Butterfield Overland Stage – Springfield, Missouri

DATE VISITED:  05/23/2015

HISTORICAL SITE:  Butterfield Overland Stage

LOCATION:  Springfield, Greene Co., Missouri

MARKER #:  18

DEDICATED:  November 1932

"Site of Gen. Nicholas Smith’s Tavern on Boonville Road, Earliest outlet of Springfield, also station of Butterfield Stage route carrying first overland mail from St. Louis to Pacific Coast. Government subsidy $600,000 yearly. First mail left St. Louis Sept. 16, 1858, by rail, arriving Tipton afternoon of same day, then by stage, reaching Springfield 3.15 p.m., Sept. 17, and San Francisco 7.30 a.m., Oct 10. Time 23 days, 23 hours from St. Louis. 2765 miles. Longest mail stage route ever attempted. Bi-weekly service Mondays and Thursdays from St. Louis. 141 (later 167) stations en route. First eastbound stage left San Francisco early Sept. 15, arriving Springfield 3.00 p.m. Oct. 8. Where hundreds welcomed its arrival as great event. Banquet; speeches; fireworks. Time eastward trip, 24 days, 18 hours to St. Louis."

MARKER PLACED BY:  University Club Marker

PERSONAL REFLECTIONS: 

The creator of the stage line, John Butterfield, started as a stagecoach driver and would eventually, with partners such as William Fargo of the Wells Fargo fame, win the bid for an overland mail route from the Mississippi to San Francisco…twice a week…in 25 days.

There were 9 bids but Butterfields was the only one with a southern route. Although 600 miles longer, it would remain snow free and the government awarded Butterfield the contract for twice a week mail delivery to the tune of $600,000 a year.

It cost a dime to send a letter but $200 one way fare for passengers. They averaged 15 MPH and 120 miles a day.

In the early 1860’s because bandits and Indians constantly harassed the stage route, President Lincoln assigned a Calvary Division out of Kansas to guard the route.

It was near this time that Wells Fargo took over the stage line because of Butterfields debts and Butterfield was pushed out of the venture.

One of Springfield’s earliest residents, Nicholas Smith, built a hotel at the stage stop in Springfield. As an aside, Smith was definitely rich by the time he died…he left an estate of over $100,000 in 1858. The Smith Hotel was one of 200 stage stops but probably one of the nicest. 

Because of an active temperance movement in Springfield, liquor would flow until the “dry” groups reared up in protest. A Temperance Building went up near the hotel but every time the city went “dry”, court action would get the alcohol flowing again.  Actually, Greene County voted to go “dry” as late as 1910, but that was the last time.

The breakout of the Civil War made the southern route too difficult and, like the Pony Express, the Overland route wasn’t in existence all that long…only 19 months. It's interesting to learn about this mail route because, as you can imagine, being in Sacramento, the focus is the Pony Express. 

Currently, the US National Park Service is looking into making the route an official National Historic Trail.