stagecoach - Stagecoaches in Europe, Stagecoaches in the United States

A type of horse-drawn coach that appeared c.1640 offering carriage to the public on predetermined routes and stages, usually running between provincial towns and London. With the introduction by the Post Office of mail coaches in the 1780s, new standards of time-keeping and efficiency were forced upon the privately-owned stagecoach lines. The coming of the railways in the 1830s and 1840s quickly ended the dominating role of stagecoaches within public transport, although in some isolated parts of Britain their use continued until the 1870s. In the USA, the first mail stagecoaches ran between Boston and New York in 1784, but the main period of their use was from 1800 to 1840, by which time all the principal cities as far W as Pittsburgh were connected by several stagecoach lines. However, the stagecoach in the USA never achieved the importance that river travel did, and by 1850 with the coming of the railroad they ceased to be of importance, except in some isolated areas in the West.

A stagecoach is a type of four-wheeled enclosed passenger and/or mail coach, strongly sprung and drawn by four horses, widely used before the introduction of railway transport. Familiar images of the stagecoach are that of a Royal Mail coach passing through a turnpike gate, a Dickensian passenger coach covered in snow pulling up at a coaching inn, a highwayman demanding a coach to "stand and deliver", and a coach being chased by American Indians in a Western movie. The stagecoach was first developed in the British Isles during the 1500s, and only died out in the early 1900s in the United States. Coaching inns opened up throughout Europe to accommodate stagecoach passengers. The Royal Mail stagecoach hastened the improvement of the road system in the British Isles through the turnpike trust system. And the stagecoach was vital in the colonisation of North America.

Stagecoaches in Europe

The stagecoach, with seats outside and in, was a public conveyance which was known in England from the 16th century. Until the railway systems of Europe drove the stagecoaches out of business they had regular routes (stages) all over Great Britain and the Continent.

In Britain stagecoaches became known as "mail coaches", a name generated from their role carrying the mail from 1784. Stagecoaches could compete with canal boats, but they were rendered obsolete in Europe as the rail network expanded in the 19th century.

Stagecoaches in the United States

Concord stagecoaches

The first Concord stagecoach was built in 1827. Abbot Downing Company employed leather strap braces under their stagecoaches which gave a swinging motion instead of the jolting up and down of a spring suspension. The Concord Stagecoaches were built so solid that it became known that they didn't break down but just wore out. The Concord stagecoach sold throughout South America, Australia and Africa. Over 700 Concord stagecoaches were built by the original Abbot Downing Company before it disbanded in 1847. Mark Twain stated in his 1861 book Roughing It that the Concord Stagecoach was like "a cradle on wheels".

The mail service

At a time when sectional tensions were tearing the United States apart, stagecoaches provided regular transportation and communication between St. Louis, Missouri in the East and San Francisco, California in the West. Although the Pony Express is often credited with being the first fast mail line across the North American continent from the Missouri River to the Pacific Coast, the Butterfield Stage predated the Pony Express by nearly three years.

Butterfield Overland Stage began rolling on September 15, 1858, when the twice-weekly mail service began. A Butterfield Overland Concord Stagecoach was started in San Francisco and another Overland Stage in Tipton, Missouri they ran over the better roads. Ben Holladay is characterised as a devoted, diligent, enterprising man who became known as the Stagecoach King. At the western end, Denver to San Francisco, the Stage Company was taken over by Wells Fargo due to large debts that Butterfield owed. Wells Fargo commandeered the monopoly over long-distance overland stage coach and mail service with a massive web of relay stations, forts, livestock, men and stage coaches by 1866.

Final American use: Short haul

The last American chapter in the use of the stage coaches took place between 1890 and about 1915. Once the mainline rail grid was in service, the railroad actually stimulated stage line operations well into the 20th century.

Some bus lines still have the word "stages" in their names, though it's difficult to say whether such usages come from actual corporate descent from predecessor stagecoach operators, or is just a marketing strategy.

A real danger for stagecoach travellers was the threat of robbery by highwaymen or bandits, right up into the early 20th century.