Stagecoach

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For the 1939 film starring John Wayne see Stagecoach (movie).
For the UK public transport company see Stagecoach Group.

A stagecoach is a type of four-wheeled enclosed passenger and/or mail coach, strongly sprung and drawn by four horses, widely used before the introduction of railway transport. In North America a stagecoach would stop to take on fresh horses at relay stations approximately every 15 miles. Approximately every 6 hours the stops were also convenient places to exchange mail, and to allow the passengers and crew food and rest breaks. Some of these stations would become towns, cities which are still there today.

The stagecoach, with seats outside and in, was a public conveyance which was known in England from the 16th century. Until the railway systems of Europe drove the stagecoaches out of business they had regular routes (stages) all over Great Britain and the Continent.

In Britain their role in carrying the mail from 1784 generated the term "mail coach." In France under the Ancien Régime the turgotines, big mail coaches named for their originator, Anne Robert Jacques Turgot, Baron de Laune who was finance minister under Louis XVI of France, and improved roads, where a coach could travel at full gallop across levels, combined with more staging posts at shorter intervals, cut the time required to travel across the country sometimes by half, between 1765 and 1780 (Braudel 1984 fig. 32).

Today the most familiar image of the stagecoach is that seen in film Westerns, but they were also used throughout eastern North America and Europe. The diligence, though not invariably with four horses, was the Continental analogue for public conveyance, with other minor varieties such as the Stellwagen and Eilwagen. Stagecoaches could compete with canal boats, but they were rendered obsolete in Europe as the rail network expanded.

1 Stagecoaches in the United States
- 1.1 Final American use: Short haul
2 See also
3 External links
4 Reference

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Stagecoaches in the United States

Image:Concord stagecoach 1869.png

In the United States, the history of transcontinental stage-coaching is unique. At a time when sectional tensions were tearing the United States apart, stagecoaches provided the only regular transportation and communication between St. Louis, Missouri in the East and San Francisco, California in the West. Butterfield Overland Stage Company also known as the Butterfield Overland Mail Company had won the most coveted prize, a government mail contract. Nine Overland Stage owners had entered bids for the U.S. Mail contract it was awarded to Butterfield Overland Stage Company on September 15, 1857. Originally all of the Overland Stage owners had submitted routes with relay station 's and frontier forts that were north of Albuquerque, New Mexico territory they had no knowledge of what was called the ox bow route. Ox Bow Route was mandated by the southern Postmaster General. The new line be required to go through Fort Smith and then proceed through Texas to El Paso onward to Fort Yuma, California and then up to San Francisco. This route added 600 miles many relay station's and frontier forts to the original bids. Butterfield Overland Stage began rolling on September 15, 1858, twice weekly mail service began. A Butterfield Overland Concord Stagecoach was started in San Francisco and another Overland Stage in Tipton, Missouri they ran over the better roads. As the going got rougher, the passengers and mail were transferred to "celerity wagons" designed for the roughest conditions. Each run encompassed the 2,812 miles and had to be completed in 25 days or less in order to qualify for the $600,000 government grant for mail service. The western fare one way was $200 with most stages arriving 22 days later at its final destination. The Butterfield Overland Stage Company employed over 800 men, had 139 relay stations or frontier forts, 1800 head of stock, horses and mules, and 250 Concord Overland Stages.

The first Concord stagecoach was built in 1827. Abbot Downing Company employed thorough braces, 3” wide leather straps, under their stagecoaches which gave the ride of the stagecoaches a swinging motion instead of the jolting up and down of a spring suspension. Company was known the world over for its Concord Stagecoach but actually it manufactured over 40 different types of carriages and wagons at the wagon factory in Concord, New Hampshire. The Concord Stagecoaches were built as solid as the Abbot Downing Company reputation and became known that they didn't break down but just wore out. Abbot Downing Company was best known for its western market in the United States, the Concord stagecoach sold throughout South America, Australia and Africa Over 700 Concord stagecoaches were built by the original Abbot Downing Company before it disbanded in 1847.

In March of 1860, John Butterfield was forced out because of debt. The beginning of the Civil War forced the Stage Company to stop using the ox bow route and to use the central overland road instead. The Eastern end of the central route, St. Louis to Denver, was taken over by Ben Holladay. Ben Holladay is characterized as a devoted, diligent, enterprising man who became known as the Stagecoach King. The western end, Denver to San Francisco, the Stage Company was taken over by Wells, Fargo and Company due to large debts that Butterfield owed Wells, Fargo. Mark Twain once stated the Concord Stagecoach was like a cradle on wheels. Mark Twain was a river boat pilot from 1859 till the Civil War closed the river traffic. In 1861 he rode with his brother Orion in Ben Holladay's Overland Mail stagecoach west to Nevada. After a stint with gold fever and he went broke. Wells Fargo did commandeer the monopoly over long distance overland stage coach and mail service with a massive web of relay stations, forts, livestock, men and stage coaches by 1866. Transcontinental stage-coaching came to an end with the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869.

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Final American use: Short haul

The last American chapter in the use of the stage coaches took place between 1890 and about 1915. In the end, it was the motor bus, not the train that caused the final disuse of these horse-drawn vehicles. After the main railroad lines were established, it was frequently not practical to go to a place of higher elevation by rail lines if the distance was short. A town 10 to 25 miles off the mail rail trunk, if it were 1000 or more feet higher would be very difficult and expensive to serve by rail due to the grade incline. This final portion of the trip, during that 25 year period was usually served by local stage lines, with a ride of less than a half day being typical. Once the main line rail grid was in service, the railroad actually stimulated stage line operations well into the 20th century. These were eventually replaced by motorbuses, and so many local private bus lines were early-on called motor-stage lines. By 1918 stage coaches were only operating in a few mountain resorts or western National Parks as part of the "old west" romance for vacationers.

A real danger for stagecoach travellers was the threat of robbery by highwaymen or bandits, right up into the early 20th century, since cash payrolls, and bank transfers were regularly made by these scheduled stage lines, and the stage lines operated remote from telephone service to report the robberies until hours later.

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