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After discovering that coaches weren’t the solution, the three men decided to create a service where delivery riders would carry mail from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California, in a relay system.
Co-Founders oF the Pony exPress
William Russell Alexander Majors William B. Waddell
SPEEDHORSE July 2023 81
XP Pony Express Home Station
XP Pony Express Home Station
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the most of the need for communication between the East and West. After discovering that coaches weren’t the solution, the three men decided to create a service where delivery riders would carry mail from St. Joseph, Missouri,
to Sacramento, California, in a relay system.
To ensure that the riders would be supplied
with fresh horses, they planned to use about 200 depots along the proposed route. With the support of California senator William M. Gwin, Russell was able to negotiate a federal contract.
Now that they had the backing of the government, the partners turned their attention to hiring employees and preparing the route. Advertisements were sent out that invited “skinny expert riders willing to risk death daily” to apply (some posters included
an additional “orphans preferred”). As a
result, most of the people who signed up were teenagers weighing between 110 and 125 pounds. The average Pony Express rider, author Mark Twain recalled, “was usually a little bit
of a man.” On the plus side, they would receive $100 a month – slightly more than the salary of a lieutenant-colonel in the cavalry. In an era when many people were lucky to earn $300 a year, it was a tempting opportunity.
Besides riders, the company also needed to hire people to manage the depots (known as stationkeepers) and livestock tenders. These workers’ lives were often “isolated, primitive and dangerous.”
As the employment posters acknowledged, the riders themselves would endure a slew
of hardships. First, they needed to ride over rugged terrain for eight or more hours a day. Moreover, because the West was sparsely populated, riders also couldn’t count on getting help if difficulties arose. The region was also subjected to wildly fluctuating temperatures. As if that wasn’t enough, violence was brewing between American settlers and several Native
American tribes (specifically, the Pauite, Shoshone, and Bannock people) in Nevada. While no large-scale fighting had broken out yet, there was a possibility that Pony Express riders would be attacked on the trail. The company responded by providing each of their riders with a pistol. It didn’t have quite the intended effect. In the end, some riders carried their guns with them while others simply relied “on the speed of their pony to outrun hostiles.”
The only other thing riders were instructed to bring with them – aside from their mail satchels – was a Bible. This came about through the influence of Alexander Majors. A deeply religious man who appealed “to the help
American Bible Society
The only other thing riders were instructed to bring with them – aside from their mail satchels – was a Bible.