Papers Stealing News Stories
One of the greatest problems of the Bulletin and associated newspapers at this time was how to prevent the less prosperous and less enterprising papers from stealing their costly news dispatches. The…
Effect of Paiute War on News Delivery
Indian raids in the summer of that year [1860] forced the pony to suspend operations for a month or more, and news of Lincoln's nomination, which took place on May 18, was…
Pony Express News Delivery
The Bulletin and Union had no sooner put their new system into working order than a further improvement in communication with the East made it more or less obsolete. This was the…
News in 17 Days
The two papers combined their resources to maintain correspondents in the more important cities of the East who were to wire important news to the telegraph point farthest west on the overland…
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…
Important Centers for News
The four important centers of news for the Pacific Coast press before the establishment of the overland mail in 1858 were Washington, New York, New Orleans, and Panama.
Steamship Mail and the News
A change came with the beginning in February, 1849, of the semimonthly steamer service of the Panama Mail Steamship Company between Panama and San Francisco. This first great improvement in communication with the…
Slow Mail Service to California
Newsgathering in California at this time was purely a haphazard affair and nearly all the news that was printed was of a local nature. The two papers were altogether dependent on the…
Cold on the 1859 Pike’s Peak Express Line
The following message of W. B. Majors, who arrived on the Utah mail coach at the same time as Thompson, indicates that the employees on the overland route also endured much privation…
Gwin’s Manoevers
Gwin, in hopes of extricating himself, struck a bargain with the Administration. It was agreed that he was to obstruct the Colfax bill and to allow the session to expire without action; afterwards he…
Hockaday Contract for the Benefit of the Army
In April, 1858, the Postmaster General entered into two new contracts applying to the South Pass route. The first, with George Chorpenning, provided for semi-monthly, twenty-day trips between Salt Lake City and Placerville; the…
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…
Post Route as Future Railroad Route
[Benton] had his eye on the Pacific railroad, which he thought he was about to establish on his central route. The overland mail, he said, "will give the Central route a development, a…