"Although identified in the 1861 mail contract as Bush Valley, it is apparently a typographical error or was copied as a result of a misinterpreted hand-written contract. This station was…
"Beginning in September, 1861, the Post Office Department ordered the dispatch of the overland mail from Atchison rather than St. Joseph, since the Kansas town was 14 miles farther west on an…
"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…
"News was received every ten days by pony. That coming by the Butterfield route was double the time; what came by steamship was from three to four weeks old when it arrived.…
"He [George Chorpenning] projected end put into operation the first 'Pony Express' that ever crossed the country, and in December, 1858, delivered President Buchanan's annual message through to California in seventeen days…
"Numerous efforts were now began to be made to secure Mr. Chorpenning's interest and position in the work, but failing in this by direct purchase, influences were brought upon the Post Office Department,…
"It was over the new stage route that Horace Greeley, in July, 1859, traveled in Mr. Chorpenning's coaches to California, and had his famous ride over the Sierra Nevadas, driven by Hank Monk,…
"On the 1st day of May, 1851, Mr. Chorpenning left Sacramento City in charge of the first United States mail that ever crossed the country between the States and the Pacific. On the…
"Russell, Majors and Waddell's pony express company became the immediate beneficiary of Chorpenning's demise. On the same day that Chorpenning' s service was terminated, William Russell signed a contract with the post office…
"Also in late 1858, Chorpenning attempted to dispel the prevalent attitude among congressmen and the postmaster general that scheduled service was impossible over the Sierra Nevada in winter. Accordingly, he negotiated a $2,000…
"In 1850 the Post Office Department issued the first contracts for overland mail service between Independence, Missouri, and Salt Lake City, Utah. The following year, it extended postal delivery west to Sacramento, California.…
"An incident we occasionally experienced, and which was a pleasing one, was the meeting of the mail stage, or being passed by the same on its western way The vehicle itself was a…
"When Buchanan requested his cabinet officers to gather correspondence justifying his policy toward Utah, the Secretary old State, old Lewis Cass, could locate only one document in his files, but…
"Another significant prelude to hostilities concerned the carrying of the mails between Utah and the States, a vital matter to a people situated far from the frontier. . . .…
"In November [1852, Indian Gent Jacob Holman] was prepared to draw up a broad indictment of the Saints, touching upon a number of general causes of Gentile-Mormon friction. With the…