A GOOD INTRODUCTION to a treatment of the stagecoach of the West would
be Thomas De Quincey's "The English Mail-Coach." The proper place to
read about the coaches would be in Doctor Lyon's Pony Express Museum,
out from Pasadena, California. May it never perish! Old Monte drives up
now and then in Alfred Henry Lewis' _Wolfville_ tales, and Bret Harte
made Yuba Bill crack the Whip; but, somehow, considering all the
excellent expositions and reminiscing of stage-coaching in western
America, the proud, insolent, glorious figure of the driver has not been
adequately pictured.
Literature on "Santa Fe and the Santa Fe Trail" is pertinent. See also
under "Pony Express."
BANNING, WILLIAM, and BANNING, GEORGE HUGH. _Six Horses_, New York,
1930. A combination of history and autobiography. Routes to and in
California; much of Texas. Enjoyable reading. Excellent on drivers,
travelers, stations, "pass the mustard, please." Bibliography. OP.
CONKLING, ROSCOE P. and MARGARET B. _The Butterfield Overland Trail,
1857-1869_, Arthur H. Clark Co., Glendage, California. Three volumes
replete with facts from politics in Washington over mail contracts to
Horsehead Crossing on the Pecos River.
DOBBIE, J. FRANK. Chapter entitled "Pistols, Poker and the Petit
Mademoiselle in a Stagecoach," in _The Flavor of Texas_ 1936. OP.
DUFFUS, R. L. _The Santa Fe Trail_ New York, 1930. Swift reading. Well
selected bibliography. OP.
FREDERICK, J. V. _Ben Holladay, the Stage Coach King_, Clark, Glendale,
California, 1940. Bibliography.
HALEY, J. EVETTS. Chapter v, "The Stage-Coach Mail," in _Fort Concho
and the Texas Frontier_, illustrated by Harold Bugbee, San Angelo
Standard-Times, San Angelo, Texas, 1952. Strong on frontier crossed by
stage line.
HUNGERFORD, EDWARD. _Wells Fargo: Advancing the Frontier_, Random House,
New York, 1949. Written without regard for the human beings that the
all-swallowing corporation crushed. Facts on highwaymen.
INMAN, HENRY. _The Old Santa Fe Trail_, New York, 1897. OP. _The Great
Salt Lake Trail_, 1898. OP. Many first-hand incidents and characters.
MAJORS, ALEXANDER. _Seventy Years on the Frontier_, Chicago, 1893.
Reprinted by Long's College Book Co., Columbus, Ohio. Majors was the
lead steer of all freighters.
ORMSBY, W. L. _The Butterfield Overland Mail_, edited by Lyle H. Wright
and Josephine M. Bynum, Huntington Library, San Marino, California,
1942. Ormsby rode the stage from St. Louis to San Francisco in 1858 and
contributed to the New York _Herald_ the lively articles now made into
this book.
ROOT, FRANK A., and CONNELLEY, W. E. _The Overland Stage to California_,
Topeka, Kansas, 1901. Reprinted by Long's College Book Co., Columbus,
Ohio. A full storehouse. Basic.
SANTLEBEN, AUGUST. _A Texas Pioneer_, edited by I. D. Affleck, New York,
1910. OP. Best treatise available on freighting on Chihuahua Trail.
TWAIN, MARK. _Roughing It_, 1871. Mark Twain went west by stage.
WINTHER, O. O. _Express and Stagecoach Days in California_, Stanford
University Press, 1926. Compact, with bibliography. OP.