Chicago Mail August 12 - 93.
SEVENTY YEARS
ON THE FRONTIER
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History of Alexander Majors,
Originator of the Pony
Express.
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STORIES OF EARLY DAYS
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Freighting and Empire Making---Aubery's
Great Trip----Buffalo
Bill's Book.
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Two books lately printed should find place
on the shelves of every American, more especially
of every western American. It is
not that the works are of singular literary
merit, although neither lacks claims to value.
One of these books is entitled " Seventy
Years on the Frontier." being the memoirs
of Alexander Major of Denver. The other,
under the title of " Buffalo Bill," was written
by John M. Burke, or, if he can not be recognized
under that style, Maj. Jack Burke.
These works are valuable contributions to
the history of the west. They tell of the incidents
of the settling of an empire, the
everyday detials of the life of those who
blaze the way of civilization. They speak of
a class of men fast being removed ; the paladins
of the prairies who will never be replaced.
The frontiersman will presently live
only in the memory of gray old men and will
be seen only in base imitatious on the sensational
stage.
Ingraham Has Heard, Both Songs.
Mr. Majors' books was edited by Col. Prentiss
Ingraham. It was a happy collabration.
[Image]
Col. Ingraham himself has heard the
music of the Comanche's yell and can
tell the difference between the impatient soprano
of a bullet on th wing and the pleasing
of the lute. Col. Ingraham has
helped make history himself, as well as
write it.
Forty years ago no man west of the Mississipi
was better known than Alexander
Majors. From the Big Muddy to the sun-kissed
shores of the Pacific was rated a
square man and brave one. He was a
Christian and a temperance man. These
qualities alone would mark him. One might
be either and excite nothing more than adverse
criticism possibly, but the man who
neither cursed his fellow-man or mules when
fretful, nor drank with his friends when joyous,
was esteemed an uncommon person -- so
much so that it required much force of character
in the early days to carry around such
a load of good habits and goodly principles
without exciting invidious comment.
A Remarkable Record.
Yet Mr. Majors, frontiersman and
freighters, the originator of the pony express,
the employer in his day of more killers than
Sherman took with him to the sea, was never
known to swear or drink whisky. To eastern
folk it may seem that undue stress is
laid on the possession of these virtues. To
the man who traveled the west prior to ten
years ago it is unnecessary to apologize for
dwelling upon Mr. Majors' abstention from
cordials and cursing.
Alexander Majors was born in Kentucky,
Oct. 4, 1814. When 5 years old he was
brought by his father with the rest of the
family to Missouri. Missouri was largely
settled by Kentuckians, which affords some
reason for the bluff integrity of the men of
the commonwealth and the good looks and
virtue of the women.
The Majors family crossed the Mississippi
at St. Louis. Then, as now, a monopoly on
the transportation across the stream existed.
The predecessors of the bridge company
which now sandbags travelers on the
threshold of a great state were three Frenchmen.
Original Monopolists.
These plutocrats owned a flatboat that
would carry a four-horse wagon and its load.
They carried all passengers and freight that
came. Today a fleet of monster ferryboats
and 150 locomotives, with their attendant
cars, are necessary to do the work.
The elder Majors built his cabin on the Big
Snye Bear river -- now corrupted into Sni-a-bar.
Then followed a catch-as-catch-can
struggle with fever and ague, cyclones, Indians,
and other engaging features of pioneer
life.
In 1831 the Mormons settled at Independence,
Jackson county, Mo., from which time
until 1834, when Young and his followers
headed for Salt Lake, the original settlers
found much pleasant exercise killing off
their new neighbors, and occassionally being
killed themselves.
From 1848 to 1866 Mr. Majors was continuously
in the freighting business. The outfitting
point on the east was Independence,
Mo., the western terminus of the line being
Santa Fe, N. M. Along the old Sante Fe
trail much of the history of the west was
made. The gallant and venturesome-- albeit
somewhat spectacular --Fremont led his
pathfinding band of soldiers down it.
Good Men These.
Old Jim Bridger, Kit Carson, Buffalo Bill,
Wild Bill, and thousands of other plainsmen
have fought Indians and conveyed merchandise
and settlers down the yellow path.
Maj. Henry Inman, Alfred H. Lewis (Dan
Quin), Prentiss Ingraham, and Noble Prentis
have found material for some of their
most interesting sketches on the highway
which was marked by a line of tin cans and
skeletons from the Blue to the Cimmaron.
Later a regular freighting line was established
between the Missouri state line,
St. Joseph, and Independence and Salt Lake,
and still later it was extended to the Pacific.
Russell Majors and Waddell were kings in
those days, and Mr. Majors yet lives in
Denver to tell about it-- still a king among
men.
One of the most interesting and valuable
of the enterprises which Mr. Majors established,
or assisted in establishing, was the
pony express. It was away back in King
Jimmy Buchanan's administration that the
idea was first suggested. It was at the height
of the gold excitement. Wall street then, as
now, had a big pull in politics and the magnates
did not care to wait for the uncertain
and sluggish mail steamer to round the Horn,
or the more infrequent overland courier with
the latest news from the diggin's. News in
New York was ancient history in 'Frisco,
as many of the plungers had discovered to
their great grief.
Subsidy for the Pony Line.
A lobby of brokers fixed the congress of '59
and the subsidy was forthcoming. Five
hundred half-bred California mustangs were
procured and 200 men were hired. These
were true bordermen, those who three years
later split out into Red Legs or Jaykawkers,
Yellow Legs or Border Ruffians, and carried
on their respective parts of the war of the
rebellion with much vivacity and enthusiastic
bloodthirstiness. These men feared not
Indian, human being, untamed broncho, post
whisky, or the devil, the latter being, in
local opinion, the least formidable of the
many hindrances to a pure moral life along
the border.
Nature of the Work.
The men and horses were contracted by
their owners and employers, Russell, Majors
& Waddell, to cover the distance between St.
Joe, Mo., and San Francisco, a distance of
2,000 in ten days. Eighty of the men- preferably
the lighter weights - were selected as
riders. The others were station men, where
relays were established. The distances between
posts were determined by the character
of the country.
As an evidence of the speed made Mr. Majors
says that the news of Lincoln's election
was carried from St. Joseph to Denver,
665 miles, in two days and twenty-one hours,
the last ten miles being made in thirty-one
minutes. "Pony Bob" Haslam, now a resident
of Chicago, rode from Smith's creek
to Fort Churchill on the Carson river, Nevada,
where the first telegraph station on
the slope was situated, in eight hours and
ten minutes. The distance is 120 miles. Another
rider made a single stretch of 300
miles, being continuously in the saddle except
for the two minutes allowed at each station
for changing horses.
F. X. Aubery's Great Ride.
The most celebrated of long-distance and
short-time rides was that made by F. X.
Aubery in 1853. Aubery's record is frequently
talked about among old-time Missourians
and western men. The recent cowboy
ride from Chadron, Neb., was an early
morning canter for health compared with
Aubery's trip. He made the distance from
Sante Fe, N. M., to Independence, Mo., 800
miles, in 5 days and 13 hours.
The entire route was made without a stoppage
for rest. Horses were changed but five
times on the ride, although from every station
Aubery took a lead horse to which he
transferred his saddle when the horse he rode
fell.
The great ride was the result of a $1,000
wager that the journey could be made in
eight days.
The year before Aubery had ridden the
distance on a wager that he could make it in
ten days. He covered the ground in eight
days then, so that hsi subsequent bet was
something of the nature of a sure thing.
Story of Aubery's Death.
Aubery's death came upon him when he
wasn't exactly looking for it, but as he made
his journey into the hereafter with his war
paint and boots on it is to be presumed that
he was satisfied, such being esteemed the
proper manner in those days.
Aubery had taken a lot of sheep to California
and immediately upon his return to
Santa Fe met his old-time friend and good
gossip Maj. Weightman of the regular army.
In addition to protecting the frontier,
Weightman who was a man of versatile
genius molded public opinion by means of the
Santa Fe Herald, which he owned and edited.
Aubery dropped off his horse in front of
the Plaza hotel, where Maj. Weightman was
standing. Acting upon the good western
custom they entered the bar-room and as
they stood with glasses in hand Aubery inquired:
"Whatever did you print those damned
lies about my trip to California in your shoe-string
of a paper for?"
Instead of taking his drink Weightman
threw the whisky in the freighters face as a
complete answer to the question. Aubery
reached for his six-shooter, but before his
fingers clasped the butt the soldier's ready
bowie knife had gone through buckskin and
bone to Aubery's heart.
Mr. Majors in detailing the killing draws
thereform a social lesson and uses the occurrence
(DRAWING)
"BUFFALO BILL" CODY.
to point out the propriety of observing
the amenities of life.
"This tragedy," he says, "was the result
of rash words hastily spoken, and proves
that friends as well as enemies should be
careful and considerate in the language they
use towards others."
Col. Cody's Book.
The book of Buffalo Bill deals more with
the personal history of Col. W. F. Cody --
whose rank, be it noted, is brigade general of
the Nebraska National guards- and with
the war history of the west, than with the
material development of the country. It
takes the great plainsman from the age of 10
years, when the death of his pioneer father
threw the burden of the family's support
upon the boy, down to the present
time, when Col. Cody, the friend of generals
and princes, and the man whose bands
of cattle blacken the Platte valley, retains
his natural, open-hearted, vigorous, western
manhood.
Social and financial triumphs are carried
as easily and modestly as those which gave
him his name as the most daring Indian
fighter and intelligent and intrepid scout of
the west.
WILLIAM EUGENE LEWIS.
