Name/Title
Pony Express Centennial, St. Joseph Gazette, April 3, 1960Entry/Object ID
AM1988.20.11Scope and Content
Pony Express Centennial, St. Joseph Gazette, April 3, 1960.
1860-First Pony Heads for California. 1960 Big Events Planned for Centennial. This heading is from the Gazette of Wednesday April 4, 1860 as reprinted in The Weekly West. Includes news photos of centennial
A quarter past seven last evening, the mail was placed by M. Jeff Thompson on the back of the animal, a fine bay mare, who is to run the first stage of the great through Express from St. Joseph to her sister cities of the Pacific shore, Horse and rider started off amid the loud and continuous cheers of the assembled multitude, all anxious to witness every particular of the inauguration of this the greatest enterprise which it has as yet become our pleasant duty, as a public journalist, to chronicle.
The rider is Mr. Richardson, formerly a sailor, and a man accustomed to every description of hardship, having sailed for years amid the snows and icebergs of the Northern ocean. He was to ride the first stage of 40 miles, changing horses once, in five hours; and before this paragraph meets the eyes of our readers, the various dispatches contained in the saddlebags which left here at dark last evening, will have reached the town of Marysville, on the Big Blue 112 miles distant--an enterprise never before accomplished even in this proverbially fast portion of a fast country.
Previous to the starting of the mail, and while the crowd were anxiously waiting, brief and appropriate addresses were delivered by Messrs, Majors, of the Express Co., Mayor M. Jeff Thompson and others setting forth the advantages to be derived by the country generally and our city in particular, from this magnificent undertaking, characteristic of the energy and enterprise of those representative of the great West Messrs. Majors, Russell, Waddell and Jones.
The messenger from New York, with the through dispatches. left that city on Saturday; but was detained 24 hours in Detroit, reaching this city at 5 o'clock last evening via the Palmya Branch and Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad, making the distance from the Mississippi to the Missouri in the unprecedented time of four hours and 51 minutes including stoppages. The train consisted of only the engine and one passenger car, running sometimes over 40 miles an hour, the distance being stated as 208 miles. This, we may venture to assert, is better time than has ever before been made upon a western railroad, at all events.
The extension of the St. Louis, St. Joseph and Salt Lake telegraph line will still further facilitate this undertaking bringing us even nearer our brethren to the west of the Sierra Nevada until at no far distant day, we shall have a continous electric chain from one ocean to the other, and the transmission of intelligence will be almost instantaneous.
The Eastward Express, we understand, will leave San Francisco today, and we expect its arrival in 12 days at farthest. We shall regard the arrival of this express as by far the most important event which has occurred since the settlement of our city.
Other articles in this edition of the paper are: Centennial of the Pony Express, Big events planned for Centennial, The Challenge, History of the Pony Express, Pony Express Rerun Starts 2 P.M. Sunday, This is a Great Day, Pony Express Letters Now Bring Big Price and Weston's Ben Holladay Had Pony Express Role.
In this edition is a picture of M. Jeff Thompson, Mayor St. Joseph Missouri, Aurthur J. Meers, St. Joseph Mayor, 1960, Ben Holladay, the 4-cent stamp and special envelope commemorating the start of the Pony Express 100 years ago, the restored Pony-Express Stables at 9th and Penn. picture of Billy Richardson and Johnny Fry, a painting of a pony express rider painted by Harrison Hartley, St. Joseph, A picture of W. H. Russell, Alexander Majors and William Waddell, Lee Shifflett, Wathena Kansas
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Billy RichardsonPerson or Organization
Johnny FryPerson or Organization
Harrison HartleyPerson or Organization
Russell, W HPerson or Organization
Majors, AlexanderPerson or Organization
Waddell, WilliamPerson or Organization
Thompson, N. JeffPerson or Organization
Lee ShifflettPerson or Organization
Arthur MeersPerson or Organization
Benn Holladay