USA > Wyoming > History of Wyoming, Volume I > Part 38
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69
4
From the Herbert Coffeen Collection
LAST BLACK HILLS COACH LEAVING CHEYENNE February 19, 1887.
THE LAST STAGE THAT RAN OUT OF SARATOGA, SHOWING THE "CRACK SIX" THAT HAULED IT Outfit owned by Charles Scribner, Saratoga.
336
HISTORY OF WYOMING
MARKING THE OVERLAND
In establishing the relay stations, where horses were changed, along the Over- land, many of them were located at the camping places on the old Oregon Trail. The most noted stations in Wyoming were at Fort Laramie, Deer Creek, Platte Bridge, Devil's Gate, Split Rock, South Pass, Pacific Spring, Green River and Fort Bridger. Quite a number of the places where these stations were located have been marked by monuments erected by the Daughters of the American Revolution of Wyoming and Colorado, with the assistance of the appropriations made by the state Legislatures of the two states.
One of these markers, on the boundary line between Colorado and Wyoming, was unveiled on July 4, 1917. Dean S. Walter Johnson, of the Colorado Agri- cultural College delivered the principal address, in which he reviewed the history of the Overland Route, closing his address with these words: "If there is such a thing as manifest destiny, does not this stone mark its trail?" Dr. Grace Raymond Hebard of the Wyoming State University also spoke in behalf of the Daughters of the American Revolution of the two states.
CHEYENNE & BLACK HILLS STAGE LINE
About the middle of February, 1876, Luke Voorhees, now receiver in the United States Land Office at Cheyenne, came to Cheyenne from Salt Lake City to organize the Cheyenne & Black Hills Mail and Express Company. Thirty Concord coaches and 600 horses were needed and as soon as a sufficient number had been secured a tri-weekly line between Cheyenne and Deadwood was opened. The excitement over the discovery of gold in the Black Hills region was then at its height and for a time the stage line did a thriving business. The tri-weekly line was inadequate to accommodate the rush and it was not long until daily stages were running. Notwithstanding the opposition of the Indians, the line continued to do a good business until railroads were built into the Black Hills from the east and south, then it was discontinued. One of the drivers on this line was William Sherman, who died at Sheridan on March 28, 1918. He was a veteran of the Civil war, came to Wyoming soon after the war was over, and at the time of his death was eighty-two years of age.
PERILS OF STAGE COACHING
The life of the stage coach driver was by no means a path of roses. Besides the danger from hostile Indians, about 1877 a gang of organized "road agents" began operating in Wyoming, robbing stages and even express trains. In the spring of 1878 the coach from Cheyenne to Deadwood was robbed by six masked men. When the driver met the southbound coach he described the robbers as well as he could. the spot where the robbery occurred, and warned the driver and passengers to keep a sharp lookout. On the southbound coach there were three inside passengers, while the express messenger and a man named John Flaherty rode outside with the driver. Capt. Eugene Smith accompanied the stage on horseback, and after meeting the other coach rode about a quarter of a mile in advance, looking for signs of the robbers. Upon reaching the place where
337
HISTORY OF WYOMING
the northbound stage had been held up, he found the envelopes of a number of registered letters and struck the trail of the bandits, which led up the valley of a dry creek. Smith rode into the ravine, but had gone only a short distance when one of the robbers fired at him. About fifty shots were exchanged, Smith's horse was killed, when the bandits mounted and fled.
Later in the same year a coach on the same line was held up near Hat Creek by Charley Ross and a man named Brown. Upon the order to the passengers to "hold up your hands," one of them, Daniel Finn, "came a shooting." Ross returned the fire and Finn was slightly wounded in the face. Brown was shot through the body and captured. Sheriff T. J. Carr, of Cheyenne, learned through Brown that Ross was at Eureka, Nev., and went after him. He was brought back to Cheyenne, tried and convicted of highway robbery. Wyoming prisoners were then kept in the Nebraska penitentiary at Lincoln. Ross was taken there and after failing to secure a pardon, committed suicide. His photograph remained in Sheriff Carr's collection for several years after his death, labeled: "Charley Ross, road agent and murderer on the Black Hills stage road, 1877-78; captured at Eureka, Nev., December, 1878, by T. J. Carr ; committed suicide at Lincoln, Neb., penitentiary, February 16, 1885."
In November, 1878, the coach from the north, bound for Laramie City, car- ried two road agents-Mansfield and Mclaughlin-as prisoners. At the crossing of the Platte River the stage was stopped by a company of masked men, the guard overpowered and the two bandits were taken out and hanged.
About that time Gen. D. J. Cook, of Colorado, organized the Rocky Mountain Detective Association for the purpose of breaking up the gang, and a number of Wyoming men became members. Nathaniel K. Boswell, of Laramie, learning that the road agents had a rendezvous near Rock Creek, took thirteen deputies and started for the place. Six men were captured and were afterward convicted. Boswell also captured Jack Watkins, one of the worst of the desperadoes, when no one else would undertake the task. Finally, through the combined efforts of the detective association, the territorial authorities and the United State troops, the gang was broken up. Among the road agents were Bill Bivins, Marriner, Har- rington, Miller, Oaks, Congdon and others, some of whom were arrested and sentenced to prison and some "bit the dust" in their conflicts with officers of the law.
An occasional stage robbery occurred after the organized road agents were put out of business. In September, 1889, Bill Brown and Dan Parker stopped the United States mail coach near Rawlins and robbed the mail and the passen- gers, after which they escaped to Brown's Hole. A reward of $1,000 was offered for their arrest. Parker was arrested by Sheriff T. J. Carr at Provo, Utah, brought to Wyoming and received a penitentiary sentence. Brown was arrested near Buffalo, Wyo., on April 2, 1891, and on the 18th received a prison sentence.
PASSING OF THE STAGE COACH
With the building of the Union Pacific Railroad the stage coach began to decline. Wells, Fargo & Company, who succeeded Ben Holliday as the pro- prietors of the Overland, began running their stages from stations on the railroad to the towns in the interior. A stage line was opened from Rawlins to Lander Vol. 1-22
338
HISTORY OF WYOMING
in the spring of 1887. As the Union Pacific was in process of construction, the Overland stages ran from the terminus of the road westward until the railroad was finished, and the same system was followed when other railroads began to be built through the state. In the fall of 1891 all the stage lines centering at Buffalo were consolidated under one management, known as the Buffalo & Bur- lington Stage Company. Daily stages were run from Buffalo to Fort Custer, Gillette. Sheridan and Douglas, and return stages from these towns also made daily trips. The time from Buffalo to Fort Custer was four hours. There are still a number of stage lines in operation in Wyoming, one of the most important of which is the line from Cody to the eastern entrance of the Yellowstone National Park. But with the advent of the railroad the glory of the old coaching days departed, never to return.
FREIGHTING
With the Mormon emigration, the rush to the gold fields and the Oregon emigration, numerous settlements and mining camps sprang into existence. These settlements and mining camps needed supplies. The West was without navigable rivers or railroads, so that the great quantity of provisions, etc., needed by the pioneers had to be transported in wagons. One of the first to engage in this business of freighting was Abe Majors, founder of the firm of Russell, Majors & Waddell. Majors had been a "bull-whacker" on the old Santa Fé Trail before embarking in the business on his own account. He was an experienced ox driver, knew all the details of the freighting business, and held the record of having made the round trip from Independence, Mo., to Santa Fé in ninety-two days. He began freighting on a small scale in the early '50s, and was soon succeeded by the firm of Russell, Majors & Waddell.
At one time this firm owned 6,250 wagons and 75,000 oxen. In 1860 the number of freight wagons crossing the Great Plains was about five hundred daily, and five years later this number was greatly increased, the amount of freight transported in the latter year exceeding eleven thousand tons. The wagons used were of the Conestoga type, called "prairie schooners." They were built at Pittsburgh, Pa., were equipped with boxes or beds about sixteen feet long and from four to six feet deep, and were covered with a heavy white canvas cover. Each wagon was capable of carrying from two to six tons of freight, owing to the nature of the cargo, and nearly all were drawn by oxen. These wagons cost about one thousand dollars each, so it may be seen that considerable capital was necessary to engage in the freighting business.
The wagons generally went in trains of twenty-five or more, each train in charge of a "wagon master," for better protection against the Indian raids. Rates were made by the pound on all freight and varied from 15 cents for bacon and flour to 25 cents for trunks and boxed goods. Thus the cost of transporting a barrel of flour from the Missouri River to the coast was about thirty dollars. St. Joseph, Mo., and Omaha, Neb., were the principal starting points of the freight wagon trains crossing the plains, and the merchants of those towns did an annual business amounting to millions of dollars. Freight was brought up the Missouri River in light-draft steamers to the outfitting points and there transferred to the wagons.
339
HISTORY OF WYOMING
In 1876 and 1877 hundreds of wagons were employed in freighting between Cheyenne and the Black Hills mining districts and the Indian agencies. The winter of 1877-78 was mild and the road was dotted with freight wagons all the time. On the night of March 8, 1878, a blizzard commenced and lasted for five days. A number of wagon drivers lost their way when the road became covered with the deep snow and were frozen to death, some of them within a few miles from Cheyenne and others near the stations along the line. Such were the perils of freighting in the early days. In that storm houses were snowed under until only the top of the roof and chimneys could be seen. Hundreds of cattle were lost, and in Cheyenne the roof of one building collapsed under the weight of snow.
The stage coach and the freight wagon were potent factors in the development of the Great West, and their career has been told in story and celebrated in song. There was a romance connected with the stage driver and the freighter that will never be duplicated concerning any other class of men in this country. The locomotive whistle has taken the place of the crack of the "bull-whacker's" whip, and the towns away from the line of the railroad are now reached by automobile instead of the old Concord coach. Instead of requiring a whole sum- mer to freight a consignment of goods from the Missouri River to Oregon or California and make the return trip, the railroad now transacts the business in a few days. The story of the railroad development in Wyoming is told in the next chapter, but it lacks many of the thrilling and romantic features of the old- time stage coaching and freighting days when the West was young.
CHAPTER XXII
HISTORY OF WYOMING RAILROADS
FIRST RAILROADS IN THE UNITED STATES-EARLY OPPOSITION-A WISE SCHOOL BOARD -THE UNION PACIFIC-CREDIT MOBILIER-THE CENTRAL PACIFIC-MISCELLA- NEOUS FACTS ABOUT THE UNION PACIFIC-CHICAGO & NORTHWESTERN-CHI- CAGO, BURLINGTON & QUINCY-CHEYENNE & NORTHERN-COLORADO, WYOMING & EASTERN-OREGON SHORT LINE-MINOR RAILROADS-RAILROAD MILEAGE OF THE STATE-AID TO RAILROADS.
The first railroad in the United States was built in 1826. It was three miles in length. running from the granite quarry at Quincy, Mass., to the sea coast. and was constructed for the purpose of transporting the stone for Bunker Hill monument to the barges that were to carry it to Boston. The cars on this road were drawn by horses.
About a year later a railroad nine miles long was built from Mauch Chunk, Pa., to some coal mines. In the construction of both these early railways, wooden rails were used, with a strap of iron nailed on the top to prevent wear. On the Mauch Chunk Road a diminutive engine-about the size of some of the engines used by threshermen of the present day-was employed, and the cars would not carry over five tons of coal each. Wrecks were frequent, due to the nails through the iron strap working loose. Yet a railroad even of this crude character awakened capitalists to the possibilities of steam as a means of land transportation, and through their influence the Legislatures of several states granted charters to railroad companies during the decade following the completion of the Mauch Chunk line.
EARLY OPPOSITION
In this year, 1918, of the Christian Era, when the entire nation is covered by a network of railroads, it seems almost incredible that any intelligent person should ever have opposed their construction. Yet such was the case. About 1828 some young men of Lancaster, Ohio, formed a debating society and requested the school board to permit them to use the schoolhouse, in which to discuss the question of whether railroads were feasible as a means of transportation. To this request the school board replied as follows:
"We are willing to allow you the use of the schoolhouse to debate all proper questions in, but such things as railroads we regard as rank infidelity. If God had ever intended his children to travel over the face of the country at the fright- ful speed of fifteen miles an hour, He would have foretold it clearly through his holy prophets. It is a device of Satan to lure immortal souls down to hell."
340
341
HISTORY OF WYOMING
While this incident has no direct bearing upon the railroads of Wyoming, the story is introduced here to show how some people looked upon the railroad less than a century ago. The railroad company of the present day that could not run its trains faster than fifteen miles an hour would not receive a great amount of patronage and the stockholders would not be likely to draw profitable divi- dends upon their investment. Yet this rate was considered "frightful" in 1828 by the Lancaster school board, men who were chosen, no doubt, for their wisdom and sagacity and charged with the education of the young people of that city. By the time the first permanent settlements were made in Wyoming, public sentiment had undergone a radical change. The railroad was no longer regarded by anyone as "rank infidelity," but it had become one of the established institu- tions of the country. People everywhere looked upon it as one of the most potent agencies of civilization.
THE UNION PACIFIC
Robert Fulton demonstrated to the world in 1807 that steam could be used to advantage as a power in propelling vessels upon the water, and thoughtful men began to consider the advisability of using it for land transportation. As early as 1819, eight years before the construction of the little Mauch Chunk Railroad, Robert Mills, of Virginia, first proposed a "cross-country" railway. His views on the subject were first presented to the general public through the columns of the newspapers and later to Congress, to which body he suggested, if found to be practicable, "steam propelled carriages for quickened service across the continent, to run from the headwaters of inland navigation over a direct route to the Pacific."
Mr. Mills was several years in advance of the times, and little attention was paid to his suggestions and theories, but there is no question that he was the first man to propose a transcontinental railway. About fifteen years later Asa Whitney, of New York; Salmon P. Chase, Hosmer and Wade, of Ohio; Butler S. King and General Robinson, of Pennsylvania; Pierce, of Indiana; Thomas H. Benton, of Missouri, and a number of other foresighted men, urged the construction of a railroad from some point on the Missouri River to the Pacific Coast. Nothing definite was accomplished at that time and the subject lay dor- mant for nearly twenty years. In 1853 Salmon P. Chase, of Ohio, introduced in the United States Senate a bill providing for surveys of four routes to the Pacific Coast, to-wit: I. A line from the Upper Mississippi River via the Yellowstone Valley to Puget Sound; 2. A line along or near the thirty-sixth parallel, through Walker's Pass of the Rocky Mountains, to strike the coast somewhere near Los Angeles or San Diego, Cal .; 3. A line through the Rocky Mountains near the headwaters of the Rio Del Norte and Huerfano rivers, via the Great Salt Lake Basin ; 4. A line along the thirty-second parallel, via El Paso and the Valley of the Colorado River, to strike the coast somewhere in Lower California.
Jefferson Davis, then secretary of war, by what authority is uncertain, sent five engineering corps into the West to examine and report upon the feasibility of constructing a transcontinental railway on one or more of five different routes. One of these surveys was made for a line between the forty-seventh and forty- ninth parallels, known as the "Northern Route"; the second was made between
342
HISTORY OF WYOMING
the forty-first and forty-third parallels, called the "Central Route," also the Over- land or Mormon Route ; a third survey followed the thirty-ninth parallel and was called the "Buffalo Trail"; the fourth followed the thirty-fifth parallel, starting from the Missouri River near Kansas City, and the fifth, known as the "Southern Route." Under date of January 27, 1855, Mr. Davis made a complete report of what had been done in the way of surveying or reconnoitering the routes above mentioned.
In that same month Stephen A. Douglas, then United States Senator from Illinois, introduced a bill proposing three routes to the Pacific Coast-one via El Paso and the Colorado, to be called the "Southern Pacific"; one from some point on the western border of Iowa, to be called the "Central Pacific," and the third farther north, to be known as the "Northern Pacific." It is a fact worthy of note that three great trunk lines were afterward built upon practically the lines designated in the Douglas Bill of 1855, and that they bear the names suggested by that bill.
On July 1, 1862, President Lincoln approved the bill creating the Union Pacific Railroad Company, which was authorized and empowered "to lay out, locate, construct, furnish, maintain and enjoy a continuous railroad and telegraph, with the appurtenances, from a point on the one-hundredth meridian of longitude west from Greenwich, between the south margin of the Valley of the Republican River and the north margin of the Valley of the Platte River, in the Territory of Nebraska, to the western boundary of Nevada Territory," etc.
The bill granted to the railroad company a right of way 400 feet wide through the public lands, and also every alternate or odd numbered section of land to the amount of five alternate sections per mile on each side of the road within the limit of ten miles, not sold or otherwise disposed of, mineral lands excepted. It was further provided that bonds to the amount of $16,000 per mile should be issued by the Government to aid in the construction of the road. that amount to be trebled through the Rocky and Sierra Nevada mountains, said bonds to become a first mortgage lien upon the property. Another provision required the board of directors of the Union Pacific Railway Company to meet in Chicago on the first Tuesday in September, 1862, for the purpose of organiza- tion. Pursuant to this requirement, the board met at the place designated on September 2, 1862, and organized by the election of William B. Ogden as the first president. At the next meeting of the board, which was held in New York City on October 29, 1863. Gen. John A. Dix succeeded Mr. Ogden as president and Dr. Thomas C. Durant was elected vice president. Doctor Durant became the moving spirit of the company, giving the enterprise the benefit of his great constructive genius and his fortune.
Section 14 of the act of July 1, 1862, authorized the railroad company "to construct a single line of railroad and telegraph from a point on the western boundary of the State of Iowa, to be fixed by the President of the United States." In accordance with this provision, President Lincoln, on November 1, 1863, designated the City of Omaha as the terminal point. The conditions imposed by the act had been accepted by the board of directors, and on December 2, 1863, ground was broken in the "North Omaha Bottoms." The long talked of Pacific Railroad was actually begun.
Peter A. Dey was employed to survey the route, but the early work of con-
N-A1
BAR
UNION PACIFIC STATION, CHEYENNE
UNION PACIFIC AND ST. JOHN'S HOSPITALS, CHEYENNE
344
HISTORY OF WYOMING
struction was slow, owing to the inflated prices of materials caused by the Civil war. These inflated prices affected the credit of the contractors to such an extent that Mr. Dey retired as chief engineer early in 1865, under the discouraging con- ditions, and was succeeded by D. H. Ainsworth, though J. E. House completed the survey up the Platte Valley to the point where that river was to be bridged. A contract for the construction of the first 100 miles west from Omaha was awarded to H. M. Hoxie on October 4, 1864. The first rail was laid on July 10, 1865, and on September 22, 1865, ten miles of the road were completed. On January 26, 1866, the first Government inspection was made by Col. J. H. Simp- son, Gen. Samuel R. Curtis and Maj. William White. There were then about thirty miles of road completed and several miles more were graded. This work had been done by Mr. Hoxie, who had surrendered his contract on account of the difficulties encountered.
CREDIT MOBILIER
Early in the year 1867 Oakes Ames, General Dix, Doctor Durant and others connected with the Union Pacific Company bought out the moribund concern called the "Pennsylvania Fiscal Company," which had been chartered by that state in 1859 as a general loan and contract business, and reorganized it as the "Credit Mobilier of America" -- a construction insurance company. Before the close of the year the Credit Mobilier, which took over the unfinished contract of Mr. Hoxie, had completed the railroad to the infant City of Cheyenne, the first passenger train arriving there on November 13, 1867, with a special party on board. Unfortunately, the Credit Mobilier became involved in scandal and en- tangled in political intrigue, which destroyed its usefulness as a railroad builder. Its purposes-much misunderstood and mistrusted from the first-were discred- ited by rumors and it was forced to suspend. In 1872 Congress ordered an investigation and several members of that body were found to be connected with the Credit Mobilier as stockholders.
THE CENTRAL PACIFIC
Although this road does not touch the State of Wyoming, its connection with the Union Pacific in providing the latter with an outlet to the western coast has made it an important factor in the railroad annals of the nation. Among the men who were active in building the Central Pacific were Collis P. Hunt- ington, Charles and Edward B. Crocker, Leland Stanford, Mark Hopkins, Cor- nelius Cole and Theodore D. Judah, the last named being the chief engineer. Ground was broken for the road at Sacramento, Cal., February 22, 1863, nearly nine months before ground was broken at Omaha for the Union Pacific.
The act of July 1, 1862, chartering the Union Pacific, authorized the com- pany to build its line to the western boundary of Nevada. By a supplementary act, approved by President Johnson on July 3, 1866, this was changed, the Central Pacific being given authority to build on eastward until a junction with the Union Pacific was formed. The same bill also gave the Union Pacific Company the privilege of extending its road beyond the western boundary of Nevada, unless a junction should be sooner effected. With the passage of this act the race began
345
HISTORY OF WYOMING
in earnest, each company doing its best to reach the construction limit of its charter. Cheyenne was the western terminus of the road during the winter of 1867-68, but as soon as the weather would permit in the spring of 1808, work was resumed. Gen. Grenville M. Dodge was then in charge of the work, and all previous track-laying records were broken. On May 8, 1868, the track was completed to Fort Saunders ; about noon the next day the workmen had reached Laramie; before sunset they were out of sight to the west; and in October the road was finished and trains were running to Bridger's Pass.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.