Introduction

Barlow, Sanderson & Co. held the contract to carry the mail between Mesilla and Los Angeles for both the 1866-1870 and the 1870-1874 contract periods. Contracts with the Post-Office Department for the carrying of the mails were effective for a four year period, beginning on July 1 of the first year and running through June 30 of the fourth year. Most of our information on Barlow & Sanderson’s tenure has had to be gleaned from documents produced at later dates, two in particular – the annual Letter to Congress of the Postmaster General, John A. Creswell, dated March 20, 1871,⁹⁷ and the Report of John B. Clark on the Management of the Post-Office, printed in 1876.⁹⁸  This second document relates to the Federal investigation into serious irregularities in the letting of postal contracts, and the defrauding of the Post Office Department between 1866 and 1874, in which Barlow, Sanderson & Co. were deeply involved.

The Management Report gives the origins and time-line of the firm of Barlow, Sanderson & Co. From it we learn that J. L. Sanderson joined the Company in 1860, at which time the firm was comprised of Bradley Barlow, Cottrell,⁹⁹ George H. Vickroy and Thomas J. Barnum.  After 1864, it become known as Barlow, Sanderson & Co. and was comprised of Barlow, Sanderson and Barnum, in which form it operated until 1870, when Sanderson bought out Barnum’s share in the Company; the firm then operated as Barlow and Sanderson.

From the same document we also learn that Barlow, Barnum and Sanderson were awarded the contract for Route No. 17404 on August 16, 1870, “at T. J. Barnum’s bid.” It was to take effect on September 1, 1870.¹⁰⁰

Barlow, Sanderson & Co.’s tenure as mail contractors for Route No. 17404 between 1866 and 1870 is of most relevance to us because of some important changes applied to the route. It was during this time that several new stage stops were incorporated into the route, among them those at Fort Bayard, Pinos Altos, Silver City and Ralston City.

Route No. 17404 – 1866-1870 

It was not until the summer of 1866 that mails once again began to be transported regularly over the old, pre-War southern route, and once again it was the State of California which played a key role in accomplishing this.

On December 4, 1865, the California State Legislature convened for the first time in two years. On December 16, the Legislature heard the proposal for a concurrent resolution (concurred upon by both the State Assembly and the State Senate) whereby it was agreed that California’s Senators and Representatives at Washington be “requested to use their exertions to re-establish the Southern Overland Mail Route from San Francisco, via Los Angeles, Fort Yuma, El Paso and Fort Smith, to Memphis; and to procure from Congress such legislation as will obtain the object expressed by this resolution.”¹⁰¹ It was requested that the Governor send a copy of the resolution to each of California’s Senators and Representatives at Washington, and the resolution was referred to the Committee on Federal Relations. On January 20, 1866, Concurrent Resolution No. 18 was adopted.¹⁰²

Although information is sparse on what occurred after Resolution No.18 was adopted and forwarded to Congress, we do know that the section of the route between Mesilla and Tucson was contracted for and re-opened, and that it was later extended to run as far as Los Angeles. The Report of the Postmaster General for the fiscal year July 1, 1866, through June 30, 1867, contains the following:

The importance of a mail over the old southern overland route from El Paso, Texas, by Tucson and Yuma, to Los Angeles being urged upon the department, Route 17,408, originally let from Mesilla to Tucson, was extended, at pro-rata pay, to Los Angeles, and the number of trips increased to three per week. This has proved a source of great benefit to persons living on the line of the route, who had been for five years cut off from any more direct communication with California than by sending their letters by stage fifteen hundred miles to Saint Joseph, to be again transmitted two thousand miles by the same conveyance to San Francisco.¹⁰³

This Report highlights a discrepancy in the Route number. It refers to the Mesilla-Tucson-Los Angeles route as Route No. 17408; the route is also designated as such in other documents, for example in documents relating to the Fifth Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Arizona, November 10, 1868, to December 16, 1868, in which it was requested that the service be increased to a daily one, and in documents arising from the New Mexico (Territorial) Legislative Assembly of 1868 to 1869.¹⁰⁴

All route numbers remained constant from one contract period to the next, and, indeed, throughout the lifespan of a route. We know that the original number assigned to this route was 17404, the number by which it was once again referred to in all documents from 1870 onward.

In the immediate post-War period details and information on this new route are scarce; even Postal Department documents yield little information. Information from newspapers is almost as sparse.

On May 30, 1866, quoting from the Prescott Arizona Miner, the Sacramento Daily Union had published an item complaining about the mismanagement of the mail service between California and Albuquerque, and which also said that “latterly a semi-monthly mail has been started from Tucson to Mesilla.”

The Daily Alta California of July 8, 1866, gave a brief list of mail contracts recently let; it was hoped these would improve communications between Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California. Among these recent lettings are listed the routes between San Antonio and Mesilla (weekly), and Mesilla to Tucson, also weekly.

In late August, the Daily Alta reprinted a column from an (undated) edition of the Mesilla News. The column states that:

The first coach of Barnum’s Mail Line from Mesilla had arrived at Tucson, under escort; in future the mail will be carried from Tucson to Mesilla on pack horses, once each week, connecting at Mesilla with the Santa Fe and Saint Joseph mail.¹⁰⁵

The first post-War contract had probably taken effect on July 1, 1866, as per standard procedure. In 1867, Congress debated a series of amendments to the new Post Route Bill, among which was one to insert the following into the bill: “New Mexico: from Fort Cummings, via Fort Bayard, to Pimos Altas [Pinos Altos].”¹⁰⁶ The amendment was agreed to, designating the route between these three places an official Post Road.

Fort Bayard had been established in 1866, and the inclusion of this amendment probably indicates the official commencement of service to Fort Bayard and the recommencement of service to Pinos Altos. Although we do not have a definitive date for the resumption of service to Pinos Altos¹⁰⁷ after the Civil War, it is known that this certainly happened during the 1866 to 1870 contract period, in all likelihood at some point in time prior to the date that the amendment was introduced.

By the close of the 1866-1870 contract period, Route No. 17404 was operating:

From Mesilla, New Mexico, to Los Angeles, eight hundred and forty-seven miles, three times a week, with branch to Pinos Altos, fifty-three miles, three times a week.¹⁰⁸

Soldier’s Farewell and Barney’s Station

During 1867-1868, William A. Bell was a member of a surveying expedition organized by the Kansas Pacific Railway Company, the purpose of which was to determine the best route for a southern railroad to the Pacific Ocean. During his time with the survey team Bell kept A Journal of Travel and Adventure¹⁰⁹in which he describes some of the locations which are of particular relevance to us.

Soldier’s Farewell he describes as “a solitary ruin which was once a station on the mail route.” He provides a graphic description of its “two miserable water-holes”, and describes the next water-hole west at Barney Station.  The station itself he describes as being “an uninhabited ruin like that [at Soldier’s Farewell], and, if anything, more dreary”, with the water-hole there being a “mud puddle”, “even more disgusting than those we had left”, it serving as a communal watering place for both human travelers and “all the wild animals dwelling within a radius of many miles.” Barney Station was, he says, “a striking picture of desolation.” Bell arrived at Barney Station sometime between October 31, 1867, when he reached Soldier’s Farewell, and November 3, when he arrived at Stein’s Peak. In his narrative he refers to being there on November 2^nd.¹¹⁰

After leaving Stein’s Peak, Bell writes of how his party was accompanied by one of the mail carriers over that part of the Territory, thus providing us with some few details of how the mails were being transported at the time:

Twice a week a mail carrier rides from Tucson to Fort Bowie, 106 miles; another then carries the mails on to Soldier’s Farewell, eighty-six miles; where he meets a solitary mail carrier, who had come from La Mesilla, 129 miles to the eastward. The mail-bags are exchanged, and each returns the way he came.¹¹¹

In the next installment, we will describe Barlow & Sanderson’s operations in southwestern New Mexico between the years 1870 – 1874, paying particular attention to Pinos Altos and the new settlement of Silver City. We will also cover the establishment of the first stage station at Ralston City, and the national scandal brought about by the practice of straw bidding, in which Barlow & Sanderson were deeply involved.

©2007-2023 Jim & Erica Parson

REFERENCES FOR THIS INSTALLMENT:

⁹⁷Letter Of The Postmaster General. Executive Document No. 5. In: The Executive Documents Of The Senate Of The United States. First Session, Forty-Second Congress. Washington: Government Printing Office (1871). Hereafter referred to as Executive Document No. 5.

⁹⁸Management Of The Post-Office Department. Report of John B. Clark, Jr. From the Committee on the Post-Office and Post-Roads. Executive Document No. 814. In: Index To Reports Of Committees Of The House of Representatives For the First Session of the Forty-Forth Congress, 1875-1876.  Volume 7. Washington: Government Printing Office (1876). Hereafter referred to as Executive Document No. 814.

⁹⁹First name not given; other documentation refers to him only as M. Cottrell.

¹⁰⁰Executive Document No. 814. Page 627.

¹⁰¹Sacramento Daily Union. December 18, 1865.

¹⁰²Sacramento Daily Union. January 20, 1866, and The Journal Of The Assembly During The Sixteenth Session of the Legislature of the State of California, 1865-6. Sacramento: O. M. Clayes, State Printer. (1866). Page 881.

¹⁰³Report Of The Postmaster General. Executive Document No. 1. Dated November 26, 1867. Page 6. In: Message Of The President Of The United States And Accompanying Documents To The Two Houses Of Congress. Second Session, Fortieth Congress. Washington: Government Printing Office (1867).

¹⁰⁴Acts, Resolutions And Memorials Adopted By The Fifth Legislative Assembly Of The Territory Of Arizona. Tucson: Tucson Publishing Company( 1869). Page 61. And: Laws Of The Territory Of New Mexico Passed By The Legislative Assembly. Session Of 1868-1869. Santa Fe, New Mexico: Manderfield&Tucker( 1869). Pages 11-12.

¹⁰⁵Daily Alta California. August 27, 1866.

¹⁰⁶Congressional Globe. 39^th Congress, 2^nd Session. Page 1955 (1867).

¹⁰⁷A post office had first been established at Pinos Altos in October of 1860. The name of the post office was Pine Forest; Isaac Langston was the first postmaster. Mesilla Times. October 18, 1860.

¹⁰⁸Executive Document No. 814. Page 625. The route is described as “the worst route in the service. The contractors have more trouble with the Indians, more murders, more interruptions, and more property and mails destroyed by violence than on any other route in the country.”

¹⁰⁹Bell, William A. (1869) New Tracks in North America: A Journal of Travel and Adventure Whilst Engaged in the Survey for a Southern Railroad to the Pacific Ocean.

¹¹⁰Ibid. Page 36-40.

¹¹¹Ibid. Page 42.