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CHAPTER XIII. OVERLAND FREIGHTING--NEW ROUTES.
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T
is doubtful if there was another section of country on the
face of the globe over which, in the '60's, passed so much
traffic by ox, horse and mule team. A goodly portion of the
travel for 200 to 400 miles was along the right or south
bank of the South Platte. No railroad had then been built
west of the Missouri river.
to intersect this route was also opened from Atchison in the spring of 1859, by an expedition fitted out and directed by Judge F. G. Adams, an early resident of that city, and one of the prominent pioneer free-state citizens of Kansas. The expedition started out due west from Atchison in March, over the "Parallel" road, through Muscotah and America City, crossing the Big Blue river near Blue Rapids, reaching the Republican river at Clifton. Following up the latter stream on the north side, to about where Norway, Republic county, now is, it crossed the Republican, and passed westward, intersecting the Jones & Russell Pike's Peak road at a station on a branch of the Limestone, in Jewell county, thirty-one miles west of the Republican crossing. This was station No. 11 on the "Express" road, 172 miles from Atchison on Judge Adams's route, and 237 miles from Leavenworth on the Pike's Peak Express route. The object of the Atchison expedition, started soon after the Pike's Peak gold excitement, was to open a shorter route to the mountains from the great western bend of the Missouri river, at Atchison than the one opened from Leavenworth by the Pike's Peak Express Company. The route was thus shortened by sixty-five miles, or fully twelve hours' time, as the stage ran. Mr. E. D. Boyd, an accomplished engineer employed by Judge Adams, measured the entire distance from Atchison to Denver, taking astronomical observations at convenient points. He also made a report showing distances between stations, and the latitude and longitude of each; likewise the crossing of the streams and brief descriptions of the entire route. This report was published the following June in the Atchison Champion, and is probably the only complete description of the route ever made. According to this report, the distance from Atchison to Denver was 620 miles, and from Leavenworth 685 miles; while the old military road from Fort Leavenworth, via Fort Kearney and the Platte, to Denver, was 678 miles. The distance from Atchison by the old military road was only 653 miles. But this new route-- notwithstanding it was thirty-five miles shorter than any other--was almost immediately abandoned, and was never traveled by an ox or mule train from Atchison. This was for the reason that the established military road via Fort Kearney and along the Platte river valley afforded Government protection from the Indians and was settled at convenient intervals along |
nearly the entire distance. For over 500 miles on the Leavenworth route there was not a house. History tells us that the site of Atchison was known by the old French voyageurs as the "Grand Detour of the Missouri." During the period of overland freighting on the plains, more trains started from Atchison than from any other point on the river. The leading Atchison firms in the early '60's engaged in the freighting business were Stebbins & Porter, Dennison & Brown, Hockaday, Burr & Co., J. S. Galbraith, George W. Howe, and a few others. Some of the lesser firms were Brown Bros., E. K. Blair, I. N. Bridgman, Roper & Nesbit, Harrison Bros., Henry Reisner, J. C. Peters, P. K. Purcell, R. E. Wilson, Will Addoms, George I. Stebbins, John C. Bird, Giles B. Buck, Wm. Home, Amos Howell, and perhaps a dozen others. It used to cost something to ship to Denver in overland freighting days, for everything transported across the plains before the railroads were built was taken by the pound instead of (as now) the hundred. Flour, bacon, molasses, whisky, furniture, trunks, etc., were each carried at pound rates. In the later '50's and early '60's the rates per pound on stuff shipped by ox and mule wagon from Atchison to Denver were as follows:
The rates on shipments of corn, flour,
hay, coffee, bacon, sugar, salt, dry-goods, hardware,
clothing, etc., were nearly all the same. It seems a wonder
that the country in the Rocky Mountain gold region was not
bankrupted by the high prices which ruled in those early
days. It doubtless would have been ruined had it not been
possessed of vast mineral wealth and the other wonderfully
rich resources with which it was believed the region
abounded. |
oxen, mules, or horses. Twenty-one days was about the time required for a span of horses or mules to make the trip to Denver and keep the stock in good condition; and they walked all the way. For ox trains, the average time was five weeks, thus making the distance of from eighteen to twenty miles a day. To make the trip to Salt Lake it took horses and mules about six weeks; ox trains were on the road from sixty-five to seventy days. During the mining excitement in the '60's the patient ox was the old-reliable propelling power utilized along the Platte. Oxen transported, for a decade or more, a considerable portion of the vast commerce of the plains. These patient animals, though slow in their movements, were always reliable. To the wagon-train bosses they were the surest and safest for hauling a large part of the freight destined for the towns and cities on the plains and in the mountains west of the Missouri river. To be sure horses were used to a certain extent in the transportation business, but not so much as mules. In performing their work the mules were next to oxen. They were tough, could endure fatigue, and were nearly always reliable. Besides, they could be kept much cheaper than horses. Horses were all right for mounting cavalrymen and in maneuvering artillery at the forts along the Platte, but, simmered down to the important matter of transporting army supplies, the mule invariably stood at the front. A considerable portion of the promiscuous freighting by private individuals was done by oxen. Nearly all who thoroughly understood the freighting business regarded the ox team as the cheapest and best method of transporting ordinary merchandise. The ox could invariably be relied on. Heavy, dead weight, such as mining and other machinery, stoves, hardware, salt, etc., except in very rare cases, was shipped by ox trains. Much of the flour, bacon, canned goods, groceries, dry-goods, clothing, etc., went by horses or mules, for they could make the distance about two weeks quicker than oxen. The year 1859 was a remarkable one in the history of Atchison, the growth of the city that year being unparalleled since the founding of the town in 1855, by Messrs. Kelly, Abell, Stringfellow, and others. At the beginning of 1860 it had great promise for the future from the prominence it had gained as the best point on the Missouri river for outfitting to Pike's Peak and Salt Lake. At that time Irwin & McGraw were prominent contractors for supplying the various military posts on the Western |
frontier, They were experienced with everything on the plains and naturally selected the best place for starting their trains. The mere fact that the Government trains were to be started from Atchison gave the place wonderful prestige as a superior overland freighting and outfitting point. No one could question the commercial importance of Atchison during the spring of 1860, because no other city in the great Missouri valley enjoyed such advantages in the way of overland transportation. It was nothing unusual to see two or three steamboats lying at the levee discharging freight, and as many more on the river in sight, either above or below the city. It is true the Hannibal & St. Joseph railroad had been completed to its western terminus, twenty miles up the river, but nine-tenths of all the freight for Atchison still came up the river by steamboat from St. Louis. Occasionally a boat would load up with freight at Pittsburg or Cincinnati for points on the Missouri and come through--down to the mouth of the Ohio and up the Mississippi and Missouri to Atchison. Nearly every boat that arrived from St. Louis in those days brought a large cargo. It was no uncommon thing, during the spring of 1860, to see great quantities of freight, in the shape of thousands of wagons and ox-yokes, mining machinery, boilers, and other material, and the provisions necessary to supply the thousands of people then flocking to the great West. Tons of stuff were piled on the levee and in the warehouses. It was common to see immense quantities of heavy freight stacked up for several blocks along the levee, and every warehouse was packed with groceries, provisions, clothing, boots and shoes, etc., awaiting transportation by the slow-going ox and mule trains. While a boat would be lying at the levee discharging freight, it was often quite amusing to the crowd of lookers-on eagerly watching every movement of the laborers. As the gang of deck-hands, made up mostly from plantation darkeys, were carrying hams, bacon, dry sides, sacks of coffee, sugar, potatoes, dried apples and peaches, flour, meal, beans, etc., from the steamer and piling them up in front of the warehouses on the levee, sometimes the most ludicrous scenes of wild excitement followed. More often than otherwise, when unloading a steamboat, things would go wrong and greatly annoy the captain and mates. It -20 |
 TRANSPORTING SUPPLIES ON THE PLAINS IN EARLY '60's. |
was the hardest kind of work to discharge from the boat a heavy cargo of freight. From long hours of labor some of the deckhands naturally would be completely played out, and this seemed to exasperate the officers in charge. Apparently they had no mercy for the worn-out toilers. It did n't take much to annoy the first or second mate of a Missouri river steamboat, and if in an unpleasant mood they would let off a volley of cuss-words, addressing the fellow as a "___ lazy, lousy son of a gun," or something worse, and reminding him if he didn't "get a move on himself" he would "take a slippery-elm club and maul the life out of him." This was the commonest talk in steamboat days on the Missouri river forty years ago, but the darkeys finally became so used to it that they appeared not to mind it much. The Pike's Peak gold excitement, in the spring of 1860, was raging almost at fever heat. Frequent reports were brought in by prospectors and others coming from the new diggings. Some of those returning told of fabulous discoveries being made in the new El Dorado. Others, disappointed in the way things had gone, declared there was little or nothing in the line of precious metals to be found there. More often than otherwise, in 1859, the new mines were designated as a humbug. While an indefinite section of the mining country was then known as the "Pike's Peak Region," really the "Peak," while plainly in sight, was nearly 100 miles distant to the southwest of Cherry creek, the nearest diggings. What is now Colorado--that portion where the gold was first found--was then laid down as "Arapahoe county, Kansas." Some called it the "Cherry Creek Region"; to others it was known as "The Gold Fields of Western Kansas." In spite of the discouraging reports of some of those who returned disappointed and "busted," persons would occasionally come in with a sack of yellow dust, and soon return with a stock of goods to supply the wants of the multitudes then steadily pouring into the new mining region. Except those who have crossed the plains in the days of overland staging and freighting, few can have a just conception of the enormous business that was done in the early '60's. The greater part of the traffic was over the old military road, along the south bank of the Platte river. Often there could be seen a string of four- and six-horse (and mule) teams and six to eight yoke of cattle hauling the biggest heavily loaded wagons. Fre- |
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© 1999, 2000, 2001 for the NEGenWeb by Pam Rietsch, Ted & Carole Miller