Orphans Preferred – The Pony Express

Fast communications between the east and west coasts of the United States became of vital importance. The journey by ship from New York to San Francisco took months before the Panama Canal was opened. The journey across the continent was also very long and arduous. The only possible solution was the building of a railway across the continent from ocean to ocean. This need became more urgent when the period of great economic development began after the Civil War. There was one more factor to be taken into account – the discovery of gold.

On after the other the gold-digger towns sprang up in the West. Their inhabitants had come from afar and obviously they wanted to keep their contacts with home. The so-called Express Companies came to their assistance. They supplied the gold diggers with everything they needed, from food and clothing to newspapers, arms and ammunition. They accepted the gold for safe deposit in a bank and they also took care of the mail. A normal stamp had to be put on every letter, but, in addition, the Express Company charged extra for taking the letter to the nearest post office or for its delivery into the hands of the gold prospector. This service was handled by many individuals but also by large companies like Wells Fargo. The payment of the extra charge was at first marked on the letter by hand; later the companies introduced hand-stamps and even their own stamps and postal stationery such as envelopes and postcards.

Even so, it took a letter from one to three months to get from New York to California. The time of travel depended upon the route, whether via Panama, Nicaragua, Mexico or across the continent. That was the reason why the Express Company Russell, Major and Waddell introduced a special service of postal horsemen. The route was between the railway terminals at St Joseph in Missouri to Sacramento in California. The mail arrived in St Joseph on a train coming from the east coast of the USA, and from Sacramento it travelled by boat to San Francisco. This service of postal horsemen was called the Pony Express. The riders covered the distance of some two thousand miles in about nine days. Pony Bob Haslan, whose time was seven days and seventeen hours, held the record.

The ablest and most daring young men were chosen as riders for the Pony Express. A poster from those times offered the job to slim young men up to eighteen years of age. ‘Orphans Preferred’ read the poster. The journey was not only very hard but also dangerous. The route led through wilderness, and through Indian territory. The rider carried between twenty and thirty-five pounds of mail in four leather bags strapped to his saddle. Every ten to fifteen miles there was a station with fresh mustangs. The horseman had only two minutes to change saddles for the speed was murderous. For such a job, he was paid twenty-five dollars a week.

The most famous rider of the Pony Express was William F Cody, who started on the route at the age of fifteen. In the Civil War, he fought on the side of the Union as a scout. In later years, when he hunted buffaloes for the workers building the transcontinental railway, he was given the nickname, which made him famous all over the world – Buffalo Bill.

The Pony Express existed for a period of eighteen months only. The service was discontinued in October 1861 when the construction of the transcontinental telegraph was finished. When the railway cut across the continent, the speedy delivery of mail was assured.