Stage Coach Days in the Indian Territory
By M. K. Wyatt
February 10, 1927-Logan County News-Henry A. Todd, one of those brave and daring men who came to the Indian country when both it and he were young, died in 1913 at the age of 67 years. Charles Todd, a son of Henry Todd, owns a grocery at Calumet, Oklahoma. Many interesting incidents connected with his father's life in the early days are fresh in the merchant's memory.
It was in 1875 that the elder Todd was acting as general manager of the Southwestern Stage Coach Company, which had its headquarters in Caldwell, Kansas, and its terminal at Henrietta, Texas. In those days, before the era of railroads and the age of miracles, the company's operations ranked as probably the greatest chain of transportation operating throughout the West. Its trails reached out and traversed all sections of the Indian country, going into Fort Smith, Arkansas, Fort Dodge, Kansas, to Paris, Gainesville, Henrietta, and Mobeetie, Texas. Its big, heavy coaches were the Concord type, built for tests of durability. The teams for the long trips consisted of some hundred or more mules, purchased from a class of stock that, were noted for extreme endurance; for they were destined to make many an excursion that would test their utmost endurance and patience without succumbing.
The stockholders of the southwestern Stage Coach Company were H. M. Vaill, I. P. Williamson, of Independence, Missouri, and John R. Mino, also a citizen of Missouri. The trio assumed control of the route July 1, 1874, which was one year after the establishment of the business by Tisdale and Parker, of Lawrence, Kansas. These men still held the contract for carrying the mail between Caldwell and Wichita, the nearest railway station, until July 1875.
The story of the operations of this, the first important transportation company operating through the Southwest, over the un-traversed lands of Indian Territory, often following the trails made by outlaws and sometimes by honest adventurers, makes a griping story of the early pioneering days, of the "Wonder State:--Oklahoma.
Location of Stage Stations
At first the stage stations were far apart; one located at Pond Creek, called Sewell's Ranch; another at Skeleton, now Enid; still another at Buffalo Springs, now Bison; Kingfisher, Darling, Canadian Crossing which was also known as George Washington Ranch; Wichita Agency, now Anadarko, and Cache Creek, about twelve miles from where Fort Sill is located.
At each of these stage stations, a hut was built for the stock-tender and a stable to furnish shelter for the mules. This latter building was enclosed in a corral. The buildings were erected by standing small longs on end, using clay to fill in the interstices, which made a strong, durable wall. The roofs were made of heavy ridgepoles, to which were attached other pole rafters, all covered with brush and coarse grass. Over all, clay was spread smoothly. The earth sufficed for the floors.
Stock feed was hauled from Wichita by wagon, as no part of the country then had ever been touched by the plow. In the summer, or near the close of it, haying outfits, with four or five men, were sent down the line to cut and stack prairie hay for use as rough forage for the teams through the year. This work was done by hand with mower and rakes. The feed problem at each station required long hours of toil by men hardened to all conditions of weather and living.
The coaches, each equipped to carry nine passengers with baggage, and each drawn by six sturdy young mules, started from each end of the line every second day, the route being divided into four separate drives. The first started from Caldwell and drove to Skeleton, with a change of teams at Pond Creek; the second made the trip from Skeleton to Kingfisher, with a change of teams at Buffalo Springs; the third route was from Kingfisher to George Washington's Ranch, changing teams at Darling; the fourth driver made the trip from this point to Cache, where he changed teams when he extended the trip on to Fort Sill and back over the same route.
Teams Are Stolen
It was on one of the first trips out of Caldwell that the following incident, well calculated to discourage the new owners of the route, took place: A young driver had been entrusted to drive the stage. He had his young mules, four in number, stabled for the night at the local livery stable. The population of Caldwell at that time was hardly more than thirty people. The business establishments consisted of the blacksmith shop, one store, on livery stable, and three saloons. To secure his mules from horse thieves, the driver placed a farm wagon across the front entrance of the stable, with instructions to two of the company's employees to sleep in the wagon bed. The rear doors were secured by a heavy log, which was chained and locked. During the night, however, some daring members of the gang of horse thieves that roamed the frontiers filed the chains to the door in two and made good their escape with the mules.
Next morning the young driver, who had slept soundly throughout the night, secure in the feeling that every precaution had been taken for the safety of his valued team, awoke to find it gone. His first though was the United States mail. This was expected to move out promptly. The responsibility therefore rested entire on the young man's shoulders.
Sends Mail on Its Way
While horses were plentiful in that section, he, nevertheless, found it no easy matter to pick one up. After considerable parleying with one after another of the citizens of the frontier settlement, he bought a little broncho from a German shoe cobbler, for which he paid $30. He hitched the pony to a rickety buckboard, placed a trusted man on the seat, and started him down the trail with the first mail. He found another horse, which he purchased, and started himself with the second mail. The mules at Pond Creek and Skeleton were stolen that same night.
This robbery placed the stage company at great disadvantage, for mules of the regulation type were hard to get. With the assistance of officers of the law a vigilance committee began q quiet investigation, and soon picked up the trail of the robbers northwest of Caldwell. This led to the arrest of "Texas Red" and "Granger" Dyer, two of five members of an outlaw gang that was active at that time. These men were shot and the mules left in charge of guards, while the officers' posse rode to Caldwell where they learned that three other members of the gang were staying.
It was about nightfall when the sheriff's posse rode into the little town. Going to the dug-out occupied by Bill Brooks, one of the leaders of the gang, they called him out, and with a pistol pointed straight at his breast, informed him that he was under arrest. They then made their way to another homestead, where they found Bill's brother, Haz Books, whom they arrested in the same manner. The fifth and last member of the gang, a one-armed man known by the name of Smith, was arrested while on the open range. With the three men, the officers rode on to Wellington. There on the outskirts of the town, ear the banks of a creek a court trial was held in the presence of a very large assembly of men.
Justice Meted Out
At the end of the trial, over which "judge Lynch" presided the three condemned men were placed in a wagon, a single rope tied round each man's neck with the other end of the ropes secured to a single limb of an elm tree, which stands today at the edge of a road, near Wellington, and were hanged.
The three outlaws died game, one of them shouting to the vast crowd. "Drive off with your wagon." And so, they were left dangling in the air to pay the penalty of the daring life led by the frontier outlaw. Such justice meted out by the law practically wiped out horse stealing in that part of the country, where strangers, seeking homestead lands, had often lain down for a peaceful night's rest, only to find, when awakened, that their hoses were gone, and that they were left stranded in a strange country, where honest men dared seldom walk.
These early day coaches served Mobeetie, one of the first of the Texas Panhandle towns. One day the six-mule team trotted into the little town without either driver or passengers, Human blood was on the seats and the running board. The mail pouches were missing and although the latter were found, following a persistent six-month's search, the indecent of the missing driver and passengers has never been solved, and remains one among many of the early day mysteries. This town today is one of those passed through on the Fort Elliott trail, now a modern highway, leading out of Elk City, Oklahoma. This highway passes through Pampa, Texas, one of the busy marts of the new Panhandle oil field towns, and passes on towards New Mexico.
A Pleasant Manner Serves Well
Once when Henry Todd drove his stage out of Wellington, Kansas to Fort Reno, a sheriff, with two men charged with horse stealing, was among the passengers. When the coach halted at Spring Creek for the customary watering of the mules, one of the prisoners slipped a shackle. The sheriff was sitting outside with Todd. In the twinkling of an eye, one prisoner was out of the coach, had grabbed the sheriff, and relieved him of his guns.
Quick as a flash the other prisoner was with him. They shackled the sheriff and lined the passengers up in the road. Then the former prisoners relieved the passengers of all their valuables and order the driver to select the bet mules for their mount. A woman by the name of Mrs. Maines, who was much less excited than most of the men appeared to be gave the animals a rider's test and selected those on which the prisoners rode away.
An interesting phase of this hold-up was the fact that Todd was unarmed. Through years of experience on the frontier, he had learned that it was useless to try to get the better of an outlaw; so instead of meting them with their own weapons, he submitted courteously, and in this instance, treated them so amicably that they gave him back his watch and $14 in money. Three months later, by messenger, the returned the mules they had "borrowed."
Swollen streams were the greatest barriers in those days of travel. Four coaches of the Southwestern Coach Company were lost in tragedies of the South Canadian River, but on each occasion the United States mail was saved. Once when a driver turned back, Henry Todd "fired" him, swung the pouches across his own back, swan the raging stream, and delivered the mail at Fort Sill a few hours later.
In 1892, when the Cheyenne and Arapahoe country was opened to settlement, Henry Todd retired from service of the Southwester Coach Company and filed on a homestead near Calumet. The town spread across a part of his homestead. Later, he conducted a hotel there. He spent the remained of his life on his allotment.
He was a member of the third Territorial Legislature and the author of the Herd Law. His son, Charles H. Todd, the grocery merchant of Calumet, was an employee of this same company and carried the first mail into Oklahoma City on the day before the first great opening, April 22, 1889.
List of Butterfield Overland Mail States in Oklahoma
Published in Oklahoma Chronicles Spring 1957
Walker's Station (Sec. 18, T. 9 N., 26 E.), Le Flore County, about 1 ½ miles northeast of present Spiro.
Trahern's Station (Sec. 32, T. 8 N., R. 24 E.), at Latham, Le Flore County
Holloway's Station (Sec. 24, t. 6 N., R. 21 E.) at east end of the Narrows, about 3 miles northeast of Red Oak, Latimer County. Five miles east of Holloways was Edward's Store (Sec. 15, 5. 6 N., R 22 E.) where meals were served to Overland Mail passengers soon after the establishment of the stage line
Riddle's Station (Sec. 12, T. 5 N., R. 19 E.), 1 ½ miles east of Wilburton on the section line road at Lutle, Off U. S. Highway 270
Pusley's Station (Secs. 24-25, T. 4 N., R 17 E ) about 3 miles southwest of Higgins, in Latimer County
Blackburn's Station (Secs. 4-5, T. 2 N., R 15 E.) near present rock schoolhouse on county road, Pittsburgh County, just south of Elm Creek.
Weddell's Station (Secs. 9-10, T. 1 S., R 13 E.) about 3 miles southwest of Wesley, Atoka County
Geary's Station (Sec. 19, T. 1 N., R 12 E), about 1 ½ miles southwest of Stringtown, Atoka County
Boggy Depot (Sec. 1, T. 3 S., R 9 #), 10 miles south and west of Atoka, Atoka County, and about 4 miles south of present bridge (west end) across Clary Boggy River.
Neil's or "Blue River Station," (Secs. 7-8, T. 5 S., R 9 #.) on east side of Blue River, about 2 miles southwest of Kenefick, Bryan County
Fisher's Station (Sec. 3, T. 7 S., R. 8 #.) about 4 miles west of Durant, Bryan County. (This station was better known locally after the Civil War as "Carriage Point.")
Colbert's Ferry (Secs. 30-31, T. 8 S., R. 8 E. ) about 3 miles south of Colbert, Bryan County, and just below the old highway bridge across Red River.
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