Page 65 - 83-BOOK1

Historic Double Barrel Shotgun Inscribed to Freight Hauler and Pony Express Co-Founder Alexander Majors
LOT 1067
Historic, Van Wart, Son & Co. Percussion Double Barrel Shotgun Inscribed to Alexander Majors, Earliest of the Large Western Freight Haulers, Friend and Associate of Hickok, Cody, Carson, Comstock and Other Icons of The Wild West, Co-Founder of the Pony Express - NSN, 10 gauge, 31 3/8 inch solid rib bbl., blue/casehardened finish, walnut stock. There are many unsung heroes of the American West, but perhaps none
more important than Alexander Majors, who was one of the most significant and well-known figures during the early period of the western frontier. Virtually every western man, woman and child who could read and write (and most who couldn’t) were familiar with the name “Alexander Majors”. His likeness is on historical plaques, markers and statues throughout the West to this very day, with perhaps the best being his monument in Pioneer Square in Kansas City that features Majors, early Kansas City Planner John C. McCoy and famed Mountain Man Jim Bridger. Having some experience
as a teamster, Majors had a vision like many others of becoming a successful businessman using his practical experiences. On the 10th of August, 1848 and at the age of 34, he put that determination
to good use by forming a small outfit of 6 oxen wagons that he planned to build into a freight business. Build he did, with his venture eventually becoming one of the most wildly successful businesses in the West. His lines ran on the Santa Fe Trail between Independence, Missouri and Santa Fe, New Mexico Territory
and then beyond. By most every account, Majors was famous throughout the west with two characteristics standing out; 1. He always rode in, or by the side of the lead wagon in the early years
of his routes, making certain that he was the first to respond to any curious Indian parties or renegade gangs that happened upon his trains, and these reports point out that he was always armed with a trusted shotgun. 2. All employees were issued a bible and required to sign an oath of good behavior upon employment. This practice of issuing bibles continued throughout his career, with even his
Pony Express Riders being issued Bibles that today sell for $10,000 - $30,000, with one identified example selling for a reported $75,000 in a recent on-line auction. His most notable employee was a twelve-year-old messenger boy named William F. Cody, aka, Buffalo Bill. In 6 years, Majors became a multi-millionaire through private and Military contracts supplying the West. In 1854, he teamed up with William Waddell and William Russell to form Russell, Majors and Waddell, with Wild Bill Hickok being one of their employees and Kit Carson, Bill Comstock and California Joe among their scouts at different times. For years before railroads on the plains, the firm did enormous business freighting for the Government from Fort Leavenworth, having transported Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston’s army across the country to Utah in 1857-1858. For the year 1858, the freight contracted by the Government aggregated 16,000,000 pounds, requiring from 3,500 to 4,000 wagons, near 40,000 oxen, 1,000 mules, and between 4,000 and 5,000 men. Besides the Government freight, they transported a great deal of materials for post traders and mercantile firms in Salt Lake City and, later on, in Denver. In October 1857, Russell, Majors and Waddell faced financial ruin when Lot Smith and his Nauvoo Mormon Legion destroyed 54 of their wagons during the Utah War. The Army did not reimburse the firm, and the company began looking for other avenues for funds. The most famous of these ventures was historically the most romantic of Western undertakings, The Pony Express, a fast mail service crossing the North American continent from the Missouri River to the Pacific coast, and still familiar today to virtually every citizen in the United States. Messages were carried on a horseback relay across the prairies, plains, deserts, and mountains of the western United States. It briefly reduced the time for mail to travel between the Atlantic and Pacific coasts to around ten days. By traveling a slightly shorter route and using mounted riders rather than stagecoaches, the founders of the Pony Express hoped to establish their service as a faster and more reliable conduit for the mail and win away the exclusive government mail contract.
63