OF THE EXPRESS COMIPANIES: ANID THE ORIGIN OF I AMERICAN RAILROADS. TOGETHER WITHl'SOME REMINISCENCES OF T-IE LATTER DAYS OF THE MAIL COACH AND BAGGAGE WAGON BUSINESS IN TIHE UNITED STATES. A. L ST IMSO N. NEW YORK: FOR SALE A.iT THE EXPRESS OFFICES TH.ROUGI1OUT THE ~Tz'- UN'ITED STA TE S. p Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1858, by A. L. STIMSON, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of United States for the Southern Dictrict of New York. HISTORY OF THE EXPRESS BUSINESS. ADAMS & Co. THE SECOND EXPRESS. HARNDEN & CO'S EARLIEST COMPETITORS. THEIR VARIOUS ENTERPRISES AND PROGRESS. STIMSON & Co's NEW ORLEANS EXPRESS. HOEY & CO'S CHARLESTON EXPRESS. CONSOLIDATION.AND CREATION OF THE ADAMS EXPRESS COMPANY-ITS EXTENSION. FREEMAN & CO'S CALIFORNIA EXPRESS. WHEN we consider the vast extension of the Express service, both in area and importance, since the death of iarnden, we cannot but wonder that so gigantic a growth should have sprung from the enterprise and persevering energy of a few men who began the good work, with neither capital nor rich relations, nor high social position to back them. Indeed, more than one of them had not enjoyed even the advantages of a first-rate common school education. Several of the most successful commenced their business with scarcely a dollar to their names, and all have to congratulate themselves that they have attained to their present standing, not by any adventitious aids, but solely by their own personal talents, united to the most indefatigable application to the work. The labor has not all been manual, as many imagine; they have performed a 6* 90 EXPRESS HISTORY-. great deal of head-work, and the result is a degree of harmony in the operation of the Express service throughout the whole country, notwithstanding the different, and oftentimes apparently opposing, interests of the numerous proprietors. Mhere executive men could never have brought the business to the prominent and influential position which it now holds in every considerable community. Fortunately for its early success, it was not retarded by falling into the hands of persons competent only to run of errands and deliver parcels. Mind, as well as muscle-mental sagacity, as well as physical energy, were demanded for its development. Alvin Adams, happily, united in his own person both of those characteristics. He had the iron constitution, and the aspect of health, which he had brought with him from his native home among the mountains of Vermont, twenty years before, when he came to Boston, a fatherless and motherless boy, to seek his fortune; and he had, too, the clear head and strong intellect for which the people of the Green Hills are famous. His fifteen or twenty years of experience in Boston, before he started in the Express business with P. B. Burke, had been marked by every variety of fortune, but he had never attained to wealth. Beginning it in the humble situation of an assistant in the Lafayette Hotel, his intelligence, regularity, temperance, and habits of industry speedily secured his promotion, and rendered him an invaluable aid EXPRESS HISTORY. 91 to the landlord. The characteristics which we have named, being accompanied by a frank, cordial manner, a gentlemanly address, and an obvious hearty desire to make all around him quite comfortable, admirably fitted Adams for the charge of a firstclass hotel, which the " Lafayette" was at that time; but his ambition did not turn in that direction. The celebrated inn was the starting place of several stage lines, and their stable was directly in rear of the house. Staging was a very important business in those days, as we have said; and as the lines from the hotel connected Boston with the great cities of New York and Albany, they stood very high in the esteem of young Adams. It was a common thing, in those days, for a driver to own his team, and this fact contributed not a little to the respectability of the occupation. The Stage Company at the Lafayette Hotel carried the U. S. Mail, and was rich in commodious and elegant coaches, and two hundred of the handsomest and most spirited horses that ever kicked up a dust on the Dedham turnpike. The drivers were substantial, solid men; both popular and respected; and Alvin Adams fancied that he would like to be one of them. He had always been a lover of good horses, and to drive four in hand, with a fine coach-load of passengers, and the U. S. Mail behind, was no less an honor than it was a pleasure. He probably calculated, too, that he might some day be the proprietor of a line of his own. His predilection for the box, however, was 92 EXPRESS HISTORY. successfully combated by the stage agent, who insisted upon it that he was made for better things. He then betook himself to a mercantile occupation, and became either as an employee, or, upon his own account, a family grocer or dealer in provisions. Subsequently he was a produce merchant, and enjoyed a term of prosperity. Whoever is familiar with the latter business knows how liable it is to extreme fluctuations, by which fortunes are made or lost in a single month. Adams enjoyed no immunity from the reverses by which his neighbors were suffering. He failed, and lost every dollar. When the tide of fortune again turned in his favor he paid up all of his old debts. One of those from whom we had the story, was himself a beneficiary of this act of unusual justice. The debt was some years old, and the creditor had forgotten it, when he was surprised by Alvin Adams stopping him in the street, reminding him of it, and requesting him to send it to him for payment. In May, 1840, Alvin Adams and P. B. Burke started an Express in direct competition with HIarnden's, under the style of Burke & Co. After a few months of " up-hill work," Burke retired, and Mr. Adams executed all the business of the " opposition" himself. He was its messenger, cashier, receiptclerk, label-boy, and porter. He employed no wagon, nor did Harnden, until a year or two elapsed, for they had only small and valuable parcels to deliver in those days. EXPRESS HISTORY. 93 We believe that Burke never returned to the Express business. For the first week or two, Adams could have stowed it all in his hat; nor did he carry anything more than a valise for several months from the commencement. For a long time he found it the hardest kind of up-hill work to obtain a share of the public patronage sufficient to pay his expenses, so strong a hold had the prosperous Original Expressman obtained upon the confidence and good-will of the community. Indeed, very many people regarded Adams as an interloper upon a field of enterprise fairly won by Harnden, and manifestly his " by the right of discovery." It is more than probable that not a few of Adams' personal friends looked upon his new business disapprovingly, or damaged it by faint praise. We know that some of them had no sympathy with it. They thought, with the majority, that there would never be enough business of the kind for more than one Expressman; never dreaming that in less than eighteen years afterwards it would furnish employment for more than five thousand persons. Indeed, that was not a time to be sanguine about business of any kind except politics. It was the memorable year of the Harrison Presidential Election, and "Tippecanoe and Tyler too," monopolized more attention than the mart or the counting-room. For an unprecedented length of 94 EXPRESS HISTORY. time the industry and mercantile interests of the whole country had been depressed and almost ruined. Any change of rulers, it was said, could not but be for the better, and the people were full of the idea of a revolution in the national administration, with a view to improving affairs in general and business in particular. Subjected to the double disadvantage of an unpropitious period for a new enterprise, and a degree of antagonism to it in the community on the part of the very people upon whose favor it was dependent for a support, it is not to be wondered at that Burke should so soon have abandoned the undertaking. It certainly was very discouraging, but Alvin Adams was not the man to back down. After Burke left him, in 1840, he conducted the Express, as we have said, entirely alone. He had no capital, nor, indeed, had Harnden at that time. Shortly afterwards, he took Ephraim Farnsworth into copartnership, and gave him the charge of the New York office; but the connection did not last long. Farnsworth died some years ago. We speak of what the second Express had to contend with, the better to illustrate the innate energy and perseverance of Harnden & Co.'s earliest competitor, and his remarkable fitness for the occupation, which in calm disregard of sneers and remonstrances, and still stronger opposition, he persisted in following. It has been often said, that neither Harnden nor Adams, nor anybody else, could possibly have an EXPRESS HISTORY. 95 ticipated, at the outset, that the Express business would ever attain to the importance that it has; and doubtless that was so; but no one can look upon the intelligent countenance and ample forehead of Alvin Adams without the conviction, that he had the sagacity to look forward to the realization of far greater results from the enterprise than any other man. It is difficult to believe that a person of his mental power and business experience would have been contented to adopt for an occupation what appeared then to be only that of a messenger or errand-man, between two cities, had he not expected it to lead to something of more extent and consequence. That he had some such foresight, was probably the reason why he adhered to his enterprise through three or four years of the hardest kind of work and the poorest sort of remuneration. Brainard, for many years past -quite famous as an express-wagon builder in Boston, at that time drove a job-wagon. He says that he used to do the little carting that was then required by Adams, gratis; and even at that, gave him the preference to Leonard, of the Worcester Express. "Not that he loved Leonard less, but Adams more." Leonard, who paid well and was willing to pay more, to induce B. to receive his freight as soon as the steamboat train arrived from Worcester at the Boston Dep6t, and hurry with it down to his office, 96 EXPRESS HISTORY. could never understand why he should insist upon waiting to get out Adams' New York trunk when he acknowledged that it was purely a " labor of love." The fact is, that it.was only one of many evidences that we have seen of the genial influence that Alvin Adams has exercised upon the affection of all who have enjoyed his friendship. At the time of Farnsworth's leaving the firm, Adams & Co.'s clerk in New York was a young man, named William B. Dinsmore, and their office was in the basement for many years past occupied by Boyd's City Post, in William Street, near Wall. This was in the latter part of 1841, or early in 1842. Dinsmore was then a young man, without capital, but not without experience. He was born in Boston, and had lived there until two or three years before becoming connected with the Express. He had been in the South a portion of the time, engaged in trading, and still later was employed by David Felt, the stationer, in New York, either as a salesman or book-keeper. In the latter capacity he is said to have excelled. We have many pleasant recollections of him in his native city- before he located in New York, and remember well that he was regarded by his associates, and others, as a young man of much wit and humor, and superior mental calibre, as well as physical ability. It appears, that when Farnsworth left, and Dinsmore was still a clerk, Adams seriously thought of taking for a partner some man of extensive acquaint EXPRESS HISTORY. 97 ance in New York, who had influence with the Boston, Worcester and Norwich line, which carried his express; but Dinsmore urged his own claims so strenuously, and was in truth so useful in the office, and so competent to take charge of it, that he carried the day, and became a member of the firm. It is now some sixteen years since that copartnership was formed, and the two gentlemen still continue associates in the same business, and in charge of the same offices; ever acting harmoniously, yet with vigor and determination, together. In the outset, and for several years subsequently, Adams & Co.'s business was limited to New York, New London, Norwich, Worcester and Boston. When Dinsmore sought and obtained a partnership in Adams & Co.'s Express, he removed his office to No. 7 (now 17) Wall Street. There was nothing in the actual proceeds of the business to encourage him in the undertaking. As far as present compensation for his labor was concerned, he would have done better in a clerkship, even in the " hard times" of 1842; but he coincided with his partner's ideas of the prospective importance of the enterprise, and looked to the future for reimbursement. He knew that " Great oaks from little acorns grow," and recognized in the Express the germ that would put forth and become a goodly tree, and in time cover the land with its branches. The entire business of Adams & Co. was done then 7 98 EXPRESS HISTORY. by two or three men and a boy. They were kept pretty busy, it is true, but found it hard to pay expenses, even with the most rigid economy. Up to 1843, their affairs had not prospered much, nor had business in general materially improved; but, fortunately for them, Harnden & Co., about that time, became so engrossed with the extension of their European operations as somewhat to neglect their home Express, and as an inevitable result disaffected some good customers, who on that account gave their parcels to Adams & Co. The latter improved the opportunity to redouble their persevering efforts to secure success. The two Expresses were now supplied with horses and wagons. In the fall of 1843, Samuel L. Woodard (formerly a stage-man for Col. Staples, from Keene and Fitchburg to Worcester,) became the driver of Adams & Co.'s Boston wagon, although he was probably worth more money at that time than his employers; and he has continued in that capacity ever since, one of the most faithful, kind-hearted, agreeable, and industrious of men; always on hand early and late, and ready for any emergency. Then, an Express driver was as valuable and important as ever the stageman had been in his palmy days, and to his efforts in "bucking for freight" his employers were indebted for a very considerable amount of their patronage. Woodard had a clear head, a round, cheerful happy face, a plump person, and a frank, hearty manner, united to a due degree of the EXPR ESS HISTORY. 99 suaviter in modo, (very popular characteristics, by the way;) and being zealous in the service which he had adopted, and strongly impressed with the importance of it to the community, he talked it into the bankers and merchants with signal success. " Harnden & Co.," he would say, "have got more than they can do; give your business to us. Just try Adams & Co. for once! Mr. Adams is a little the nicest man you ever did see, and we have all the facilities for doing your business right up to the handle! Come, let me set these bundles into my wagon, and put them through to New York by daylight. Mr. Dinsmore, Mr. Adams' partner in New York, is a Boston man, (you know him, don't you? of course you do: he was made for an Expressman!) and will see to the delivering of these things himself." With similar, if not precisely the same "moral suasion" as this, would he make new customers for A. & Co., and, once obtained, he took good care never to lose them. Of course, he soon came to be regarded by Adams as an almost indispensable man in the Express, and the most friendly relations existed between them. Woodard, we are happy to say, now enjoys, as the fruits of his talents, industry and steady habits, a snug little competency, and a constitution unimpaired by his long and still-continued service. Even the handsome white horse, which he used to drive, is still in good order and well condition, though now about twentysix years old. 100 EXPRESS HISTORY. The competition between the employees of the two Expresses to outstrip each other in zeal and efficiency, received a great impetus at that period, and it lasted several years. Charles Haskell succeeded Hall (a brother-in-law of Adams) as clerk in the Boston office, in the spring of 1843, and remained in that employment about sixteen years. He had previously been a member of the firm of Lewis & Haskell, merchants of New Orleans, where he has recently engaged in a Mississippi River Express busi. ness. Having enjoyed a good mercantile education, and a large share of experience of men and things in mercantile life, this gentleman was an invaluable assistant, more especially as he took hold of the business with as much interest as if it were his own. *Adams' partner had a similar "good faculty of getting along" with his men in the New York office, and making them feel zealously interested in the competition with Harnden & Co. Gifted with a keen sense of the ludicrous side of life, and a hereditary facility at what are sometimes called happy turns in conversation, and so republican in his values of mankind as to care no more for a don than for a driver, Dinsmore was always liked by his employees. Daggett was a clerk for him in 1843, and attended to the Custom House business, which is now done for Adams & Co. by John K. Stimson & Brother. John Hoey, then a boy, fresh from a wholesale literary-depot establishment in Ann Street, was Dinsmore's Mercury and factotum. EXPRESS HISTORY. 101 Strictly speaking, when Hoey was first employed, the entire Express business of Adams & Co. in this city was performed by one man and a boy, with the aid of only a Jersey wagon, the proprietor of which was one Amos Smith. But the lad was a smart one, for he had made himself, and in serving " the latest intelligence received per Express" to the daily newspapers of this city, he put Harnden & Co.'s " Mercury Jim" to his trumps to excel him, especially after the enterprise of Dinsmore had furnished him with a pony-a real, live pony —with which to trot from Brooklyn (where the papers were thrown to John by Adams & Co.'s messenger, on the Long Island Railroad train from Boston) around to the offices of the various editors in New York. " Mercu'ry Jim," however, was very serviceable, and we could wish that he had since met with good fortune, like his competitor, John Hoey, who has continued to serve his employers to the extent of his constantly enlarging capacity, until now, when we find him Superintendent of the Adams Express Company's immense freight and parcel business, at No. 59 Broadway, with a force of 50 men, 40 horses, and 20'wagons at his command, as a substitute for that pony. Swett and Fisher were messengers about that time. When Dinsmore obtained a regular Express wagon, Studley (since better known as the originator of the Railroad Baggage Delivery Express) was employed to drive it. 102 EXPRESS HISTORY. James D. Wallace was a driver at 7 Wall Street in 1843, and he has remained, with Adams & Co. ever since, with the exception of an interval of a few months passed by him on the Isthmus of Panama in their service. He distinguished himself not. only by his excellent driving and good care of his horse and wagon, but by his extraordinary zeal in obtaining freight, which, but for his personal exertions and powers of persuasion, must ineyitablyhave fallen into the charge of the competing Express. "Fidus et audax," "Faithful and Bold," was a title that well might be applied to him. For fifteen years, or thereabouts, he has been among the foremost of the faithful, and no man living has done more express work than he. E. S. Sanford, a native of Massachusetts, became attached to Adams & Co.'s New York office in 1844, we think it was. Possessing strong mental powers, somewhat cultivated, and an aspiring disposition, backed by a firm purpose to attain to influence, and a share of the prosperity which he had sagacity enough to foresee would at length wait upon the Express, he made himself very useful to Dinsmore, and, in that or the following year, was appointed agent of Adams & Co. in Philadelphia. He is now regarded as one of the most able of Express managers and proprietors. James R. Doyle was employed by Adams (July, 1847) as a messenger, and though young was a, faithful and valued assistant. He died prematurely EXPRESS HISTORY. 103 of consumption, much lamented. Henry Safford was Dinsmore's book-keeper in 1845. Addison Brastow, first employed by Adams as a messenger, (1844,) became a clerk, and, after some years of faithful service, went into the Express business upon his own account in New Orleans. He, too, died of consumption a few years ago. John M. Freeman entered Alvin Adams' employment in the spring of 1844, as a driver. He was originally from Nova Scotia. The occupation, as we have intimated before, demanded something more than the mere ability to drive a horse and handle freight. John was not very cityfied at the outset, but he had the material in him to make a smart business man, and he became finally one of the most popular and valuable agents that Adams & Co. ever had. After serving as driver and messenger a year or two for Adams, he was promoted to a clerkship of great responsibility in Dinsmore's office in Wall Street. He was money clerk, and had charge of the Philadelphia desk in the office. James R. Cholwell, [Boston way-bill clerk, afterwards became money clerk, and millions of dollars passed through his hands before he relinquished the business to become a merchant. He was succeeded by George Dixon, a very faithful man. In 1849 John M. Freeman went to seek his fortune in California; one of a company of adventurers, who either bought or chartered a vessel, and made the voyage around Cape Horn. Upon their arrival 104 EXPRESS HISTORY. at destination, the association was dissolved, and John again enlisted as an Express-man. Somewhere about 1845., E. S. Sanford, then located in Adams & Co.'s Philadelphia office, became associated with Samuel M. Shoemaker, and together they started an Express between that city and Wilmington, Del., and Baltimore, via the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore R. R. Their Express was soon after extended to Washington, D. C. This Express connected at Philadelphia with Adams & Co.'s, and subsequently took that name. It was well managed, and became a popular institution in Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and the District. Shoemaker was a native of Baltimore, a young, ambitious, driving man of business, possessed of an acute intellect, remarkable for its untiring activity and grasp of the innumerable minutia of his Express. His office in Baltimore has always been noteworthy for its well ordered and thoroughly executed details. W. H. Trego, his very active and judicious agent there, has been in the business many years, though he is still young. In 1854, Adams & Co. purchased of Thompson & Co. the Express which they now run between Hartford, Conn., and Springfield, Mass. Phillips, for about 16 years past an Express-man in Hartford, became agent of Adams & Co., after having done the business for some years in his own name. He sustains a high character in that city. W. Webb, the New Haven agent, was Harnden's EXPRESS HISTORY. 105 agent there in the summer of 1842, and he has continued to conduct the New Haven business through every change of ownership. He was agent in 1844 of Beecher & Co.'s and Phillips & Co.'s Expressesthe former running, per steamboat, between New Haven and New York daily; and the latter running from New Haven to Hartford, via the railroad, (which was in operation, at that time, no further than the latter city,) and from Hartford to New York by the New Haven steamboats. He is characterized by a quiet, unassuming, yet pleasing and gentlemanly address, a kind accommodating disposition, and the most untiring and faithful discharge of his duty. These good qualities rendered him a favorite with the New Haven merchants at the outset, and he has not ceased to make new customers, and retain the old ones. Agents of this kind, and like Peregrine Turner and the late Mr. Parks, (for so many years the faithful and popular agents in New London and Norwich, Conn.,) are invaluable to an Express Company. They exercise a local influence distinct from their Express agency, certainly, but of great service to it. It was through Webb that Adams & Co. obtained about that time the services of Henry B. Plant, now, and for two or three years past, the superintendent of their express operations in the Southern States. Plant was Webb's partner in the West India goods business in New Haven, in 1844, and he shared with him the Express agency, also. In 106 EXPRESS HISTORY. deed, the details of the latter business devolved almost entirely upon him at that time, and it so remained until Adams and Dinsmore bought out Beecher & Co.'s Express, and united it with Phillips & Co.'s, under the name of Adams & Co.'s Hartford and New Haven Express. Soon afterwards, Webb & Plant sold out their store business; the former devoting his attention exclusively to the agency for Adams & Co., and the latter becoming a messenger for them on the steamboat between New York and Hartford. The manager of this branch of Adams & Co.'s business, at 16 Wall Street, was E. A. Johnson, long since deceased. He wanted Plant to assist him in his office, and he became a clerk there -Gabriel Brush, one of the drivers, taking his place as messenger. W. L. Crane, the present manager of the New York Department of that Express, was then a clerk in the New Haven office. Not long, subsequently, Adams & Co. made a contract with the U. S. Treasury Department to take charge of Government moneys between the New York Custom House and the U. S. Mint, in Philadelphia. The care of these immense amounts of treasure in transitu was given to Plant, who was regarded by Dinsmore as both vigilant and incorruptible. Probably Plant's very temperate and economical habits, staid manners, and freedom from the hilarity and abandon characteristic of the young men of the city, recommended him to the confidence of his chief, more even than his natural acuteness EXPRESS HISTORY. 107 and thorough way of doing business. After six months' service as messenger between New York and Philadelphia, he was succeeded by the very worthy John Dunning. Plant then went into the office at 16 Wall Street, to take the management of the Hartford and New Haven Express. Soon afterwards, Adams & Co. arranged to send their money parcels and small packages over the New York and New Haven Railroad, then just completed, paying about $1,700 per month for the privilege. For about a year more, the other freight continued to go by steamboat to New Haven. Then, at the urgent solicitation of the President of the Railroad, it was all transferred to that route, and the Express run four times a day. This was an important move, and the Hartford and New Haven Express grew rapidly. The Railroad passes through numerous manufacturing places, and the Connecticut nation are pre-eminently an Express people. Their inventive genius and mechanical skill render them the artificers of an innumerable variety of implements and appliances which are saleable in every part of the United States, and which demand Express facilities for their more prompt and reliable distribution. Hardy was a very usefill messenger on the New York and New Haven line for a number of years. Plant continued to have charge of that Express until November, 1854, when he went to Augusta, Ga., to act as superintendent of the Harnden Express, in 108 EXPRESS HISTORY. that quarter; and he was succeeded here by Wm. L. Crane, one of the very best Expressmen now living. Hiram Dixon, (now a celebrity as a pictorial penman, and the inventor of the new patent system of book-keeping,) was employed by Dinsmore in 1848 as the accountant of the New York office. An excellent book-keeper himself, Dinsmore was exceedingly particular to have his accounts kept according to the best possible system, and in the neatest and most accurate manner. He was unwilling to have his books inferior, either in their plan or their penmanship, to those of any mercantile house whatsoever; and for that reason he engaged Dixon, who, even as long ago as that, had no superior in his line. Some men are made for one thing, and some for another. Dixon was made to be a book-keeper. In the midst of accounts he is at home. They cannot be too many for him, nor too intricate. Submit to his analysis a set of books which ninety-nine accountants in a hundred would say were in inextricable confusion, and he will bring order out of chaos with almost incredible ease and facility. The books of the Express are unlike any others under the sun; and of all the companies, the " Adams " have had the largest variety and the most rapidly increasing accounts. This has been more especially the case since 1854; and it has afforded us pleasure to observe with what ease and thoroughness their accomplished and veteran book-keeper has acquitted himself. His new mode of book-keeping is wor EXPRESS HISTORY. 109 thy of the attention of every accountant and mercantile firm in this and other cities. John K. Stimson, now for so many years in the Express service, first entered it in 1846, at the invitation of Dinsmore. They had been school-fellows and companions in boyhood. At the time of the so-called " Cherokee War," Stimson was a Quartermaster in the U. S. service. Subsequently, he was a Civil Engineer, and assisted Col. J. Edgar Thompson in making the first Railroad in Georgia, (1838-9.) He had just finished like service in the lower portion of that State, on the Flint River and Ocmulgee R. R., (1844,) when he was written to by his friend D., requesting him to assist him in his office, as cashier and confidential clerk. He also assumed the.care of the Custom House brokerage business, which Adams & Co. were in the habit of attending to for the importers. In this capacity he continued until July, 1854. George M. Curtis, of Boston, was employed in the New York office as early as 1848, and was for some years in charge of the Boston desk. He is now at the head of the money parcel and collection department, and is highly esteemed for his many excellent qualities, and always gentlemanly bearing. William Stevenson, for many years at the head of the Philadelphia department in New York, died a few years ago, of consumption. He was exceedingly accurate in his way-bills and accounts, and his loss was much felt. Dr. Franklin, an assistant of 110 EXPR E SS H I S T:O R Y. his, and a very worthy young man, died of the same disease, somewhat earlier. Abram Austin and W. H. Darling were among the best of the old drivers. They were gentlemanly, and very successful in bucking for freight. Ten years ago, the number of Expresses in Boston, with routes of from five to fifty miles, was not less than twenty, and those were owned by as many different individuals. The effect of the very commendable emulation between Adams & Co. and Harnden & Co., in the matter of handsome horses and wagons, was noteworthy. Every new Expressman started in business with one idea more strongly impressed upon his mind than any other, viz., whatever other aids and appliances he might lack, he must, at any rate, have a smart horse and a handsome wagon. That notion has continued, until it has become a rule as unalterable as the laws of the Medes and Persians. The same laudable example has had a manifest influence in improving the taste of nearly all who own horses and carts in New York. The Express stables are well worth a visit. In 1849, a new order of Express service was destined to spring up. "The California gold fever" had broken out, and thousands of young men were thronging to the newly-acquired Golconda, when Daniel Hale Haskell, a highly-esteemed clerk in Adams & Co.'s Boston office, suggested to his employers the expediency of establishing a California EXPRESS HISTORY. 111 Express. With characteristic prudence, Adams and Dinsmore at first opposed the proposition; foreseeing that the most important point of operations must necessarily be in San Francisco, some thousands of miles beyond their supervision; and they preferred to have all their business where they could give it their frequent personal inspection. However, they at length yielded to Haskell's solicitations, and he went out to San Francisco, in the steamer of September, 1849, to act as their partner in the proposed business. The building which he took for an Express office was a little shanty, of which I. C. Woods was either the owner or the owner's agent. As the business increased rapidly, this building had to be pieced out, or extended in depth, every few weeks, to hold the multitudes which thronged to it to hear the news, obtain or send letters, and remit their gold dust. Help of the right sort for him being very scarce, Haskell was very glad when the experienced and accomplished Expressman, John M. Freeman, arrived out, to employ him at a salary of $600 per month! The charge made by Adams & Co. for freight from New York to San Francisco was seventy-five -cents per pound, for packages not exceeding fifteen pounds each; and for parcels of less weight, not bulky, such price was made as could be agreed up-.on. Three dollars was their price for conveying an ordinary-sized daguerreotype; twelve dollars for a parcel not larger than a common size novel; and 112 EXPRESS HISTORY. this was always exacted in advance. It was paid cheerfully and without any haggling. Since then, the prices have fallen about 60 per cent. Upon the arrival of the steamer at Chagres with the Express, the freight would be sent ashore in boats-a tedious and perilous job, for the sea usually ran high, and the boats were frequently swamped. At Chagres it was transferred to river canoes, and propelled by natives to Cruces, where it was again transferred and placed upon the backs of mules, which bore it (by a road that would have defied the locomotion of any other kind of beast) to Panama, where the Pacific steamship awaited to convey it to San Francisco. Being liable to be sat. urated with wet in being carried ashore at Chagres, and in crossing the Isthmus by reason of rains and streams, it was required of shippers to put up their merchandise in water-proof packages. The load of a mule rarely exceeded 300 lbs. Usually he boretwo oblong boxes or trunks weighing not over 125 lbs. each. In the mercurial condition of the California markets at that period, it was highly important that "Express goods" should be put through promptly, say, in from thirty-one to thirty-three days, which was then considered good time; though, by means of the Panama Railroad, and the increased speed of the steamships, the trip from New York to San Francisco rarely occupies more than twenty-three days, and twenty-one days suffices for the return EXPRESS HISTORY. 113 voyage. Adams & Company soon recognized the importance of having their Expresses go forward in charge of some of their own people, and they sent out Fred. Stimson as a special messenger to accompany their freight. No one unfamiliar with the facts has an adequate idea of " the moving accidents by flood and field," the exposure to the weather, and the risk of robbery and murder, (to say nothing of that "dreadful Chagres fever,") which this man, and his immediate successors in the business-Swett, Sanborn, Wallace, Dunning, Parvew, Morton, and Trembly-had to encounter. Another class of messengers to which Adams & Company's Express in California gave rise, were wont to perform their service on horseback between San Francisco (and other towns) and the numerous diggins." Sometimes they made use of mules; but, in either case, the beasts must be sure and swift of foot, and easy under the saddle, or they were discarded, and better procured in their stead. To be able and willing to run fleetly at a word from its rider was a sine qua non in the steed of an Express messenger; and we have heard wonderful stories of the time made, under the saddle, in this service. F. A. Stimson and Felix Tracy, who served in this capacity for Adams & Co., could tell many an exciting yarn on this head, and a very interesting book of adventures has been published by " Old Block," Delano, the Express rider, employed afterwards by Wells, Fargo & Co. 8 114 EXPRESS HISTORY. When we think of the trackless wilderness and perilous defiles which the Express riders had to pass through, the mountains they had to climb, and the numerous, and often badly-swollen streams they had to ford, we must admit their achievements to have been almost miraculous. Intrusted with the conveyance of considerable quantities of gold dust, collected at the mines, these messengers were liable, if they escaped the rifles of prowling Indians, of a far more savage nature than those of the Isthmus, to murderous attacks from Mexican outlaws, and even from such of their own countrymen as had been driven by ill success and bad habits into desperate courses. With singularly good fortune, however, they all escaped that peril. Whatever may have been the cause of the immunity, it is but just to award them great credit for manhood, zeal, prudence and fidelity. More recently, very heavy robberies have been perpetrated upon inland California Expresses by highwaymen. For years the miners and journals of California were almost entirely dependent upon Adams & Co. for their letters, and latest intelligence from the Atlantic States. Adams & Co.'s California Express business was so prosperous the first year or two, that Messrs. Sanford and Shoemaker (who, in the meantime, had become partners in Adams & Co.'s business in the Atlantic States) sought and obtained an interest in it. EXPRESS HISTORY. 115 It was a rich treat, in the almost fabulous days of California's development by American enterprise, to be present in Adams & Co.'s office in this city, upon the arrival of an Express from that auriferous region, and see the bags of gold dust-a multitude of them, and of every size-all silently eloquent of the toil and trials of the diggers. If they could have spoken, what stories they would have told us! "Thereby hangs a tale." IThe bags were almost invariably of buckskin, numbered in the order in which they had been received at the Express office in San Francisco, and inscribed with their weight and estimated value, reckoning it at $17.50 per ounce, or less if of inferior quality. (The dust from the Southern mines of California was the best.) Then there would "'open up" boxes of specimens of the precious ore, remarkable either for their immense value or curious formation; or a returned miner would produce one from his pocket-which was literally " a pocket full of rocks." One of these specimens, as large as a child's head, and very pure, was valued at $13,000. Others looked as if elaborated by the cunning hand of Queen Mab's.goldsmith; and some bore beautiful impressions of clusters of berries and leaves, as if in some grand upheaving or melting down of " the earth's crust," a shrub had fallen into, or been submerged by a vein of molten gold, which had suddenly cooled upon it, retaining the lineaments of the sprigs to astonish future generations. 116 EXPRESS H IS' TO R Y. There is a vast deal of interesting matter concerning the Express business in California, which, for want of space, we shall have to pass over without even a brief notice. Suffice it to say, that as long as D. H. Haskell gave the affairs and office details of Adams & Co. in California his faithful personal attention, (which was for a year or two,) they were quite prosperous. Their business extended to Oregon, the Northwest coast, and the islands of the Pacific; and from San Francisco they forwarded Express freight to Canton and other ports in China. In fact, it appeared as if it would soon put a girdle around the earth. To continue our history in chronological order, we must now recur to the Express service on this side of the Pacific. It is almost incredible that, rapidly as Expresses had increased in the Eastern States, after the example had been set by Harnden in 1839, they were not at all in use in most of the slaveholding States until 1850. Now they are pretty thoroughly awake to the importance of such facilities, as a commercial lever, and are seeking to supply their deficiency; but Stimson & Co. (John K. & A. L. Stimlson) found it rather "hard sledding," when, in 1850, they started the first regular Express that was ever in use in New Orleans and Mobile, and the far Southern and Southwestern States; and their expenses exceeded their income. In 1851 they took Addison Brastow into copartnership with them, and he E.XPRESS HISTORY. 117 became the resident manager in New Orleans. Their office in New York was with Adams & Co.-whose business had so enlarged as to occupy two stores, Nos. 16 and 18 Wall Street. A. & Co., in the following year, received a half-interest in Stimson & Co.'s business, and it assumed the style of Adams & Co.'s New York, New Orleans and Mobile Express. S. & Co. were induced to accede to this for two reasons, viz: 1st, because Adams & Co. would otherwise have established on that route an Express of their own, against which it would have been hopeless to contend; and 2d, because A. & Co. agreed to arrange it with the owners of the Harnden line that they should not run an opposition. It was not then a remunerative Express, but it was bound to become the key to constantly extending lines and increasing routes in the Southwest, as the Adams Express Co. are now demonstrating. Shortly after the commencement of the N. O. Express by S. & Co., John Hoey became associated with John K. Stimson, under the style of Hoey & Co., and started the New York and Charleston Steamship Express. Both of those gentlemen were still in the employ of Adams & Co. Having perfect experience in the service, and endowed with popular address and extraordinary energy, they secured a strong foothold for their new Express; but they expended a good deal of money upon it before it compensated them, notwithstanding that it, was a great accommodation to the merchants of 118 EXPRESS HISTORY. South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee. [In 1851 or 1852 S. T. Combs & Co. had certain Express facilities in South Carolina and Georgia, but relinquished them in a year or two. Combs now resides in Augusta, Ga.] It will be seen by what we shall have to say of Henry B. Plant's operations in those States, at a later period, that the business, thus well begun by Hoey and Stimson, has since become very extensive. Hiram Dixon had the charge of the two or three earlier Express freights to and from California. Afterwards, O. P. Blackburn, temporarily supplying Dixon's place as book-keeper, (1849,) had the care of it for a little while. Blackburn afterwards went into business in Aspinwall, as partner of S. Dela Cova, the very worthy agent of Adams & Co. on the Isthmus. George Carrick about the same time' became very useful in the New York office, as receipting clerk, and has now the charge of the lower freight department. In 1850 or'51, A. L. Stimson began what was then an entirely new business in connection with the Express service, viz: a regular Purchasing Agency, for filling orders from a distance for the purchase of goods and articles of almost every description, in New York; and he did considerable at this for the Express-men of California. Wim. T. Porter, editor of the very popular race-course and sporting newspaper, the Spirit of the Times, and Holden & McMakin, editors and proprietors of the EX PRESS HISTORY. 119 Philadelphia Saturday Courier, had done a similar business, for some years previous, for the readers of their respective journals. In 1852, A. L. Stimson started the first newspaper organ of the Express Companies. It was called The Express Messenger, and advocated the interests of all responsible Expresses, everywhere. Its original size was about 7x9, and its title and border were printed in red ink. It was probably the first paper executed in that style. The Express Messenger was enlarged from time to time, until about the size of a folio N. Y. Herald or Tribune. Upon increasing its size again, (1856,) the red ink was abandoned, and in size and appearance it resembled- the Home Journal. Stimson used it as a medium of communication with the Express agents, whose orders for the sale of produce and purchase of goods he sought (as he still does) to obtain. John W. Carrington (as early as 1851 or'52, if we mistake not) was in the custom of filling orders for the merchants and others of Panama, and the commercial cities of South America, for the purchase of goods in this city. After leaving the employment of Adams & Co., whom he had served for a year or more in their California department in New York, Carrington advertised his Purchasing Agency, and extended its usefulness to California, and all parts of the United States and Canada. His fluency in the French and Spanish languages, and wide range of business experience, both at home 120 EXPRESS HISTORY. and abroad, rendered him a very desirable American correspondent. He became associated, in 1854, with A. M. Hinkley, in a baggage and freight Express from Chagres to Panama, but the connection did not last long. Subsequently, he became an authorized agent for the sale of California passage tickets. Still later, (we think it was in 1855,) he commenced his Havana Express, and the publication of The Commissionaire, as the organ of his Purchasing Agency, which has now grown to be, in his hands, well patronized. Charles E. Bowers, Jr., a nep'hew of Dinsmore, after having served as a clerk in the New York office for several years, went to California in 18.52, and becoming Haskell's draft and exchange clerk, made himself very useful to the firm. About the same time, or a little later, the brothers Edward F. Tracy and T. Felix Tracy were employed by Haskell, and for years afterwards were of great service to Adams & Co. in the town of Shasta; one in the capacity of agent, the other as a messenger to the mines. Freeman Cobb had the charge of the freight department of the California Express in Adams & Co.'s New York office, in 1850, and for about two years later. He was young, but had received a good business education, and was remarkably rapid, as well as correct, in the discharge of his laborious and responsible duties. During Dinsmore's temporary absence in Europe in 1851, nearly the entire charge EXPRESS HISTORY. 121 of the California freight, parcel, and gold-dust business, in New York, devolved upon Cobb. The draft and cashier department was filled by H. N. Palmer, who was greatly beloved in the office, because he united to superior ability and assiduous application, a very agreeable personal appearance, and a generous disposition. " Daisy" has been for some years past a merchant in the East Indies, but he has not forgotten the Express boys, and all who knew him, here, will not cease to remember him with emotions of pleasure. In 1852 Adams & Co. purchased, for $80,000, the store and lot No. 59 Broadway, and after making extensive improvements upon the same, moved thither from 16 and 18 Wall Street. The same year they sent George Mowton to Melbourne, Australia, to establish there a branch of their Express. Mowton was an experienced hand, of irreproachable character and popular manners. He had served them long and faithfully in the West, and as an agent in Cincinnati, and was a very efficient man, in the right place; but he was not adapted to the meridian of Melbourne. In fact, Adams & Co. ought to have had, both there and in San Francisco, men of thorough commercial education, and perfectly familiar with banking and exchange. Mowton would not have undertaken it, had he had any idea of the character the business would assume, nor would he have been asked to do so. Nor is it probable that Adams & Co. would have projected the 122 EXPRESS HISTORY. enterprise to Australia, had it not been for the solicitations of a Company of steamship owners, who represented that they should have their steamships make the trips between New York and Melbourne with all the regularity of the Pacific Mail Steamship line. The noble steamer Golden Age, (3,000 tons,) was certainly built for the purpose, and advertised when ready; but, little freight and few passengers offering, the line was abandoned. No other line was afterwards started, and having no facilities for the transportation of express freight, and no inclination to do a commercial business, Adams & Co. recalled Mowton, and wound up their affairs in Melbourne, with a very heavy loss. Mowton, soon after his return, became the agent of some valuable coal mines at Trevorton, Pa., where, we believe, he still resides. Freeman Cobb, who went from the tour of the Continent to Australia, overland, had arrived there about the same time that Mowton had, and started an inland Express upon his own account. He established a stage line, also; having obtained from the United States some wagons which, before he left this country, he had given orders to have made for the purpose. By these means, the Yankee boy in Australia realized a fortune in three or four years, and returned home in 1857, a rich man. Joseph Leavitt, another Bostonian, and Expressman, was there at the same time, but was not so successful. EXPRESS HISTORY. 123 John M. Freeman had purchased of Hawley & Co. an Express from San Francisco to Sacramento City, which, after a term of prosperity, was disposed of at a loss. He then went to Panama and established business, partly express and partly commercial, between that city and some ports in South America. Samuel W. Langton and A. T. Langton, (Langton & Co.) started an Express from Downieville to Marysville, connecting with Adams & Co. at San Francisco; and several other Expresses were commenced soon after. John Dunning, who had been long a highly esteemed employee, served A. & Co. for a long time upon the Isthmus. John Sanborn, Edward Hall, A. G. Richardson, W. H. Hall, and A. G. Morton were engaged in A. & Co.'s business in California. The melancholy fate of poor Gabe Brush is well known to all our readers. He perished in the ill-fated U. S. M. Steamship Central America, which was lost in September, 1857. Meanwhile, Adams & Co.'s business at home was rapidly extending South and West of Washington. Adams, Dinsmore, Sanford, Shoemaker, G. W. Cass, and Dr. Howard Kennedy became associated in the ownership and conduct of a line from Philadelphia to St. Louis, Mo., via Pittsburg, Pa., under the style of Adams & Co.'s Express. They were largely indebted for their facilities to Dr. Howard Kennedy, (now deceased,) and G. W. Cass, now President of the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railroad Company. 124 EXPRESS HISTORY. On the 1st of July, 1854, (as we said in our history of Harnden & Co.,) the following Expresses were consolidated, viz: Adams & Co.'s Eastern, Southern and Western Express; the Harnden Express; Kinsley & Co.'s, and Hoey & Co.'s Charleston Express. This very important consolidation assumed the title of "THE ADAMS EXPRESS COMPANY." It is a jointstock property, in 12,000 shares, of no specified value, but regarded as worth at least $100 per share; making, in all, $1,200,000. The number of its owners in 1854, soon after its organization, or at the time, exceeded thirty. Alvin Adams was its first President. Early in 1855, he was succeeded by G. W. Cass. In the summer of 1854, it was advertised in the N. Y. Journal of Conmmerce and other papers, that Alvin Adams, Wm. B. Dinsmore, E. S. Sanford, and S. M. Shoemaker had dissolved their copartnership with D. H. Haskell, and thus terminated their business in California. It had been decided by the four gentlemen composing the house of Adams & Co. in the Atlantic States, that this firm should do nothing more with California except to forward freight thither from this port. Nor would they be at the expense of keeping an office in California; but in consideration of Isaiah C. Woods' and D. HI. Haskell's collecting the freights for them in San Francisco, and remitting the same to them in New York, they agreed, as an equivalent service, to cash any drafts that W. & H. might keep them in funds to meet. EXPRESS HISTORY. 125 D. H. Haskell then associated with himself his manager, Isaiah C. Woods, as a partner, and they assumed the sole proprietorship of Adams & Co.'s California Express. Representing to Alvin Adams that as they, by their own personal exertions, had made the business what it was in California, they ought to be allowed the best possible hold upon the name of "Adams & Co;" they induced him to become a special partner, with no liability beyond $25,000, which he was to put into the concern. This copartnership was also advertised at the time, in the leading commercial newspapers. Haskell & Woods sent to New York Wm. H. Hall, an experienced exchange book-keeper, to serve them as their own proper agent here, and to hire, if necessary, another office for the purpose. They do not appear to have regarded the Adams Express Company as friendly to their interests. It was a fact, that a share of the prosperity and fame of Adams & Co., in California, was owing to the industry, enterprise and remarkable ability of I. C. Woods; but with all his capacity for usefulness, Dinsmore, Sanford, and Shoemaker regarded him as too bold and unsafe an operator. The result corroborated their fears. Before a year had elapsed, the California Express was prostrate in inextricable and hopeless bankruptcy. It led the gentlemen who were doing the freighting business in the Atlantic States, under that name, to relinquish it to John M. Freeman, John K. 126 EXPRESS HISTORY. Stimson, and Josiah Hedden, who started about that time the enterprise now well-known as Freeman & Co.'s California Express. The exchange and banking patronage was transferred by the public to Wells, Fargo & Co., who obtained also a large share of the freight. At the time of the creation of the new firm of Freeman & Co., Stimson was in San Francisco. Freeman, then in business at Panama, changed his location to California, to take the supervision of the business of his new firm there. Hedden superintended its operations in the Atlantic States, and is entitled to the most unqualified commendation for his management. Stimson shortly afterwards returned to New York, but he has recently passed a month or two in San Francisco. The partners being in the prime of life, full of energy, and thoroughly accomplished in the service, were bound to succeed; and they have done so. In the latter part of 1857, or early in 1858, Freeman Cobb (who I have said had returned from Australia) became associated with them, as a silent partner. Freeman & Co. despatch and receive an Express by every steamship, and are doing an extensive business very satisfactorily to their customers. The Alta Express Company, doing business between San Francisco and the principal mines, connect with Freeman & Co. at San Francisco, and occupy a portion of their premises there. The gentlemen employed by that Express are distinguished for their enterprise and cheerful attention to their duties. EXPRESS HISTORY. 127 Gregory & Co. and Bedford & Co., who were early California Express-men, relinquished the business after trying it a few years. Many of the old employees of A. & Co. in California associated themselves, in 1855, as the Pacific Express Company, but after a year or two it failed, and was abandoned. The joint-stock Adams Express Company, though composed mainly of men who had never had anything to do with the California Express, suffered indirectly from the injury inflicted upon the name of Adams Co. by the failure of Woods and Haskell, at San Francisco, but it did not harm the Company in the esteem of such of its customers as knew it best, and in a few weeks its business received an impetus which put it far ahead of its old position. At the same time that Plant assumed the charge of the Harnden Express in the Southern States, December 1, 1854, the directors of the Adams Express sent Clapp Spooner, (one of their number,) to the same section of the country to make contracts with the Railroad Companies for Express privileges for his employers and associates on the roads from Charleston, S. C., to the westward; and he succeeded satisfactorily in his mission. He was, himself, the Superintendent of a Railroad in Connecticut, and had had, also, much experience as an Expressman. On the 1st of January, 1855, the Adams Express commenced running from Charleston to Columbia 128 EXPRESS HISTORY. S. C., daily; also, from Charleston to Montgomery, Ala., Atlanta, Geo., Chattanooga and Nashville, Tenn., and Augusta, Ga. They had for sometime prior had messengers on the route from Charleston via Wilmington, N. C., and Weldon to Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York. The "Adams Express" routes, in the Southern quarter, are as follows, viz: by Railroad from Augusta, Charleston and Columbia to New York, via Wilmington, N. C.; Weldon, Petersburg and Richmond, Va.; Washington, Baltimore and Philadelphia, daily. Freight Express every Wednesday and Saturday, by Spofford & Tileston's line of Charleston steamers: express from Charleston to Augusta, daily; from Augusta to Nashville, Tenn., twice a day, via Atlanta, Ga.; and to Memphis, Tenn., daily, via M. & C. Railroad, from Stevens; a point on the N. & C. Railroad, which was opened for travel April 1, 1857. H. B. Plant is superintendent of both the Adams and the Harnden lines in that section. In October, 1857, the Adams Co. established a tri-weekly Express between Memphis and New Orleans, by the M. & New Orleans Packet Co.'s line,. taking freight for all the principal landings between the two points. A. W. Swett, the agent there for several years, was succeeded by James E. Simpson. [The similarity of the name of this very efficient agent to that of the- original proprietors of the Express there, leads some people to infer that he is EXPR ESS HISTORY. 129 one of them; on the contrary, he has not been long in the business.] The daily express, before mentioned, from Charleston to Augusta and Montgomery, Ala., connects at Montgomery with their steam-packet express down the Alabama River to Mobile, and thence by the Lake Pontchartrain steamers to New Orleans, daily, Sundays excepted. They dispatch, also, by every steamship an express between New York and New Orleans-say from two to three or four each way, every month. The New Orleans, Jackson and Great Northern Railroad is now about completed to Jackson, Miss., and it is expected that it will be open to Grand Junction, on the Memphis and Charleston Railroad, during the year 1858. In the meantime, the route via Lynchburg and Knoxville, Tenn., will be open for travel and express facilities. When the whole shall have been completed, it will constitute a continuous line of railway from New York to New Orleans, and the Adams Company expect that their Parcel Express over it will not be more than four days in accomplishing the trip! Four days' time from New Orleans to NewYork is not bad. How much such extraordinary dispatch by the Adams Express will do to increase the trade and communication between the two great cities of the North and Southwest, it is impossible, of course, to estimate; but we look for wonders. This is the age of the annihilation of space; and 9 130 EXPRESS HISTORY. "magnificent distances" are literally made easy by railroad and express enterprise. It is almost incredible that it was at one time done entirely by wagons and stages. And by the way, we ought to mention, perhaps, that J. S. Lockwood many years ago (say about 1840,) used to drive a baggage wagon from Massillon, O., to Cleveland, semi-weekly, and finally made it an Express line; associating with him G. W. Huntington, now of Canton, O. When the Ohio and Pennsylvania Railroad was completed, they extended their operations to Pittsburg, Pa., but were induced to sell out, two or three years ago, to the Adams and American Express Companies, who call it the Union Line Express. Clapp Spooner and Alfred Gaither, both experienced agents formerly, are now among the most active and useful managers of the Adams Express. Gaither is superintendent of the Western Division, and resident manager at Cincinnati. He is a gentleman quite popular in that section, and respected in this. Knoxville is quite an enterprising place, and the people are both surprised and delighted by the rapidity and promptness of the Express in the transportation and delivery of their goods. The same remark will apply to Petersburg, Va., and many other places in the South. Alvin Adams continues to be the manager of the Boston terminus of the Company's business. EXPRESS HISTORY. 131 The superintendent of the South-eastern Division is S. M. Shoemaker. Of the Baltimore office, under his supervision, we have already spoken. E. W. Parsons, superintendent of the Eastern Division, is indefatigable in his attention to his duties, and is much liked. The very able and popular cashier, and corresponding clerk, in the New York office, J. C. Babcock, was formerly a bank cashier. R. P. McCullagh, superintendent of the Philadelphia office, has had the advantage of many years' experience, and is highly esteemed for the judicious and thorough manner in which he has always discharged his laborious and responsible duties. Coleman, Gorman, Piers and Bell are old Express-men in that department. E. S. Sanford is General Superintendent of all the routes of the Adams Express Company. KINSLEY & Co.'s EXPRESS, which was consolidated, as we have said, with several others in July, 1854, to form the Adams Express Company, was begun by Gay & Co.,(James Gay & E. Littlefield,) who run an Express between Boston and New York, via Stonington, in 1842. They carried only a trunk of parcels, and had no contract. Gay would run one way, and Littlefield the other; and each had the profits which he happened to make upon each day's work, and pocketed the same, without being expected to render an account to his nominal partner. This arrangement, apparently so primitive and 132 EXPRESS HISTORY. simple, did not work well in the long run, and Littlefield retired from it. Kinsley next joined Gay, and the firm was styled Gay & Kinsley. The latter, for some years past president of a bank at Newport, R. I., has become eminent as an Expressman. Gay served as messenger. Subsequently C. H. Valentine became associated with them. Gay, Kinsley & Co. made their first trip by the Fall River line, May 18, 1847, in the steamer Bay State, Capt. Comstock. Sanford & Shoemaker bought out Gay and Valentine's interest two or three years afterwards, and it then took the name of Kinsley & Co.'s Express, which it still bears. Though consolidated with the Adams Express Company, it has a distinct organization of its own. The New York, Newport and Fall River route, over which Kinsley & Co.'s Express has run ever since it opened, has always been a popular one. The first passengers and freight via the Fall River and Old Colony Railroad (as it is called) were sent in December, 1846. From June 1, 1845, up to that time, the Fall River Railroad intersected with the New Bedford and Taunton Railroad, at Myrick's, twelve miles from Fall River. There has not been any stage line through from Fall River to Boston since about two years after the Branch Road was built, about twenty years ago. The last stages through to Boston were owned, from Newport to Fall River, by R. B. Kinsley; from Fall River to EXPRESS HISTORY. 133 Taunton by Edward Bennett, of the former place; from Taunton to Stoughton by Jesse Smith; from Stoughton to Boston by Drake, Blake & Co. Kinsley, and all, or nearly all these gentlemen had been drivers in their time. They knew their business, and performed it well. The Fall River steamboats plying between that place and New York have always borne an excellent reputation. L. V. Tilton, the very popular steward of the " Metropolis," was for many years a messenger in the employ of Kinsley & Co. The New York office is in charge of Littlefield, who has been in the business about fifteen years. His principal assistant is E. F. Sweet, to whom we have before referred, as among the earliest of Harnden's men. A high value is placed upon their services. Warren Studley was one of the oldest messengers on this line. Luke Damon has been in its service several years. The Boston office has been for a long time in charge of Henry Kinsley. " THE NEW JERSEY EXPRESS COMPANY" was chartered by the Legislature of that state in 1854. It incorporated Amos Day, P. W. Martin, Amzi Dodd, R. G. Rankin, and A. S. Dodd. Capital $100,000. Day had long been an Express-man. Its route was over the New Jersey and Camden and Amboy Railroads. For several years it was conducted mainly by Messrs. A. S. Dodd and C. A. Darling, gentlemen formerly connected with the 134 EXPRESS HISTORY. National Express. It has offices in New York, Newark, Elizabeth, Rahway, New Brunswick, Princeton, Trenton, Burlington, and Bordentown. The New Jersey Express Co. extended their route to Philadelphia, Nov. 1, 1854; and the Adams Express Company took a considerable interest in its success. The president is J. Van Rensalaer, of Jersey City,and the superintendent C. A. Darling, of New York. Ever since the commencement of the Express by Alvin Adams, it has had a contract with the Norwich and Worcester line between New York and Boston; and as the subject comes naturally within the sphere of this work, we beg leave to insert, here, some facts relating to the history of that popular route of express-men and travelers. The following is, we believe, a correct list of the steamboats used between New York and Norwich, Conn., during the last thirty-five years, viz: in 1823,. the Fulton and Connecticut; the Henry Eckford, a little later; in 1826, the Fanny; soon afterwards the Long Branch, and for a short time, the Chief Justice Marshall; in 1832, the General Jackson, (when Thomas Burns began his popular career as a steward for this line, in which service he remains;) in 1836, the Norwich; in 1839, the Charter Oak; in 1841, the Worcester; in 1844, the Cleopatra, put on by Cornelius Vanderbilt, who had just bought out the line_ He roar Railr( was wI that year. place. A fe present public-si the Norwich and At added the present elegant ana ticut, a steamer which is still the a who are familiar with her construction, good judges of boat building. Capt. Wm. Wilcox, her very worthy commander, was a pilot on the line from 1838 to 1850, when he assumed his present position. Bacon, the clerk, is worthy of her. The staunch little Worcester continued to run regularly until 1855, when the Company, surpassing all previous triumphs in steamboat construction, built the Commonwealth, a magnificent craft both in size and beauty, and without a superior in the world. For our own part we have never seen her equal. J. W. Williams, (who had been on the line as pilot and captain ever since 1834,) took the command of her, and still has it, very much to the satisfaction of the traveling public. George Geer, the clerk of the Commonwealth, (a gentleman, whose value, in his position, cannot be too highly appreciated,) though still young, has had many years of experience in his business; but the veteran on board that boat is her engineer, Thomas Carter, who has been ers Ation Comj on the.nd Maine. Irienced agent ratt, Jr., in Bosas for many years one trough from New York to that oacceeded by David R. Waller, who - _srdced as having few equals, and no superiors as a conductor. Barton, the conductor running on opposite nights, is another faithful servitor of the line. They use the sixteen-wheeled cars, which are far safer and more agreeable than the common cars. THE ADAMS EXPRESS COMPANY. June, 1858. PRESIDENT: William B. Dinsmore, of New York. VICE-PRESIDENT: Edwards S. Sanford, of Philadelphia. SECRETARY: James M. Thompson, of Springfield, Mass. MANAGERS: Johnston Livingston, W. B. Dinsmore, J. M. Thompson, E. S. Sanford, S. M. Shoemaker, R. B. Kinsley, Clapp Spooner, Alfred Gaither, and John Bingham.