Ben Holladay: The Stagecoach King

By J. Frederick

The red and black Concord stagecoaches that crossed the West in the 1860s, known to the Indians as "fire boxes," have been celebrated in Mark Twain's fiction and John Ford's films. Predating the transcontinental railroads, they provided vital lines of communication to the East during the Civil War and opened to development the newly settled regions beyond the Missouri River. From 1862 to 1866 Ben Holladay owned and operated a network of stagecoach lines from Kansas to California, the main one following the central mail route between Atchison and Salt Lake City established by the U.S. government in 1848, and other lines branching into the mining country of California and Montana and Idaho territories.

In spite of bad weather, primitive roads, holdups by highwaymen, and trouble with Indians, Holladay's coaches delivered passengers and mail on schedule. J. V. Frederick describes in fascinating detail the organization and operation of a vast transportation empire ruled by a man with executive genius and a gambler's instincts. Although Holladay forbade drinking and profanity on the job, he commanded the loyalty of his drivers, whom he dressed in broad-brimmed sombreros, corduroys trimmed with velvet, and high-heeled boots. He sold out just before the Union Pacific Railroad was completed and until his death in 1887 remained popular with Americans, who named racehorses and cigars after him.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0803219768
• ISBN13: 9780803219762
• Release Date: April 1989
• Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
• Length: 334 Pages

Customer Reviews

Ben Holladay: The Stagecoach King

Prior to the coming of the transcontinental railroad in 1869, the stagecoach was the primary means of transportation for goods as well as people across the vastness of the West. Ben Holladay established and owned many of the stagecoach lines that stretched from Kansas to California, and this valuable book, long in print (it was first published in 1940), tells the story of Holladay and the stagecoach business over which he dominated. Holladay was born in Kentucky in 1819 and went to Weston, MO, as a boy (one rumor says he ran away from home). He worked different jobs there for a number of years, married and had seven children, and then got a job freighting supplies for Kearny's Army of the West during the Mexican War. After the war he took a supply train to Salt Lake City which brought him a handsome profit. He worked with the Russell, Majors, and Waddell transportation company, learning the business and making deals for them, even aiding in the establishment of the Pony Express. In 1862 he bought out Russell, Majors, and Waddell and created the Overland Stage Line, which ran eventually from Omaha to Salt Lake City. Soon branch lines were added to Montana and Oregon, and he had as many as 15,000 men employed driving stages and tending stations and livestock. In 1865 he sold the business to Wells Fargo because of Indian deprivations and got into the steamship business in California. This he sold in 1868 and became chief owner of the Oregon Central Railroad, which he held until the Panic of 1873 wiped him out and he retired. As a businessman, Holladay had a lot to be desired. Machiavellian in his approach where the end always justified the means, he often cooked the books and lied to investors. He spent a great deal of time in Washington, DC, currying influence. Also in his personal life he was crude and overbearing. He died in Portland, Oregon, in 1887. Frederick's account of Holladay and the Overland Stage operations is scholarly and thorough. Reprinted from the original A.H. Clark edition, the book contains all the peculiar printing practices unique to that company (certain proper nouns - months and book titles, for example, are never capitalized). More important than that is that Frederick tells his story with authority and elan. Numerous appendices appear that further detail the business side of the Overland Stage Line; one I found especially useful: a complete listing, with intervening distances, of all the stage stations along the Line. This is a fascinating book about an important phase in the growth of the West.

Dangerous Mail Service

So often we see in westerns the stagecoach roaring into town and well-dressed easterners get out--not even dusty. This book shows the real and extremely difficult days of the stagecoach mail delivery and does it in a very factual, well-documented way. The end of the book should have been put at the first so we could know Ben Holladay before we learned all about the difficulties of getting the people and the mail to the western cities. It was especially interesting to me since my father and brother have the same name--Ben Holladay. He may be a distant relative and we would be proud to claim him.