MY FIRST VENTURE.
When I grew up and became a married man, with daughters who were to be
clothed and educated, I found it impossible to make, with the labor of
one man on a farm, sufficient money to meet my growing necessities. I
was raised on a farm and had always been a farmer, but with increasing
expenses I was compelled to go into business of some kind, where I could
accumulate a sufficiency for such purposes.
As I was brought up to handle animals, and had been employed more or
less in the teaming business, after looking the situation all over, it
occurred to me there was nothing I was so well adapted for by my past
experience as the freighting business that was then being conducted
between Independence, Mo., and Santa Fé, New Mexico, a distance of 800
miles.
At that time almost the entire distance lay through Indian Territory,
where we were likely, on a greater portion of the trail, to meet hostile
Indians any moment.
Being a religious man and opposed to all kinds of profanity, and knowing
the practice of teamsters, almost without an exception, was to use
profane and vulgar language, and to travel upon the Sabbath day, another
difficulty presented itself to my mind which had to be overcome.
After due reflection on this subject I resolved in my innermost nature,
by the help of God, I would overcome all difficulties that presented
themselves to my mind, let the hazard be whatever it might. This resolve
I carried out, and it was the keynote to my great success in the
management of men and animals.
Having reached this determination, and being ready to embark in my new
business, I formulated a code of rules for the behavior of my employees,
which read as follows:
"While I am in the employ of A. Majors, I agree not to use profane
language, not to get drunk, not to gamble, not to treat animals cruelly,
and not to do anything else that is incompatible with the conduct of a
gentleman. And I agree, if I violate any of the above conditions, to
accept my discharge without any pay for my services."
I do not remember a single instance of a man signing these "iron-clad
rules," as they called them, being discharged without his pay. My
employes seemed to understand in the beginning of their term of service
that their good behavior was part of the recompense they gave me for the
money I paid them.
A few years later, when the Civil War had commenced, I bound my employes
to pay true allegiance to the Government of the United States, while in
my employ, in addition to the above.
I will say to my readers that, had I had the experience of a thousand
years, I could not have formulated a better code of rules for the
government of my business than those adopted, looking entirely from a
moral standpoint. The result proved to be worth more to me in a money
point of view than that resulting from any other course I could have
pursued, for with the enforcement of these rules, which I had little
trouble to do, a few years gave me control of the business of the plains
and, of course, a widespread reputation for conducting business on a
humane plan.
I can state with truthfulness that never in the history of freighting on
the plains did such quiet, gentlemanly, fraternal feelings exist as
among the men who were in my employ and governed by these rules.
[Illustration: NEBRASKA CITY IN OVERLAND FREIGHTING DAYS.]
It was the prevalent opinion, previous to the time I started across the
plains, that none but daring, rough men were fit to contend with the
Indians and manage teamsters upon those trips. I soon proved to the
entire contrary this was a great mistake, for it was soon observable
that both men and animals working under this system were superior, and
got along better in every way than those working under the old idea of
ruffianism.
It is my firm conviction that where men are born commanders or managers
there is no need of the cruelty and punishment so often dealt out by so
many in authority. With men who have the key of government in their
natures there is little trouble in getting employes to conform strictly
to their duty.
I have seen, to my great regret and dislike, such cruelty practiced by
army officers in command, and managers upon steamships on the seas and
steamboats on the rivers, as well as other places where men were in
charge of their fellow beings and had command over them, as should
receive the most outspoken protest, and ought not to be tolerated in
christendom.
If men in charge would first control themselves and carry out, in their
management of others, the true principles of humanity and kindness,
pursuing a firm and consistent course of conduct themselves, wearing at
the same time an easy and becoming dignity, it would do away with all
the cruelties that have so often shocked humanity and caused needless
suffering to those who were compelled to endure them. I found that an
ounce of dignity on the plains was worth more than a pound at home or in
organized society.
With all the thousands of men I had in my employ it was never necessary
to do more than give a manly rebuke, if any one committed any
misdemeanor, to avoid a repetition of the offense.
In all my vast business on the plains I adhered strictly as possible to
keeping the Sabbath day, and avoided traveling or doing any unnecessary
work. This fact enabled me to carry out perfectly the "iron-clad rules"
with my employes. When they saw I was willing to pay them the same price
as that paid for work including the Sabbath day, and let them rest on
that day, it made them feel I was consistent in requiring them to
conduct themselves as gentlemen.
In later years, when my business had so increased and the firm of Majors
& Russell was formed, I insisted on carrying my system of government and
management into the business of the new firm, and the same course was
pursued by the firm of Russell, Majors & Waddell as I have above
narrated.
Notwithstanding the disagreeable features mentioned, I selected this
avocation, and on the 10th day of August, 1848, with my first little
outfit of six wagons and teams, started in business.
At that time it was considered hazardous to start on a trip of that kind
so late in the season; but I made that trip with remarkable success,
making the round run in ninety-two days, the quickest on record with ox
teams, many of my oxen being in such good condition when I returned as
to look as though they had not been on the road. This fact gave me quite
a reputation among the freighters and merchants who were engaged in
business between the two points above mentioned.
I was by no means the first to engage in the trade between Mexico and
the United States, for as early as 1822 Captain Rockwell started in the
trade, carrying goods in packs on mules.
The next notable era in the line of this trade was the introduction of
wagons in the year 1824. This, of course, was an experiment, as there
were no beaten roads, and the sand on some portions of the route was so
deep (the worst part being in the valley of the Cimarron) that it was
doubted whether wagons could be used with success. But the experiment
proved to be so much superior to packing that it did away entirely with
the former mode; and wagon-makers at St. Louis and Independence, Mo.,
commenced to build wagons adapted solely to that trade.
It was not long after the adoption of wagon trains on that route until
there was a wide and well-beaten road the entire distance, the country
over which it passed being level plains, requiring no bridges; but
little work of any kind was necessary to keep the thoroughfare in good
traveling condition.
On a large portion of the route there was an abundance of grass and
water for the work animals. In those early days a belt of at least 400
miles was covered with herds of buffalo.
This crossing with large and heavy trains so well established the route
that, by the year 1846, the people on the west border of Missouri were
equipped and prepared in every way for transporting the supplies for
Colonel Doniphan's army, when he was ordered to cross from Fort
Leavenworth, Kan., to Santa Fé, N. M., at the commencement of the war
between the United States and Mexico.
To return to my own operations in the freighting business, it will be
seen by the foregoing dates mentioned in this article that two years
later I made my first start, and I met on my outward-bound trip many of
the troops of Colonel Doniphan returning home, the war being over and
peace having been made between the two countries.
I continued in the freighting business continuously from 1848 to 1866,
most of the time in the employ of the United States Government, carrying
stores to different forts and stations in the Western Territories, New
Mexico, Colorado, and Utah. Having freighted on my own account for about
seven years, in 1855 I went into partnership with Messrs. Russell &
Waddell, residents of Lexington, Lafayette County, Mo., my home being
still in Jackson County, Mo. We did business three years under the firm
name of Majors & Russell. In 1858, when we obtained a contract from the
Government for transporting supplies to Utah, the name of the firm was
changed to Russell, Majors & Waddell.
At this time freighting for the Government had increased enormously on
account of General Johnston, with an army, having been sent to Utah. All
of the supplies for the soldiers and much of the grain for the animals
had to be transported in wagons from the Missouri River. However, one of
the conditions of the contract the firm made with the Government,
through the Quartermaster-General at Washington, was that they should
have another starting-point other than Fort Leavenworth, the established
depot for supplies going west.
I made this proposition to General Jessup, knowing, from my long
experience in handling that kind of business, that it would be next to
impossible to handle the supplies from one depot, as there were not
herding grounds within a reasonable distance to keep such a vast number
of cattle as the business would require when conducted from one point.
My partner, Mr. Russell, remarked to me that if he had to make a station
higher up the river I would have to go and attend to it, for he could
not. My answer was I would willingly do so, for I knew that loading
hundreds of thousands of pounds of supplies daily would create a
confusion at one point as would retard the business.
It was then and there agreed between the quartermaster and ourselves
that one-half the entire stores should be sent to another point to be
selected by his clerk and myself.
Immediately after the contract was signed I went to Fort Leavenworth,
and with Lieutenant Dubarry of the Quartermaster's Department set out to
locate another point. We traveled up the Missouri River as far as
Plattsmouth, when we concluded Nebraska City, Neb., was the most
available point upon the river for our business. I at once arranged with
the citizens of that town to build warehouses, preparatory to receiving
the large quantities of supplies the Government would soon begin to ship
to that point.
The supplies sent to Utah in the year 1858 were enormous, being over
sixteen million pounds, requiring over three thousand five hundred large
wagons and teams to transport them. We found it was as much as we could
do to meet the Government requirements with the two points in full
operation.
As agreed, I took charge of the new station and moved my family from my
farm, nine miles south of Kansas City, Mo., to Nebraska City, where I
bought a home for them and commenced to carry out my part of the
agreement.
The firm of Russell, Majors & Waddell conducted the business for two
years, and in the spring of 1860 I bought out my partners and continued
the business in my own name that year.
In Nebraska City I found a very intelligent, enterprising, and clever
people, among whom were S. F. Knuckle, J. Sterling Morton, Robert Hawk
Dillon, Colonel Tewksberry, McCann, Metcalf, Rhodes, O. P. Mason, Judge
Kinney, Rinkers, Seigle, and a great many others of integrity and
enterprise. I never did business more pleasantly than with the gentlemen
whom I met during my residence of nine years there.