Butterfield-Overland Stage Lines [1857-69] Page at 'Readers of the Purple Sage'

"Remember, boys, nothing on God's earth must stop the United States mail!"
— John Butterfield's instructions to his drivers

The Butterfield Overland Mail Company was awarded a six-year mail contract on 15 September 1857; a southbound stage left San Francisco, California and another left St. Louis, Missouri westbound on that date. The official partners were John W. Butterfield, William B. Dinsmore, William G. Fargo, James V. P. Gardner, Marcus L. Kinyon, Alexander Holland, and Hamilton Spencer. A southern route was chosen so that it would be open in Winter; the scheduled travel time was 25 days, but was often completed in 22 or 23 days. The Butterfield Overland Stage Company had more than 800 people in its employ, had 139 relay stations, 1800 head of stock, and 250 Concord Stagecoaches (each pulled by six horses) in service at one time. Because of harassment by bandits and Indians, Lincoln's War Department assigned a detachment from the 9th Kansas Cavalry of Fort Laramie in the Wyoming Territory to guard the route between Independence, Missouri and Sacramento, California. The route {green line above} began at St. Louis and Memphis, Tennessee and merged at Fort Smith, Arkansas and then went thru Kansas, Texas (with a branch from El Paso to Santa Fe, New Mexico), across lower New Mexico Territory to Tucson and Yuma, then to San Diego and Los Angeles and San Francisco in California.

Wanting better communication with the West Coast in case the rumblings of the Southern states escalated into war, Lincoln and Congress authorized the Pony Express, which launched service on 3 April 1860 between St. Joseph on the Missouri River and Sacramento, California (by then connected to San Francisco by railroad). The 1,800-mile route took ten days each way and went {yellow line above} thru Kansas, Nebraska Territory, Colorado Territory, and Wyoming Territory, to Salt Lake City in Utah Territory, across the Great Desert in Nevada Territory, past Lake Tahoe and over Donner Pass in California to terminus at Sacramento. South Carolina seceded from the Union in December 1860 followed by 12 more states; the Confederate States of America declared itself in February 1861. The U.S. Civil War began when Confederate forces fired on Fort Sumter in South Carolina on 12 April 1861. The Pony Express continued operation until the transcontinental telegraph was completed in October 1861.

The Overland Mail made two trips a week over a period of two and a half years. In March 1860, the Overland Stage Company was taken over by Wells Fargo & Co. [est. 1852] Page due to heavy debt. John Butterfield was forced out of the business; his assets as well as those of the Pony Express later were absorbed by the Wells Fargo partners. In March 1861 (before Fort Sumter), the U.S. Government formally revoked the contract of the Butterfield Overland Stagecoach Company in anticipation of the coming conflict; service ceased on 30 June 1861, on the same date that the easier-to-defend central route from St. Joseph, Missouri to Placerville, California went into effect. The new route was called the Central Overland California Route; the route {red line above} split and went thru both Kansas and Nebraska Territory, met again in Colorado Territory, then thru Wyoming Territory, Utah Territory, and Nevada Territory to end in California.

The southern route suffered greatly during the Civil War, as the Confederacy had a headquarters outpost in Tucson. The northern route ceased to exist when the Transcontinental Railroad {white line above} was completed in May 1869. Wells Fargo & Co. continued secondary stage routes for many years, such as in {blue lines above} California, Oregon, Idaho, Utah, and Montana. (The transcontinental Northern Pacific Railway was completed in 1883.)

James E. Birch [1827-1857]

built the California Stage Company from 1849; built the San Antonio-San Diego Mail Line in 1857
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_E._Birch_(entrepreneur)

John W. Butterfield [1801-69]

Butterfield & Wasson Express [est. 1850] on the New York Central Railroad; merged with Wells in late 1850;
won the mail contract for a southern route from Missouri to California in 1857
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Warren_Butterfield

William G. Fargo [1818-81] lived in Buffalo, New York

co-founder of Wells Fargo & Company in 1852;
president of the American Express Company, 1866-1881
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Fargo
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Wells_Fargo

transportation tycoon Benjamin 'Ben' Holladay [1819-87]
moved to California in 1852 and by 1862 operated 2,670 miles (4,300 km) of stage lines; bought the assets of the failed Pony Express Company and established
the Overland Stage Route to Salt Lake City, Utah Territory; sold his stage routes in 1866 to Wells Fargo Express for $1.5 million and moved to Oregon,
built the Oregon and California Railroad; Holladay lost most of his fortune in the stock market collapse of September 1873.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Holladay

Henry Wells [1805-78], co-founder of American Express Company in 1852
entry at Wikipedia

B o o k s
a search for books at Amazon on keyword 'stagecoach' returns over 1,000 results

'Lost Stage Valley' Western novel by Frank Bonham

"Lost Stage Valley" Western novel [1948] by Frank Bonham
In the turbulent days before the Civil War, bandits posing as Southern patriots are threatening to wipe out the famous Butterfield Stagecoach Line; John Butterfield turns to ace trouble shooter Grif Holbrook for help, but Grif wants to retire and settle down; when President Lincoln himself says that the Butterfield line was worth two infantry divisions to the North, Grif gives in.
Ace Books mass pb [7/84] out of print/used
Berkley Books 7x5 pb [2/81] out of print/used
Simon & Schuster hardcover [1948] out of print/scarce

"Stagecoaches and Carriages: An Illustrated History of Coaches and Coaching" [5/1976] by Ivan G. Sparkes
https://www.amazon.com/Stagecoaches-Carriages-Illustrated-History-Coaching/dp/0902875566/

"The Stagecoach Museum Gun Collection" [1978]
https://www.amazon.com/Stagecoach-Museum-Gun-Collection/dp/B000QX0FBA/

"Stagecoach Station" Western novel series, 1982-90
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D._B._Newton aka Hank Mitchum
https://www.amazon.com/s/?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=%22Stagecoach+Station%22
https://www.amazon.com/default/e/B001HP6128/ Hank Mitchum

"Images of America: Historic Stage Routes of San Diego County (California)" [8/2011] by Ellen L. Sweet & Lynne Newell
https://www.amazon.com/Historic-Stage-Routes-Diego-County/dp/153164922X/

"Unclaimed Goods" [Paramount /Famous Players-Lasky 1918] /tt0009740/
A girl's father cannot afford a train ticket, so he ships his daughter by Wells Fargo & Co. Express; he loses his money to a villain and cannot claim his 'shipment';
the villain attempts to claim her, but the Wells Fargo agent foils the plot and claims her himself • Directed by Rollin S. Sturgeon; scenario by Gardner Hunting,
based on a story by pulp writer Johnston McCulley; starring Vivian Martin & Harrison Ford

"Stage To Tucson" [Columbia Pictures Dec 1950]

Stage To Tucson 1950 Western movie starring Rod Cameron

A group of outlaws posing as Southern sympathizers and led secretly by freightline owner Jim Maroon are raiding stagecoaches, and this is a threat to Union communications. Grif Holbrook, a trouble-shooter for the Butterfield Stage Line, and Union man Barney Broderick team up to try and put a stop to the activity, when they aren't fighting over the charms of Kate Crocker • Produced by Harry Joe Brown; directed by Ralph Murphy; written by Robert Creighton Williams, Frank Burt & Robert Libott, based on Western stories by Frank Bonham; starring Rod Cameron, Wayne Morris, Kay Buckley, Sally Eilers, Carl Benton Reid, Roy Roberts, Harry Bellaver, Douglas Fowley, Charles Evans {as John Butterfield}, James Griffith {voice of Abraham Lincoln}, Stanley Andrews, Beulah Archuletta, Roy Bucko, Paul E. Burns, Fred Carson, John Cason, Edward Clark, Joe Dominguez, Fred Essler, Augie Gomez, Frank Hagney, Reed Howes, Olin Howland, James Kirkwood, Cactus Mack, George Magrill, Hank Mann, Francis McDonald, Frank Moran, Frank O'Connor, John Pickard, John Sheehan, Boyd Stockman, Rusty Wescoatt, Guy Wilkerson, Bob Woodward
VHS/DVD/Blu-ray not available in English • full credits at IMDb •
released in Spain as "Diligencia a Tucson": Spanish-language Region 2 DVD [5/2017] import/new-used

"3:10 To Yuma" [Columbia Aug 1957]

3:10 To Yuma 1957 movie directed by Delmer Daves, starring Glenn Ford

An outlaw leader is captured in a small town, and a rancher agrees to escort the prisoner to the nearest railroad stop, where the rest of the gang try to free their leader • Directed by Delmer Daves; story by Elmore Leonard; starring Glenn Ford, Van Heflin, Felicia Farr & Richard Jaeckel
Sony Special Edition b&w DVD [8/2007] for $14.99
Sony b&w DVD [4/2002] for $12.49
Columbia/TriStar b&w VHS [9/94] out of prodn/used
full credits from IMDb

Three-Ten To Yuma & Other Stories by Elmore Leonard

"Three-Ten To Yuma and Other Stories, 1952-56" [7 stories 2006]
"Three-Ten To Yuma" was filmed twice: 1957 b&w feature and color feature remake in 2007; the other stories are: "The Captives", "Cavalry Boots", "Jugged", "The Kid", "Long Night", and "Under The Friar's Ledge"
HarperTorch mass pb [11/2006] for $5.99

"3:10 To Yuma" color remake [LionsGate Sept 2007]

3:10 To Yuma 2007 color remake directed by James Mangold, starring Christian Bale & Russell Crowe

A hardscrabble rancher, eager for the offered fee, agrees to take charge of a captured killer and deliver him to the railhead • Directed by James Mangold; based on the short story by Elmore Leonard; starring Christian Bale, Russell Crowe, Kevin Durand, Peter Fonda, Ben Foster, Logan Lerman & Gretchen Mol; won Western Heritage Bronze Wrangler Award in 2008
LionsGate widescreen color DVD [1/2008] for $16.99
LionsGate color DVD [1/2008] for $16.99
full credits from IMDb

here on the Butterfield-Overland Stage Lines [1857-69] Page at 'Readers of the Purple Sage'

	"Ben Holladay: The Stagecoach King" [1940] by J.V. Frederick Univ Nebraska Press pb [4/89] for $29.23 Univ Nebraska Press 9x6 hardcover [4/89] out of print/used Arthur H. Clark Co. hardcover [1940] out of print/used
	"Boss of The Plains" Western novel [1946] by Harry Sinclair Drago [1888-1979], writing as Will Ermine; Introduction by Erle Stanley Gardner [1889-1970] Pocket mass pb [1956] out of print/scarce Pocket mass pb [1954] out of print/scarce World Publng/Tower Books hardcover [1946] out of print/used
	The Saga of Ben Holladay: Giant of The Old West [1959] by Ellis Lucia Hastings House 8¼x5¾ hardcover [1959] out of print/used

Readers of the Purple Sage Bookstore Butterfield-Overland Stage Lines Butterfield Overland Mail southern route [1857-1861]Overland Mail central route [1861-1869]

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Butterfield-Overland Stage Lines
Butterfield Overland Mail southern route [1857-1861]
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