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Pony Express Museum
914 Penn St.,
P.O. Box 244
St. Joseph, MO
64502-0244
816-279-5059 or
1-800-530-5930
Lake Contrary
Joseph Robidoux
Previous Mayors
Twin Spires
Jesse James
Jesse James Home
Pony Express
Patee House
Medical Rates in 1845
Mayor's Annual Message in 1897
The Earthquake of 1867
Brief City History
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Pony Express Museum
914 Penn St.
open Monday thru Saturday, 9 am to 5 pm
Sundays, 1 pm to 5 pm
closed
Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year's Eve, New Year's
Day
Admission:
$4 for adults, $3 for seniors, $1.50 for students, 6 and under free,
Museum members free
Group rates are available upon request.
Handicap accessible
1-800-530-5930
or 816-279-5059
On April 3, 1860, more than a century
and a quarter ago, the people of St. Joseph gathered to witness an
event as exciting in those days as our space travels are to this generation.
Pony Express rider Billy Fisher |
"Moment in Time"
exhibit |
Original well in the Pony Express stables. |
It is difficult to imagine, with
today's instant world-wide communications by satellite and computer,
the problems that must have faced our nation's settlers just before
the Civil War.
St. Joseph was fortunate, with the arrival of the Hannibal & St.
Joseph Railroad Feb. 14, 1859, this city was on the western edge of
civilization.
Settlers headed west from her faced a 2,000-mile trip by wagon train
that often took three months of hardships. Those who had already reached
California and its promise of gold found themselves cut off from the
rest of the world.
At a time when there were no telephones, radios or telegraph, letters
from New York to San Francisco took 30 day by steamship around South
America. An overland mail route by Butterfield Express took 23 days
for delivery.
Most knew it was a matter of time before the telegraph and the railroad
would span the nation, but with the Civil War looming on the horizon,
something was needed now.
William H. Russell, William Bradford Waddell and Alexander Majors
were already in the freighting business with 4,000 men, 3,500 wagons
and 40,000 oxen in 1858. They held government contracts for deliver
army supplies in the West, and Russell envisioned a similar contract
for fast mail delivery.
Their proposal was a fast mail service between St. Joseph and Sacramento,
California by a Pony Express with letters delivered in the unheard
time of 10 days. It was not exactly overnight, but perhaps overpriced
for the time, at $5 a half-ounce. Their goal was to snare a government
contract for delivery of the mail, something that did not come about.
Russell, Majors and Waddell literally put together the Pony Express
in a two-month period during the winter of 1860. It was an enormous
undertaking, assembling 156 stations, 120 riders, 400 horses and hundreds
of employees, all during January and February of 1860 - without the
benefit of radio, telephones, telegraph or even mail service.
The novel ad read: "Wanted, young skinny, wiry fellows not over
eighteen, must be expert riders willing to risk death daily, orphans
preferred. Wages $25 a week. Apply Central Overland Express."
This ad is now believed by some top Pony Express historians to be
a phony.
In St. Joseph, Russell, Majors and Waddell selected the first floor
of the town's newest hotel, Patee House, as their headquarters. More
than 30 riders checked into the hotel. Since the Pony Express was
not part of the U.S. mail service, local letters bound for the Pony
Express were mailed at the Patee House office for delivery to California.
The people of St. Joseph had an inkling they were on to something
big, and about everybody in town turned out for the start of the Pony
Express on April 3, 1860. Mail from the east coast was late and the
crowd waited until almost dark for the arrival of the mail train from
Hannibal.
The famous painting by Charles Hargens of the start of the Pony Express
is not an historically accurate portrayal of that important day, because
the first Pony Express rider actually left during the night.
Historians have never fully agreed whether Johnny Fry or Billie Richardson
was the first rider, but whoever he was rode the short distance from
the Pikes Peak Stables at 9th & Penn to Patee House at 12th &
Penn.
Alexander Majors was a religious man and resolved "by the help
of God" to overcome all difficulties. He presented each rider
with a Bible and required this oath:
"While I am the employ of A. Majors, I agree not use profane
language, not to get drunk, not to gamble, not to treat animals cruelly
and not to do anything else that is incompatible with the conduct
of a gentleman. And I agree, if I violate any of the above conditions,
to accept my discharge without any pay for my services."
Major M. Jeff Thompson was soon to leave St. Joseph to become a famous
Confederate general. This is a sample of his oratory the day he initiated
the Pony Express:
"This is a great day in the history of St. Joseph. For more than
a decade she has been the portal through which passed the wagon trains
for the great west.
"Now she is to become the connecting link between the extremes
of the continents. For the first time in the history of America, mail
will go by an overland route from east to west.
"The time will come when steam will drive a railroad train through
those fastness' and bear passengers from St. Joseph to California
in less than a week.
"I see you smile, my fellow citizens, and nudge each other at
the idea I am harboring. Some of you are saying, 'Jeff is dreaming
as usual of the impossible and unknown, 'but I tell you all that,
as sure as I stand here, the day will come when at this very town
you may board a train which will take you through the gold fields,
and that within a very few years.
"More than that, I say to you the wilderness which lies between
us will blossom as the rose, cities will spring into existence where
the Indians and Buffalo now hold possession. Mountains will be tunneled,
streams bridged and the iron monster which has become mankind's slave
will ply between our confines and those far distant shores.
"As the Indian vanishes, the white man takes his place. Commercial
activities will replace the teepee and the campfire. Schools and colleges
will spring into existence and the refinements of civilization will
span the continent.
"Of all these things, the California Overland Express is the
forerunner. Hardly will the cloud of dust which envelopes the galloping
pony subside before the puff of steam will be seen upon the horizon.
"Citizens of St. Joseph, I bid you three cheers for the Pony
Express - three cheers for the first overland passage of the United
States Mail."
Well, it was an exciting start, but hardly a financial success. The
owners knew it was only a matter of time before the telegraph would
replace the Pony Express.
The Pony Express ran each week in each direction, with an average
time of 10 days. Delivery of Lincoln's inaugural address set a new
record of slightly less than eight days. The mail averaged almost
250 miles a day, and was carried 1,9
In the nineteen months the Pony Express existed, only one rider was
killed by hostile Indians, and only one bag of mail was lost. The
riders had covered 650,000 miles by horseback.
Exciting as it was, the Pony Express was never a financial success.
It was never a part of the U.S. Postal service, although the galloping
Pony Express rider was the official symbol on every letter carrier's
shoulder until the invention of Mr. Zip.
The most significant thing the Pony Express accomplished was to help
hold California - and its gold - for the Union at the start of the
Civil War.
Russell, Majors and Waddell lost $500,000 on the Pony Express. Eventually
Ben Holladay became owner of what remained the Pony Express. He merged
it with his Central Overland Stage Lines.
William Russell, former president, died in 1872, broke and shunned.
William Waddell never went back in business. A son was killed in the
Civil War, his property was sold for taxes, and he, too, died broke
in 1872.
Alexander Majors returned to freighting and in 1867 moved to Salt
Lake City. He took part in construction of the Union Pacific Railroad,
and died in 1900.
And wealthy Ben Holladay died a poor man shortly after the Panic of
1873.
As a business venture, the Pony Express was a failure. It lasted only
19 months. But a century and a quarter later, it still fascinates
the world as an example of good old American determination and know-how.
Today, the Pony Express, along with Jesse James who departed this
earth here on April 3, 1882, keep St. Joseph on the map worldwide.
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