a useful tid-bit on stagecoach travel

Started by 'Monterrey' Jack Brass, July 13, 2006, 01:22:41 PM

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'Monterrey' Jack Brass

All,

Following is a brief excerpt from "From the Atlantic to the Pacific,
Overland: A Series of letters by Demas Barnes" (1866). The passage
below details some of the hardships of overland stage travel and is
useful information with which to be familiar so catching a user's
glimpse of how it was is good to know.

Please post other such travel related info if you have primary documentation
detailing it. Such information is good for a solid impression and if you
have it please post. Thanks.

"Denver, Colorado Territory, June 21, 1865. The conditions of one
man's running stages to make money, while another seeks to ride in
them for pleasure, are not in harmony to produce comfort. Coaches
will be overloaded, it will rain, the dust will drive, the baggage
will be left to the storm, passengers will get sick, a gentleman of
gallantry will hold the baby, children will cry, nature demands
sleep, passengers will get angry, drivers will swear, the sensitive
will shrink, rations will give out, potatoes become worth a gold
dollar each and not to be had at that, the water brackish, the
whiskey abominable, and the dirt almost always unendurable. I have
just finished six days and nights of the this thing: and I am free to
say, until I forget a great many things now very visible to me, I
shall not undertake it again. Stop over nights? No you wouldn't. To
sleep on the sand floor of a one-story sod or adobe hut, without a
chance to wash, with miserable food, uncongenial companionship, loss
of a seat in a coach until one comes empty, etc. won't work. A
through-ticket and fifteen inches of seat, with a fat man on one
side, a poor widow on the other, a baby in your lap, a bandbox over
your head, and three or four more persons immediately in front,
leaning against your knees, makes the picture, as well as your
sleeping place, for the trip..."
NRA Life, VFW Life, F&AM 
Old West Research & Studies Association
amateur wetplate photographer

Goatlips

"A through-ticket and fifteen inches of seat, with a fat man on one
side, a poor widow on the other, a baby in your lap, a bandbox over
your head, and three or four more persons immediately in front,
leaning against your knees, makes the picture, as well as your
sleeping place, for the trip..."

Good post Jack, part of it sounds like plane travel today.  I got spoiled in the sixties when men wore suits and hats, and hitting on the stewardesses was encouraged... by the stewardesses!

Goatlips

'Monterrey' Jack Brass

Hey Goatlips,

Long time, no see. Hope you're doing well. I haven't seen you at a shoot since 2003. Been deployed with the army 04/05 (GTMO) & 05/06 (Iraq). Will be coming home this Fall.

Me and my pards are the fellows that came to Utica for a few years every other month or so wearing authentic duds and smoking everybody out with BP cartridge. Give everyone my regards and that I will be leaving Baghdad to come home this Fall.

YMH&OS,

Monterrey J. Brass
NRA Life, VFW Life, F&AM 
Old West Research & Studies Association
amateur wetplate photographer

Bristow Kid

Monterrey,

I was curious as to where you found this except?  I am currently doing research on stagecoaches and stage drivers and I haven't come across this info before.
Prayer Posse
SCORRS
NCOWS #2540
Grand Army of the Frontier #437
Department of the Missouri
PWDFR #149
RATS #233
SASS #68717
WARTHOG

Goatlips

Thanks fer the reminder Jack,

I sure do remember you and your crew.  Best outfitted and frightening cowpokes that operated like a gang that just rode into town, nobody too certain which side of the law they were on.  One of the things that soldered me into Frontier Cartridge.  You had an old rifle that had fought in another war.

Thank you for your service, my time was forty years earlier on the opposite side of the globe from you but I bet the smells are the same.  Hope to see you all this fall, mebbe at the Range War.

Goatlips

'Monterrey' Jack Brass

B.K.

This excerpt was referenced in an book in my library at home, though I forget which one. I posted that excerpt originally a long while ago and cannot recall too much surrounding which of my books it came from. However, the original book where it first showed up in print is: "From the Atlantic to the Pacific, Overland: A Series of letters by Demas Barnes" (1866). Of course finding an original version of this might be a challenge but I think it might be useful for your research if you could locate one.

Monterrey J. Brass
NRA Life, VFW Life, F&AM 
Old West Research & Studies Association
amateur wetplate photographer

'Monterrey' Jack Brass

Goatlips,

We'll ensure you shoot with us next time we're all at the same range at the same time. Black-power makes for good camaraderie – nothing quite like it.

Where you served and where I am are a world away in more than geography and time – I give vets from your era a lot of credit. There were no yellow ribbon bumper stickers in those days. It's a strange deal here but it is good that I am able to contribute something and take care of soldiers as much as I can.

I believe the local nationals here have a ways to go if they are going to make things work. I wonder if they really want it sometimes. Well, not for me to decide. I will do the best I can while I'm here and hope my bit helped out. Of interest, when we come under indirect fire the bad guys are generally bad shots – if they hit anything it is because they got lucky in my opinion. I can't decide if it is their being amateurs or idiots, or perhaps both. One thing I am sure of – sure is frickin' warm over here and getting hotter. Geez Louise...! It will be nice to get back home again where there are seasons.

Take care and see you after I come home. Not sure about the shooting schedule as I'm not 100% sure of my re-deployment timeline after I hit the States.

Monterrey J. Brass
NRA Life, VFW Life, F&AM 
Old West Research & Studies Association
amateur wetplate photographer

Goatlips

Hay Monterrey Jack,

Matters of which we speak are in your hands now Pard.  Today we had our first annual Ambush and Pig Roast in Utica, it was 96 degrees and tomorrow guaranteed to be hotter.  Wish we had a bowl of salt pills to go with our quinine.  You'll be happy to know I shot the first day clean, and it looks like I'll come in first in the Frontier Cartridge class.  'Course, I'm lucky you guys aren't back yet as I'm the only one shootin' FC.  I'll do my best for our cause tomorrow, and you do the same.

Stay safe while keeping us safe.

Goatlips

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