The Story of the Pony Express | Page 5

connections over the Central route, and of the especial need
of better communication should war occur.
Russell at once awoke to the situation. While a loyal citizen and fully
alive to the strategic importance which the matter involved, he also
believed that he saw a good business opening. Could his firm but grasp
the opportunity, and demonstrate the possibility of keeping the Central
route open during the winter months, and could they but lower the
schedule of the Panama line, a Government contract giving them a
virtual monopoly in carrying the transcontinental mail might eventually
be theirs.
He at once hurried West, and at Fort Leavenworth met his partners,
Messrs. Majors and Waddell, to whom he confidently submitted the
new proposition. Much to Russell's chagrin, these gentlemen were not
elated over the plan. While passively interested, they keenly foresaw
the great cost which a year around overland fast mail service would
involve. They were unable to see any chance of the enterprise paying
expenses, to say nothing of profits. But Russell, with cheerful optimism,
contended that while the project might temporarily be a losing venture,
it would pay out in time. He asserted that the opportunity of making
good with a hard undertaking - one that had been held impossible of
realization - would be a strong asset to the firm's reputation. He also

declared that in his conversation with Gwin he had already committed
their company to the undertaking, and he did not see how they could,
with honor and propriety, evade the responsibility of attempting it.
Knowledge of the last mentioned fact at once enlisted the support or his
partners. Probably no firm has ever surpassed in integrity that of
Russell, Majors, and Waddell, famous throughout the West in the
freighting and mail business before the advent of railroads in that
section of the men, the verbal promise of one of their number was a
binding guarantee and as sacredly respected as a bonded obligation.
Finding themselves thus committed, they at once began preparations
with tremendous activity. All this happened early in the year 1860.
The first step was to form a corporation, the more adequately to
conduct the enterprise; and to that end the Central Overland California
and Pike's Peak Express Company was organized under a charter
granted by the Territory of Kansas. Besides the three original members
of the firm, the incorporators included General Superintendent B. F.
Ficklin, together with F. A. Bee, W. W. Finney, and John S. Jones, all
tried and trustworthy stage employees who were retained on account of
their wide experience in the overland traffic business. The new concern
then took over the old stage line from Atchison to Salt Lake City and
purchased the mail route and outfit then operating between Salt Lake
City and Sacramento. The latter, which had been running a monthly
round trip stage between these terminals, was known as the West End
Division of the Central Route, and was called the Chorpenning line.
Besides conducting the Pony Express, the corporation aimed to
continue a large passenger and freighting business, so it next absorbed
the Leavenworth and Pike's Peak Express Co., which had been
organized a year previously and had maintained a daily stage between
Leavenworth and Denver, on the Smoky Hill River Route.
By mutual agreement, Mr. Russell assumed managerial charge of the
Eastern Division of the Pony Express line which lay between St. Joseph
and Salt Lake City. Ficklin was stationed at Salt Lake City, the middle
point, in a similar capacity. Finney was made Western manager with
headquarters at San Francisco. These men now had to revise the route
to be traversed, equip it with relay or relief stations which must be
provisioned for men and horses, hire dependable men as
station-keepers and riders, and buy high grade horses[1] or ponies for

the entire course, nearly two thousand miles in extent. Between St.
Joseph and Salt Lake City, the company had its old stage route which
was already well supplied with stations. West of Salt Lake the old
Chorpenning route had been poorly equipped, which made it necessary
to erect new stations over much of this course of more than seven
hundred miles. The entire line of travel had to be altered in many places,
in some instances to shorten the distance, and in others, to avoid as
much as possible, wild places where Indians might easily ambush the
riders.
The management was fortunate in having the assistance of expert
subordinates. A. B. Miller of Leavenworth, a noteworthy employe of
the original firm, was invaluable in helping to formulate the general
plans of organization. At Salt Lake City, Ficklin secured the services of
J. C. Brumley, resident agent of the company, whose vast knowledge of
the route and the country that it covered enabled him quickly to