Butterfield and the News
From 1849 to 1858 the California press depended on the Panama Mail steamers for its eastern and European news. A great improvement came with the beginning of the overland mail service over…
Three Elements of Brown’s Policy
Brown's writings indicate that he was interested in this aggressive movement on behalf of the South. Three elements entered into his policy: the question of emigration, the problem of the Pacific railroad, and…
Brown’s Defense of the Butterfield Route
Brown now undertook to justify his action, which seemed unlawful, and which had earned for him the hostility of the Northern press, of the contractors, and of the residents of upper California. He…
Postmaster Brown and Southern Politicians
With the passage of this act, the matter went to Postmaster General Aaron V. Brown. Brown was a Tennesseean sympathetic with Buchanan's policies, a leader in the councils of the Democrats, and a…
Postmaster Brown’s Comments on the Central Route
Having furnished the above detail of facts, the department does not consider it improper to submit a few observations in relation to the reasons which induced a preference for the route selected.…
1861 Mail Appropriation
Despite all the sound and fury, however, the Post Route Bill enjoyed surprisingly good progress and early in February reached the upper house. In it was a provision for daily mail between California…
Cribbing and Butterfield’s Frequent Service
THE FOURTH ESTATE of California's early years was a no-holds barred vocation in which the moral qualities, accuracy and objectiveness of one newspaper were held to be fair game for public ridicule in…
Butterfield Contract
Nine proposals for the contract were received by Postmaster General Aaron V. Brown. Being a southerner from Tennessee, he placed the hand of favor on the bid submitted by John Butterfield for a…
Agreement Between Russell and Dinsmore
The Overland Mail Company had the main contract for transporting mail to California, but no line over which to travel. The Russell, Majors & Waddell Company had two minor contracts and the only…
No Annulment for Butterfield
The breaking up of that company's line and the stopping of mail to California over it presented the government with as pretty a dilemma as one could hope to find. The Overland…
Destruction of Butterfield’s Line
. . . the Overland Mail line had been "cut up by the roots" by the Confederates in Texas and all its stages stopped. . . . The mail had been halted…
Butterfield’s Regular Service
Before service on this line began, a storm of protest over its length was raised in California and the East. In spite of complaints, however, Butterfield laid out his route, built stations,…
Butterfield Goes Bankrupt
By 1860, overland stagecoaches carried more mail across America's sea of grass than steamships on the rivers and oceans, but not even the postal subsidy and passenger revenue combined could sustain Butterfield's stupendously…
Hale’s Bill
"Early in March, 1861, congress passed a law (essentially Hale's bill) providing for a daily mail by the Central route to California and a semiweekly Pony Express, at a total annual compensation…
Raids on Butterfield Stations in Texas
"Texas's secession vote in February 1861 prompted Congress a few weeks later to move the overland mail service from the southern route to a central route through the country's midsection,…