| Show im OLD ON tag E I 1 A STAGE cenda J pa PIONEER DAYS n rr V 9 A new ta 7 A J K Z 7 sw N 1 Q i CA RA by ELMO SCOTT WATSON RIO HE old stage coach days in this country are long since gone but in many places throughout the united states relics of that romantic era la in our history are still preserved as ob object act lessons to us americans who live in the automobile and airplane age of the hardships endured endure a by our pioneer ancestors in their 4 journeys through tile the wilderness perhaps the most familiar camill ar one of these la Is the weather beaten and battle scarred old stage conch coach which stands stand on the lawn near the museum at mammoth limmoth hot springs in yellowstone Yellows tono national park this I 1 his old rocky mountain mall mail coach the first in montana once ran between helena and bozeman boeman and at one time or another carried such distinguished passengers as gen james A garfield before he was president president chester A arthur the first president to visit yellowstone yellow stone park ln in issa and general sherman during his inspection trip into Alon montana tana in 1877 although the paint Is scaling off and the curtal uless windows stare sadly at the passerby there Is a certain pride about this old relic of the early dis days and well there might be with Gene genevail rail sherman Sli erman aboard and a heman he man skinner in control of tile the six horses horse tint that provided the power the distance between r fort ort ellis and helena mont miles was once negotiated in the record time of eight hours by this cone coach it there were frequent changes of horses but P B dark clark proprietor of the stage company drove the entire distance A year or so ago another of these old vehicles attracted nationwide attention through the following press dispatch from washington washing ton two of the count rys most widely known comedians will vill rogers and fred stone have presented the dignified smithsonian institution something for which it has long been searching a rare old concord stage coach built in 1825 it has arrived at the museum after journeying from san francisco to new york by wily way of the panama canal on an army transport thence by boat down the coast and up the potomac under orders of the quartermaster general the creaking old relic with paint peeling off the wheels and red leather upholstery badly worn was handled as carefully as though it were a jewel it came uncrated and was rolled proudly through the streets of the capital to its final august abode for some time the arts and industries section of the smithsonian Smiths onlan institution has been hunting for a concord coach very few of these early vehicles are left as most went to pieces from hard use about a year ngo ago museum officials saw tt a picturesque coach which was the property of fred stone they asked stone later to give the coach to the museum ile he replied that it had bad been given his friend will rogers and was in beverly hills calif the smithsonian institution began writing and wiring rogers A month ago the comedian briefly stated through his secretary that the high old carriage which once sheltered hoop skirts and poke bonnets was theirs lost lest tile treasure slip from them the museum officials promptly dispatched a bill of lading with instructions to load the coach on an army transport with all speed now they are trying to get from stone or rogers a history of the relic but so far have had to be content with the r small ini all brass plate attached to the coach and inscribed G gerald blacksmith concord 1825 11 the coach Is of tile the type used to carry passengers over the national highways in early days its railed top is reminiscent of the armed guardsmen guardsman guards men who perched above the passengers on the lookout for robbers in the then wild we west st it now takes its place beside colonel und berghs famous plane we ve and a hobby horse presented by buster kenton keaton the latter at Is a quaint mode of early transportation somewhat resembling a modern kiddle kiddie car and propelled by the feet at about the same time another old stage coach was featured in a press dispatch from las animas colo as follows one of the fart famous ious stage coaches of the southwest has been sold to pay a storage bill the old coach which once operated between leavenworth Leavon worth and denver and whose passengers include horace arl greeley cley president grant and other national person personages ages was sold at sherlf sheriffs rs sale for 45 00 to C E L E elder ider this Is just another chapter in its interesting history years ago the coach was wag purchased by the bent county fair association when the annual celebration was discontinued the old vehicle was stored in the barn on the L G kurtz farm A few years ago the coach was used in a celebration and then was parked backed of elders r rage later he be cleaned the coach and kept it in the store room according to prairie trat tradition ution it Is the coach used by mr greeley in 1859 it la Is knowd as the greeley coach the old coach was built in concord N H in spite of its abuse the old vehicle Is sturdy and much of its equipment ts Is serviceable the trip from the MIS river to denver required six days and nights and horses were changed every 12 hours the old stage at one time was operated by barlow sanderson this was in the early COs spottswood mcclelland were the next owners of the vehicle in the early B S W liott kott the old conveyance and ased f ui E IX UM M g P 6 e vw 5 abt OLD btag diat JL california CALT FORNIA I 1 VR 1 S fg f AN TAGE STAGE coach it on a stage line out of denver about the ume time of the excitement in deadwood the greeley coach went into service on a route to elkhorn in 1873 bandits held up the stage riddled it with bullets and killed three passengers the driver jack quinn escaped with the mall and his exploit Is mountain country history the bullet holes are visible in the old rounded body nobody knows when the old stage made its first overland trip from leavenworth at the time of the civil war it was in service between the river and denver previous to that it went over the santa fe trail and was no stranger in santa fe many buffalo were shot from its hurricane deck for it served as the original rubber neck wagon in the southwest when the tourists from the east went to sample the thrills in the wide open spaces mention of horace greeley in connection with a stage coach recalls the classic story of hants hank monk perhaps the most famous of all western stage coach drivers monk was the driver of the coach in which tile the famous editor once rode from carson city nov nev over the sierras to placerville erville calif the story of that famous trip Is told by wesley stout as follows uncle horace was the most generous of men with advice thousands of readers held their breath until lie he gave them the signal to exhale and if governments blundered or the rainfall was excessive it was not for lack of uncle horaces omniscient counsel accustomed to cosmic affairs greeley saw in monk only one more jehu smelling of horses lean leaning ing out the window and peering over his steel spectacles the editor informed the driver that lie he expected to be in placerville erville on the dot having promised to speak briefly there before going on to sacramento and wishing to catch the connecting coach yes sirl said monk blandly and started with a lurch which upset all the early miles were upgrade and the pace moderate but once monk topped the Sl sierras erras he opened the throttle the normal galt gait down this alpine corkscrew was as breathtaking breath taking as a shoot the chutes what this roust must have been Is better left to the imagination greeley made three attempts to get his head out the window again and was thrown for a loss each time on the fourth down he succeeded and his wreath of white chin whiskers bristling with anger he shrieked a command to slow down keep your seat horace monk called back ill get you there on time ile he did this is the story at any rate still told as gospel an admiring populace presented monk with a heavy gold watch upon which was inscribed neep keep your seat beat horace and thereafter hank was the commodore of the fleet for fifty years after any far western impatience was as likely as not to be squelched with this quotation greeley creeley had ample time to advise the public of placerville erville from the veranda of the cary house the name of monk did not appear in this speech or in greeleys greelegs Gree leys book but the latter doea refer to the ride yet along this mere shelf with hardly a place to each mile where twos two meeting wagons can pass greeley Is writing as of 1859 the mall mail stage was driven at the rate of ten miles bollea an hour in one instance eleven or just as fast as four wild horses could draw it our delv driver er was of course skillful but had bad he met a wagon suddenly on rounding one of the sharp points we were constancy passing a fearful crash was unavoidable had his horses seen acen fit to run ran away as they did once on the unhooking of a trace but at A place where he had room to rein them in out of the road on the upper side glde 7 know that he could not have held them andee and we might have been pitched headlong down a precipice of 1000 feet where all tile the concern that could have hae been picked up afterward would not have been worth two bits per bushel mark twain who was supposed to have authored the monk anecdote declared that he had heard it either or times in six years but that it never had occurred and was a poor thing anyhow joe goodman editor of the virginia catt city enterprise was going east in monks parting words to him were you tell hor IIo raca ce greeley I 1 want to come east and ask send me a pass one of the first acquaintances goodman ran across in new york was the editor mr greeley I 1 have a a message for you from hank monk he began innocently greeley glared that scoundrel undrell 1 he broke in he has done me more injury than any 0 ther other man in america and that was that although we commonly think of the coach as a vehicle of the trans fron tier the old concord coach the use of became so general on all the stage lines of th west that no other coach ever supplanted it was a new england product it was made by the abbott downing company of concord N H a firm that had its beginnings in a wheelwright business founded by lewis browning in 1813 back in colonial days coaches at first were imported from england coach building had become an accepted english tradition in the eighteenth century and the few colonial coach builders had served their apprenticeships in the old country the close of the revolution brought independence to this country not only in political but in industrial domains this was evident in the development of transportation the fine english coach was not well adapted to the rough and often precipitous roads of the united states in such states as vermont with her green mountains and in new hampshire with her white mountains once one colony the he demand grew for a vehicle which would be as safe a and nd comfortable as possible on the steepest and rockiest roc kiest grades the coach developed early in the last century by the abbotts of concord met this want the body of the coach was built of stout white oak braced with iron bands it was suspended upon two leather thorough braces extending lengthwise of the coach and attached at each end to a standard protruding up lip from the axle these thorough braces were made of straps of leather placed on top of each other ton to a thickness of about three inches this leather swing was used in the absence of steel springs to absorb the jars and it permitted the coach to rock slightly forward and back Bs be hind the body was tile the triangular boot fo for mall mail express or baggage and at the front under the drivers seat was another lea leather ther compartment the front boot for the carriage of similar articles the coach had three inside seats capable of holding nine passengers the front seat faced backward and the middle one was often a mere bench shaped soaped contrivance that could be removed when the floor of the coach was needed for mall mail or express there was room for another ot her passenger iome sometimes times still another was squeezed in on the box with the driver and the messen messenger ger and on some of the coaches a further seat was set up above and behind the driver capable of holding three passengers an occasional three passenger seat at the rear of the top was not unknown and on such a stage 17 passengers might be found there was frequent crowding especially when one or move of the passengers happened to be of unusual girth raphael who traveled overt over the be butterfield route from tipton mo to tucson ariz in what was presumably a concord coach gives us this picture the coach was fitted with three seats and these were occupied by nine passengers As ag the occupants of the front and middle seats faced each other it was necess necessary arv for these six people to interlock their kneed and there being room inside for only 10 of the 12 legs leg S outside of the coach was graced by a foot now dangling near the wheel now trying in vain to find a place of support an unusually heavy mall in the boot by weighing down the rear kept thise thu se of us who were on the front seat cons constantly tanily bent forward thus by taking away all support from our backs rendering rest at all times out of the question by western newspaper paper union |
