Pony Express Race started This Morning St. Joseph News-Press, August 31, 1923.
Entry/Object ID
AM1972.14.1F
Scope and Content
Pony Express Race started This Morning St. Joseph News-Press, August 31, 1923. Robert Lee Shepherd, first rider, left St. Joseph at 10:01 o'clock on initial lap of run into Kansas. Coolidge gave the signal. A large crowd present at Old Pony Express Stables was there to see acting Postmaster Marshall give fourteen pounds of mail to be carried to San Francisco. The second rider will start his run at Troy Junction, Kansas to go to Topeka. President Coolidge who was in Washington gave the signal.
The front page of the newspaper has a picture of Elliott Marshall giving the mail pouch to Robert Lee Shepherd mounted on his mare. In the back ground is the old Pikes Peak Stable where the Pony Express started.
Another newspaper picture is of Mayor McIninch bidding bon voyage to Pony Express Rider Shepherd a few minutes before the start. Charles Waddles, president of St. Joseph Chamber of Commerce is in the picture.
The third picture on the front page is of Rider Shepherd on barge being ferried across the Missouri River.
Capt. R. J. Stewart was in charge of steamboat bearing his name. There is a picture of him on the front page.