Gerald T. Ahnert
...In September 1857, John Butterfield won the contract for
the Overland Mail Company, and was given one year to ready his
2,700-mile-long trail for service. By the start of service in September
1858, he had significantly improved and shortened the trail and provided
regularly spaced water sources, which benefited the San Antonio and San
Diego Line.
The Jackass Mail had its contract as a through-mail cut
short on January 1, 1859, because of the duplication of mail services
with the Overland Mail Company. After that date, they carried mail from
San Antonio to El Paso, Texas, and from Fort Yuma to San Diego,
California. Although there was now no through-mail, the line still
carried passengers on the entire length of its trail.
Superintendent Woods stated in his
November 1857 report to Postmaster General A. V. Brown that: “We had
seven coaches on the road….” Mostly, they were worn-out wagons that
frequently broke down.
Because of the unreliability of a set schedule for the
passengers on the San Antonio and San Diego Mail Line, some passengers
heading west from San Antonio departed at El Paso to transfer to one of
Butterfield’s more reliable Concord stage Celerity wagons. In 1859,
George Foster Pierce was a passenger from San Antonio to El Paso where
he transferred to a Butterfield stage. In his memoir he stated: “The stage from San Antonio runs no further than El Paso, and we had to wait two days for ‘the Overland,’ as it is called.”
Phocion R. Way was a passenger on the Jackass Mail in June
1858 and complained bitterly about the unreliability of the stages. He
wrote in his diary:
“…3 o’clock P. M. We are now about 8
or 10 miles from Mesilla. We have stopped to feed. We took another
passenger at Mesilla, which makes our whole number 5. We have also to
carry feed for our mules, a large amount
of baggage and the mail, which makes our load very heavy—unusually
heavy. The driver is fearful that we will break down before we get
through. The company should have sent another carriage but it was not
done; in fact, the company have deceived us and acted shamefully from
the start. They told us that the two carriages we started with would go
all the way through to San Diego, and both of them have been taken from
us. We left the last one at Fillmore and have an old wagon in its place.
The one we have is strong and would do very well, but we should have
another; it is not sufficient. The mules we have now are good, but those
we have had were broken down things; and what is worse than all, they
tell us now that the wagon will go no further than Tucson, and
consequently those unfortunate fellows who are going through to San
Diego will have to ride mule back from Tucson and keep up with the mail
which is also packed on mules, and travels day and night. The poor
fellows will have to travel 500 miles over a barren desert and I am
afraid it is more than they can stand. It is a gross imposition that
should not be born [sic] and the public should know it. They paid their
money with the full understanding that they were to be taken through in
an ambulance. The men employed along the line are fine fellows, and of
course they are not responsible for this. This is an important route and
will be much traveled, and [the] Government should see that it is
properly managed.”
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