Show COACH TALES by E C TAYLOR the runaway stage guht as modern railroads some J times are wrecked shaking up or even killing passengers so the stage coaches that were the chief mode of transportation between the atlantic coast and the middle west along the old national road a ago had their mishaps sometimes fatal runaways were infrequent but sev eral are recorded in three or tour there was loss of life but more often the passengers suffered only minor injuries when the stages overturned david gordon who was driving for james Rees ldes june bug line so named by Rees ldes rival luclus W stockton who said the line would last only until the june bugs came was driving west from pa soon after he had started handling the reins when his horses ran oft the coach carried a full load of passengers and young gordon seeing that the flying horses could not be checked by ordinary methods pulled the coach off the road and turned it over against a high bank the passengers were badly frightened but none was hurt they attributed tri buted their escape from death or injury to the skillfulness of the driver after righting the coach which was little damaged gordon proceeded to boneys roneys point this incident or accident gave gordon a wide reputation as a cool and driver and he rapidly advanced to the front rank of his calling when the june bug line was withdrawn from the road as stockton had predicted gordon took service with the good intent line and continued with it until all through lines of stage coaches were taken from the road gordon was a very strong man he was 0 feet tall and weighed pounds and there was not an ounce of fat on his body it rs said that he could flohn bat was not quarrelsome on one occasion he was compelled to engage in a knockdown in self defense that was at va three toughs fell upon him at that place declaring their intention of doing him up as the phrase then was they failed gordon routed all three completely and decisively ci and they never again sought an encounter with him and the example of their fate rendered others with pugnacious proclivities to be shy about encountering him david gordon was one of a class of quiet well mannered soft spoken stage who did much to keep the reputation of all coach drivers of his time on a high plane before the public according to A J endsley who was born and reared along the old national road the old time stage coach drivers as a class were better morally than the old who drove the huge freight wagons along the highway when the great road was opened these immediately took pos session usurping all rights and kept to the middle of the highway with their long trains of brightly painted covered gondolas filled with the farm products of the west or the manufactured goods and staples of the east forcing other vehicles to turn around them the stage drivers resented this an to cracy and decided to put a stop to it they armed themselves with long poles at the ends of which they placed spikes on a given day they started out and as they met the wagon trains refused to turn out driving into the wagon trains with their makeshift make shift lances and completely routing them the hardy wag ciera knew when they were beaten and the fast stages thereafter were given the right of way endsley says that some of the old stage drivers were given to blasphemy and heavy drinking but that the worst of the stage drivers could be beaten tn those respects by most of the he named besides gordon and red bunting as well behaved stage drivers thomas grau alex thompson john mills charley howell john high william robinson isaac frozie isaac denny james A carroll samuel halsted william white samuel jaco thomas moore william bishop and john bunting two of the old stage drivers william robinson and pate side were among the most noted penmen in the country E western |