5 minute read
When News Rode in by Stagecoach
Words and Photos provided by Terry Ommen
We all crave news. Whether it’s the latest happenings with our grandchildren, gossip about our favorite movie star, or stories concerning our community and the world; news is an important part of our lives. Today, discovering what’s happening around us is easy. We just check Google, YouTube, 24-hour TV news channels, physical and online newspapers, magazines, or a host of other sources that are available at our fingertips.
But easy access to news was not simple for early pioneers. When Tulare County was created in 1852, its 25,000 square miles were sparsely populated. Although large, the county was located in the middle of the state, far from California’s populous cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco, Stockton and Sacramento. Tulare County’s isolation was a big reason for the news vacuum.
But Visalia, the county seat and largest settlement in Tulare County, had an advantage over other communities. In its early years, the town served as a supply stop for miners heading to the silver and gold fields in the north, south, and east. As these treasure hunters stopped in town, they brought money to buy supplies, but they also brought news from the outside world.
In 1858, another source for news came to Tulare County—the stagecoaches of John Butterfield’s Overland Mail Co. Butterfield won the government contract to deliver the mail across the country by stage—a big improvement over mail delivery by ship. His southern road, called the Oxbow Route, was about 2,800 miles long and took about 23 days to complete. Located along the route were about 140 way stations, which allowed tired stagecoach drivers and teams of horses to be replaced.
The route started or ended, depending on the traveler’s direction, in Missouri and made its way through present-day Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California. Visalia was one of the timetable stops for the stages on their way to or from San Francisco.
The first bit of news came to Visalia from the Overland mail stage on its inaugural trip. At about 11:30pm on October 8, 1858, the first stage rolled into Visalia. Besides the coach driver, a reporter from the New York Herald newspaper named Waterman L. Ormsby was on board. He was writing a story about the first Overland trip.
Visalians were anxious to greet the new stage, so despite the late hour, a sizable crowd had gathered to welcome it at Court and Main streets near the Billup’s Hotel. Ormsby was so impressed with the reception, he wrote, “This was the first evidence of any enthusiasm along the route since we left Fort Smith, and the rousing cheers they gave us as we drove off at 11:50…ought to be remembered in the history of the town, so here I immortalize them.” I am sure the glass of beer he was given by the Visalians helped Ormsby with his positive impressions of the town.
For the next two years or so, stagecoaches kept arriving, usually twice a week, and drivers and passengers shared their news. In August 1859, one Overland stage which had “a large number of passengers” brought the good news of peace following the war in Europe. France and Austria had signed an armistice.
The next month, the stage driver and passengers passed along a dramatic story of a killing in Los Angeles with the murderer breaking out of jail. It was an exciting story, but was found to be only partially true.
Visalia’s earliest newspaper gleaned all the news that the Overland stagecoaches brought. The coaches frequently had a supply of newspapers from other towns along the route; those stories often became the basis for bigger articles and helped to sell papers. “We are indebted for the latest news from all parts. Indeed if it were not for the favors received by the different stage drivers and agents, we would be a long ways behind time as to news,” reported the grateful Tulare County Record & Fresno Examiner, Visalia’s first newspaper.
Hostilities with Native Americans along the route were a frequent topic from the stagecoach sources. In September 1859, the newspaper reported that Major Armistead on his way to San Francisco from Fort Mohave came to Visalia on the Overland Stage and said “that the Mohave Indians, since the late ‘licking’ he gave them, are quiet, and promise to behave themselves well for the future.” In June 1860, the local paper also reported, “A gentleman who came through in the last Overland stage informed us that the Indians along the entire line were all decorated with war paint, and were very saucy. This is another proof of a general uprising of all the tribes from the Atlantic states to those of the Pacific.”
Even though the news from the Overland stage was not always complete or accurate, it was appreciated. “The arrival of the Overland Mail is looked upon here, with almost as much anxiety [anticipation] as the arrival of the steamer is in the northern portion of the state,” reported the paper.
The southern route of the Overland stage operated until 1861, when the hostilities of the Civil War made travel along the route too dangerous to continue. Even though the Butterfield stage as a news source was gone, other sources like the telegraph and the train, took over.
