Butterfield Overland Mail

Origins

John Butterfield was born at Berne, in the Helderberg, near Albany, New York, on November 18, 1801. His early involvement with stage lines began about 1820, when he worked as a driver for Thorpe & Sprague of Albany. Through the solicitation of Theodore S. Faxton, he came to Utica, New York, where he picked up passengers from taverns and boats for Parker's stages. In 1827 he started a livery with small accommodations.

His connection with Parker & Co. continued until they went out of business, after which he operated his own stage lines in Upstate New York. At the height of stage coaching, he had forty lines running from Utica north to Ogdensburg and Sacketts Harbor and south to the Pennsylvania line, through the Chemung and Susquehanna valleys. By 1857, when Postmaster General A.V. Brown awarded him the Overland Mail Company contract, Butterfield had accumulated 37 years of experience.

Congress had authorized the postmaster general on March 3, 1857, to contract for delivery of U.S. mail from St. Louis to San Francisco. Nine bids were made by experienced stage men. Prior to this contract, mail for the Far West had been delivered by the San Antonio–San Diego Mail Line since June 1857.

Route

The contract with the U.S. Post Office, effective September 16, 1858, divided the route into eastern and western divisions, with Franklin, Texas (later El Paso) as the dividing point. These were subdivided into five minor divisions in the East and four in the West, numbered west to east from San Francisco, each under a superintendent. John Butterfield Sr. turned to Marquis L. Kenyon and John Butterfield Jr. to select the route and sites for stage stations in 1858.

Kenyon, a stockholder and director of the Overland Mail Company, had extensive staging experience in Upstate New York, having begun as a stagecoach driver between Utica and Oswego. He later became principal proprietor of stagecoach lines converging on Rome, New York. When railroads supplanted stages on leading routes, Kenyon continued as a mail contractor on lateral lines. He surveyed the entire overland route from the eastern terminus to its western end in California.

The route ran from the two eastern termini to Fort Smith, Arkansas, then through Indian Territory (Oklahoma), Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Mexico, and California to San Francisco.

Butterfield's stagecoaches, celerity wagons, and water wagons

No passenger on a Butterfield stage was ever killed by outlaws, though some died in accidents caused by unbroken mules or mustangs. Butterfield's stages were not allowed to carry shipments of valuables; instructions to employees stated that no money, jewelry, bank notes, or valuables of any nature would be carried under any circumstances. Consequently, no shotgun rider was employed. When correspondent Ormsby asked a driver if he had arms, the driver replied that there was no danger.

Nevertheless, most passengers were armed, especially in Comanche and Apache territory. In October 1859, correspondent Farwell reported that after leaving the San Pedro River Stage Station in Arizona, the conductor asked how many were armed and requested that arms be ready for use in Apache country. Butterfield's stagecoaches had a strong sub-frame covered by decorated wooden paneling with padded seats; western models had no glass windows. The roof supported a metal railing for luggage, and seats were often provided on the roof.

A canvas-covered boot at the back held luggage and mailbags. Butterfield's stagecoaches were used on 30 percent of the Southern Overland Trail at the eastern and western ends.

Operations

Butterfield's Overland Mail Company secured a six-year contract to carry U.S. mail starting September 16, 1858. The first eastbound stage departed San Francisco at 12:10 a.m. on September 14, 1858, and reached St. Louis in 24 days, 18 hours, and 26 minutes. The first westbound stage left Tipton, Missouri, at 8 a.m. on September 16, 1858; the mail traveled by railroad the first 160 miles from St. Louis to Tipton. The company ran two trips weekly from September 1858 to March 1861.

Initially, mail left St. Louis and San Francisco every Monday and Thursday. A December 1, 1858, advertisement set the through fare to the Terminus of the Pacific Railroad at $100; by January 11, 1859, it had risen to $200. The company began with 139 stage stations, later expanding to about 170, and used roughly 100 stages. When the contract transferred to the Central Overland Trail, it was amended on March 12, 1861, to require a semi-weekly pony express with a schedule of ten days for eight months and twelve days for four months, charging the public no more than $1 per half ounce.

Total compensation for the combined stage and pony express service was $1,000,000 per year, effective July 1, 1861, through July 1, 1864. The Pony Express ended before the contract expired because the telegraph line was completed on October 24, 1861.

Did You Know?

• Stage drivers were mostly from upstate New York; the 1860 Federal Census for Tucson shows 16 of 40 entries born in New York State.
• At the closing of Butterfield's operations in March 1861, many stages were confiscated and used by the Confederate Army.