Mark
Twain called the stage coach, “an imposing cradle on wheels.” Some passengers felt seasick.
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| California Co.'s stage leaving Virginia City for California 1866 |
This
strange rocking motion was the result of a major design improvement which did
away with the steel springs of earlier coaches and suspended the body of the
coach on thoroughbraces, heavy lengths of rawhide straps, mounted on steel
stanchions.
Instead
of passengers feelings each neck jarring, vertical jolt, thoroughbraces
produced a steady rocking motion. The
old springs were also hard on the horses.
Every time the stage hit a rock or hole, the vibration would travel
through the traces to the animals’ shoulders and necks.
And
while these newly designed coaches were built in many places, none could compare
to the quality of the coach manufactured by Abbott and Downing & Co., in
Concord, NH.
A
typical western Concord coach was about five feet wide and eight feet long.
They were heavier than the eastern coaches weighing about 3,000 lbs. with a
load capacity of 4,000 lbs. Only the finest woods were used and the company was
especially careful not to use screws or bolts on the wheels, which were usually the
first thing to break. The outside of the coach was painted red and gold, and
yellow then sanded and varnished to a high shine. Floral and vine designs
decorated the coach and a landscape was painted on the door. On the door panel or above it was printed the
stage’s destination. The name of the stage company and the stage’s number
were printed on the panel under the driver’s seat.
Passengers
entered the coach through one of two side doors, beneath which hung steel step
plates. The seat cushions were made of coiled steel springs, stuffed with
horsehair and covered with brown calf leather. There were three rows of seats,
each big enough for three people. Two
seats faced forward and one faced backward. Those passengers in the backward facing
seat had to interlock their legs with the passengers in the middle seat. Victorian
ladies of course frowned on this practice. If extra seating was needed, three people
could ride on the roof, which was covered with heavy, painted waterproof duck
cloth. On rare occasions twenty to twenty-three passengers were squeezed on
board.
Some
coaches had glass in the windows, but glass didn’t last long in the west.
Otherwise there were canvas curtains which were held by leather straps when
rolled up, or secured with eye and turn-buttons when rolled down. Inside the
coach were tug straps the passengers next to the windows could hang on to when
the going grew rough.
Most
stage coaches traveled none stop, and were equipped with outside lanterns.
Their
average speed was five to six miles per hour. Every ten to twenty miles the
stage would stop at a swing station where a fresh team, already harnessed,
quickly replaced the tired horses. Every fifty miles or so, the stage stopped
at a home station. For a dollar, passengers
could purchase simple meal of crackers, potatoes, hardtack, beans, jerky and
black coffee. A new driver took over the next leg of the journey. After three
hundred miles the passengers and their luggage was transferred to another
coach.
In
an article entitled, Hints for Plains Travelers, which appeared in the Omaha Herald
in 1877, the author listed several suggestions to help make stage travel
more pleasant, though most people were unaware or didn’t care about such
courtesy.
“Don’t
smoke a strong pipe inside especially in the morning, spit on the leeward side
of the coach… Don’t swear, nor lop over on your neighbor when sleeping… Don’t
ask how far it is to the next station until you get there… Don’t discuss
politics or religion, nor point out places on the road where horrible murders
have been committed, if delicate women are among the passengers… Don’t grease
your hair before starting or dust will stick there in sufficient quantities to
make a respectable ‘tater’ patch…”
In my newest novel, A Tarnished Knight, Ryder and Victoria spend a couple of days traveling on just such a coach. The reality of stage travel I discovered during my research was a bit different than the stage coaches pictured in the TV westerns I grew up with. Is the reality much different that what you thought?
Sources: Boyd, Eva Jolene, That Old Overland Stagecoaching, Woodware Publishing, Inc., 1993
Foster-Harris, William, The Look of the Old West A Fully Illustrated Guide, Skyhorse Publishing, 2007
