Butterfield Overland Mail (officially Overland Mail Company)Waterman L. Ormsby, edited by Lyle H. Wright and Josephine M. Bynum, "The Butterfield Overland Mail", The Huntington Library, San Marino, California, 1991. was a stagecoach service in the United States operating from 1858 to 1861. It carried passengers and U.S. Mail from two eastern termini, Memphis, Tennessee, and St. Louis, Missouri, to San Francisco, California. The routes from each eastern terminus met at Fort Smith, Arkansas, and then continued through Indian Territory (Oklahoma), Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Mexico, and California ending in San Francisco.Goddard Bailey, Special Agent to Hon. A.V. Brown. P.M., Washington, D.C., The Senate of the United States, Second Session, Thirty-Fifth Congress, 1858–'59, Postmaster General, Appendix, "Great Overland Mail", Washington, D. C., October 18, 1858.https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.c109481050;view=1up;seq=745 On March 3, 1857, Congress authorized the U.S. postmaster general, at that time Aaron V. Brown, to contract for delivery of the U.S. mail from St. Louis to San Francisco.Aaron V. Brown, Report of the Postmaster General, Senate, 35th Congress, 2d Session, Ex. Doc. No. 48, Contract with J. Butterfield and Co. p. 1. Prior to this, U.S. Mail bound for the Far West had been delivered by the San Antonio–San Diego Mail Line since June 1857.Isaiah Churchill Woods, Report to Hon. A.V. Brown, "Postmaster General on the Opening and Present Condition of the Overland Mail Route Between San Antonio, Texas, and San Diego, California", by J.[I] C. Wood [Woods] Superintendent, Washington City, D.C., March 1858. Note: This 43-page report to the Postmaster General also contains references from Woods' day book.https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=miun.aft3376.0001.001;view=1up;seq=1
The route was designated a national historic trail in 2023.
Origins John Butterfield: president of Overland Mail Company
John Butterfield was a descendant of Benjamin Butterfield, who brought his family from England to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1638. His father, Daniel Butterfield, lived at Berne, in the Helderberg, near Albany, N.Y., where John was born. He attended schools near his boyhood home, but his education was meager.A biographical memorial of General Daniel Butterfield, edited by Julia Lorrilard Butterfield, The Grafton Press, New York, 1904
John's early involvement with stage lines started about 1820.
"John Butterfield was borne at Berne, in the Helderberg, near Albany, November 18, 1801. In early life we find him in the employment of Thorpe & Sprague, of that city, as a driver, and through the solicitation of Mr. Theodore S. Faxton came to Utica [NY], where he for a time was employed in picking up passengers from the taverns and boats for Parker's stages. After a time he started a livery with but small accommodations…From an advertisement titled "1827 – Half Century – 1880, The Old Established Butterfield Livery Stable", Francis & Stewart's Utica City Directory for 1880, June 1st, 1880, Published by the Utica Directory Co., 167 Genesee St., Utica, N.Y. His connection to Parker & Co. continued so long as they were still in business, and was succeeded by lines of his own, wherein he was a leading manager in the State until staging was superseded by railroads."History of Oneida County, New York: with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Philadelphian, Everts & Fariss, 1878.
After his employment with other stage lines, John decided to use this experience for running his own stage lines in Upstate New York.
"Mr. Butterfield devoted his attention largely to lines running North and South. At the height of stage coaching he had forty lines running from Utica as headquarters to Ogdensburg and Sacketts Harbor on the North, and South to the Pennsylvania line, and through Chemung and Susquehanna valleys."Oswego Weekly Palladium, Oswego, New York, "Butterfield Stables Sold," June 13, 1894.
By 1857, when John was awarded the Overland Mail Company contract, he had had 37 years of experience working for and running stage lines. This was one of the reasons that Postmaster General A.V. Brown awarded him the contract.
Awarding the Overland Mail Company contract
Through the 1840s and 1850s there was a desire for better communication between the east and west coasts of the United States. There were several proposals for railroads connecting the two coasts.Lieutenant John G. Parke, Exploration and Surveys for a Rail Road Route from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean, Route near the 32d Parallel & Coast Route Cal., 1854–1855. A more immediate realization was an overland mail route across the west. Congress authorized the Postmaster General to contract for mail service from Missouri to California to facilitate settlement in the west. The Post Office Department advertised for bids for an overland mail service on April 20, 1857. Bidders were to propose routes from the Mississippi River westward. Nine bids were made by some of the most experienced stage men.
None of the express companies, such as American Express, Adams Express, or Wells Fargo & Co. Express, bid on the contract because, as of yet, they had no experience running stage lines. A suggestion by The New York Times that the express companies could do a better job than the Overland Mail Company drew a sharp rebuttal from a Washington, D.C., newspaper.The California Overland Mail Company Contract, Evening Star, Washington, D. C., April 29, 1858.
Mail Contract No. 12,578 for $600,000 per annum for a semi-weekly service was assigned to John Butterfield of Utica, New York, who was president for the contract that was named the Overland Mail Company. This was the longest mail contract awarded in the United States. It was a stockholding company and the main stockholders, besides John Butterfield, were also fellow directors of the company: William B. Dinsmore of New York City; William G. Fargo of Buffalo, New York; James V.P. Gardner of Utica, New York; Marquis L. KenyonHis name was misspelled in Contract with J. Butterfield and Co., Report of the Postmaster General, Senate, 35th Congress, 2d Session, Ex. Doc. No. 48. pp. 7–10. In the details of the contract is M.L. Kinyon and at the end of the contract is M.L. Kenyon. Because his name was misspelled, researchers have been unable to find information concerning Kenyon's history. In Waterman L. Ormsby's The Butterfield Overland Mail in footnote 151 on p. 131, publisher Huntington Library stated nothing has been found concerning Garner, of Utica, New York, or Kinyon, of Rome, NY. The other misspellings are Marquis L. Kinyon, Marcus L. Kinyon on the 1860 Federal Census, and M.L. Kinyon. All of these have also been used without the middle initial. Mark Kenyon and Mark Kinyon were sometimes used in Upstate New York newspapers. of Rome, New York; Alexander Holland of New York City; and Hamilton Spencer of Bloomington, Illinois. There were four others known as sureties (security against loss).
Almost all of the stockholders were connected to other businesses in Upstate New York and most lived near Butterfield's home in Utica, New York. Alexander Holland was Butterfield's son-in-law and treasurer of the Overland Mail Company. Dinsmore was vice-president of the company. The office for the company was in New York City.
Why John Butterfield was chosen was stated by Postmaster General Aaron Brown:
... a route which no contractor had bid for, but one which in the judgement of A.V. Brown, of Memphis, had more advantages than any other, and, as John Butterfield & Co. had, in the opinion of Brown, greater ability, qualification and experience than anybody else to carry out a mail service, John Butterfield & Co. was selected and preferred.Immigrant Roads and Mail Routes across the Continent, Sacramento Daily Union, November 2, 1858.
The route, known as the Oxbow Route because of its long curving route through the Southwest, was longer than the Central Overland Trail, but had the advantage of being snow free.
Route
The contract with the U.S. Post Office, which went into effect on September 16, 1858, identified the route and divided it into eastern and western divisions. Franklin, Texas, later to be named El Paso, was the dividing point and these two were subdivided into minor divisions, five in the East and four in the West. These minor divisions were numbered west to east from San Francisco, each under the direction of a superintendent.G. Bailey, Special Agent, to Hon. A.V. Brown, P.M. General, Washington, D.C., Appendix, Great Overland Mail, Washington, October 18, 1858, The Senate of the United States, Second Session, Thirty-Fifth Congress, 1858–'59, Washington, 1859, pp. 739–744 Note: This report is based on Bailey's inspection trip on the first Butterfield stage to leave San Francisco heading east. He lists all the stations and their divisions. He also lists the time that he traveled on these divisions.https://books.google.com/books?id=gG9HAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA739&dq=%22postmaster+General%22+Appendix+%22great+Overland+Mail%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwir46Wno8HPAhVIMSYKHfw4Ab4Q6AEIJjAC#v=onepage&q=%22postmaster%20General%22%20Appendix%20%22great%20Overland%20Mail%22&f=false
Kenyon and Butterfield Jr.: architects of the Butterfield Trail
John Butterfield Sr. turned to two of his most trusted and experienced employees to put in place the Butterfield Trail. In 1858, with expedition leader Marquis L. Kenyon, John Butterfield Jr. helped to select the route and sites for the stage stations. Kenyon was also a stockholder/director of the Overland Mail Company and the only stockholder, other than John Butterfield, to have significant staging experience. Marquis moved from Mannsville, Jefferson County, to Rome, New York, in 1838. Rome was twelve miles from John Butterfield's home in Utica. He immediately became involved with staging. His obituary gives a good summation of his staging activities in Upstate New York and what led him to be involved with the Overland Mail Company:
"His prior occupation was a humble one—that of driver of a stage-coach between Utica and Oswego. It was but two or three years before he had saved enough money from his wages to purchase an interest in the stage-coach line of which he was an employee; and once having placed his foot on the first steps of the ladder, he soon rose, by his business tact and assiduity, to be the principal proprietor of the stage-coach lines converging to this point. At the time that railroads supplanted stages on the leading routes, Mr. Kinyon [Kenyon] was one of the most extensive owners of stage-coach property in Central New York. After the introduction of railroads, he continued to carry on the business of mail contractor and stage proprietor on the small lateral lines; but his business energies were too expansive to be thus curtailed, and he soon found ampler vent for them than the _______ of his former vast carrying business afforded. Hence, when the overland mail route to California was projected, Mr. Kinyon [Kenyon] found a field of business enterprise more commensurate with his capacities. He it was who went over the whole route originally, and surveyed it from the eastern terminus to its western in California." Returning, he procured the necessary equipment for the route, and went over it again, organizing the route as he proceeded, and remained for nearly a year in California, in charge of the western terminus of the road."Utica Daily Observer (New York), obituary, The Late Hon. M.L. Kinyon (sic), April 3, 1862