and ascended the South Platte while those of the overland mail [destined] for Salt Lake and California crossed the North Fork [of the Platte River] and then followed this stream to its headwaters." [40] The second division, supervised by the notorious Joseph A. Slade, [41] covered the route from Julesburg to South Pass. Finally, the third division ran from South Pass to Salt Lake City and was supervised by James E. Bromley. [42]

The establishment of the L. & P.P. Express Co., the purchase, reorganization, and operation of the former Hockaday & Company route, and the lack of passengers on their former route from Leavenworth to Denver caused severe financial problems for William H. Russell. By late October 1859, the L. & P.P. Express Co.'s liabilities jeopardized the reputation and economic well-being of the firm of Russell, Majors, and Waddell because Russell used the credit reputation of Russell, Majors, and Waddell to raise his share of the investment for L. & P.P. Express Co. Majors and Waddell watched the mounting problems of L. & P.P. Express with growing apprehension. By October, the L. & P.P. Express Co. payrolls were in arrears, stations along the route were almost out of feed, and the firm owed $525,000 to its creditors, including $190,000 to the firm of Russell, Majors, and Waddell. [43]

What made matters worse was that William H. Russell had not consulted Alexander Majors, or William Waddell before he entered into his L. & P.P. Express Co. venture. After learning of the venture, Alexander Majors, the practical partner of the firm, thought that it was too early to invest in such an enterprise. Majors thought it best to wait and see whether the gold rush would produce the expected emigration before investing. On the other hand, William Waddell was outright angry with Russell for endangering the reputation of Russell, Majors, and Waddell, especially since they had just barely avoided financial disaster during their 1857-1858 War Department freighting contracts. [44]

Nevertheless, by late 1859, given the difficult financial circumstances of the L. & P.P. Express Co., both Majors and Waddell had little choice but to support their partner's mail/passenger scheme. Therefore, on October 28, 1859, Russell, Majors, and Waddell entered into a new partnership agreement—one that assumed the debts and the assets of the L. & P.P. Express Co. In the agreement, Russell was named president of the yet unnamed firm. [45]

In December, after their reorganization of their partnership, William H. Russell left for New York for two purposes: first, to raise capital for this new firm, and second, to stave off their creditors for awhile. Unbeknownst to his partners, on November 19, 1859, holding on to the hope of procuring a daily mail contract along the central route, and most likely without consultation with his partners, William Russell named the new firm the Central Overland California & Pike's Peak Express Company or C.O.C. & P.P Express Co. When he informed his partners of the name, Waddell was furious. This apparently mattered little to Russell. A month later, on January 27, 1860, Russell, again most likely without consultation from his partners, wrote his son John, the secretary for the new firm, stating: "Have determined to establish a Pony Express to Sacramento, California, commencing 3rd of April. Time ten days." As one historian put it, "Majors and Waddell found themselves in the position of men who had a bear by the tail and didn't dare let go!" [46]