This is the story of the antebellum frontier in Texas, from the Red River to El Paso, a raw and primitive country punctuated by chaos, lawlessness, and violence. During this time, the federal government and the State of Texas often worked at cross-purposes, their confused and contradictory policies leaving settlers on their own to deal with vigilantes, lynchings, raiding American Indians, and Anglo-American outlaws. Before the Civil War, the Texas frontier was a sectional transition zone where southern ideology clashed with western perspectives and where diverse cultures with differing worldviews collided. This is also the tale of the Butterfield Overland Mail, which carried passengers and mail west from St. Louis to San Francisco through Texas. While it operated, the transcontinental mail line intersected and influenced much of the region's frontier history. Through meticulous research, including visits to all the sites he describes, Glen Sample Ely uncovers the fascinating story of the Butterfield Overland Mail in Texas. Until the U.S. Army and Butterfield built West Texas’s infrastructure, the region’s primitive transportation network hampered its development. As Ely shows, the Overland Mail Company and the army jump-started growth, serving together as both the economic engine and the advance agent for European American settlement. Used by soldiers, emigrants, freighters, and stagecoaches, the Overland Mail Road was the nineteenth-century equivalent of the modern interstate highway system, stimulating passenger traffic, commercial freighting, and business. Although most of the action takes place within the Lone Star State, this is in many respects an American tale. The same concerns that challenged frontier residents confronted citizens across the country. Written in an engaging style that transports readers to the rowdy frontier and the bustle of the overland road, The Texas Frontier and the Butterfield Overland Mail offers a rare view of Texas’s antebellum past.

The newspapers of Arkansas did an amazing job of covering the news around Butterfield's Overland Mail Company. Frequently the newspaper editors would draw their information from their exchange of newspapers across the country to bring to their subscribers the most accurate and comprehensive description of facts as possible. This book greatly expands my two previous books, "Butterfield's Overland Mail Co. Stagecoach Trail Across Arkansas 1858-1861," and "Butterfield's Overland Mail Co. use of STEAMBOATS to Deliver Mail and Passengers Across Arkansas 1858-1861." While in these two previous books, I only included brief excerpts from the Arkansas newspapers of 1857-1861, in this book I have let the newspaper reporters tell the story in their own words. It has been difficult, but I have limited my interpretive comments to a brief title I've assigned each article. In this way, today's reader can immerse themselves into the world of the citizens of Arkansas. While the purpose of my research of the Overland Mail was to satisfy my personal curiosity, hopefully this collection of my research will also make a contribution to the efforts of officially recognizing the route of Butterfield's Overland Mail Co. as a National Historic Trail.

"This book greatly expands mythe two previous books, "Butterfield''s Overland Mail. Co. stagecoach trail across Arkansas 1858-1861 and "Butterfield's Overland Mail Co. use of steamboats to deliver mail and passengers across Arkansas, 1858 1861."--page 4.

V. 1 and 2 contain the historical text; v. 3 contains illustrations, maps, portraits, and plans.

This is the classic firsthand account by Waterman L. Ormsby, a reporter who in 1858 crossed the western states as the sole through passenger of the Butterfield Overland Mail stage on its first trip from St. Louis to San Francisco. Ormsby’s reports, which soon appeared in the New York Herald, are lively and exciting. He describes the journey in close detail, giving full accounts of the accommodations, the other passengers, the country through which they passed, the dangers to which they were exposed, and the constant necessity for speed. “A most interesting account of the first westbound trip of an overland mail stage.”—Southern California Historical Society Quarterly “The best narrative of the trip and one of the best accounts of western travel by stage.”—Pacific Historical Review “If other travelers had been as careful and observant as Ormsby we should know vastly more about our country and the ways of our fathers than we do...The book is fascinating. It will prove interesting to all who care for travelogues, the history of the West, and particularly to those interested in our economic history.”—Journal of Economic History

And the Winners Are ... (trophies presented at the 2015 CAA Carriage Showcase} Surviving the Ride on a Butterfield Stagecoach [travelers' experiences in the Southwest) by GERALD T. AHNERT Portrait of a Village [the blacksmiths & wheelwrights of Monkton, Vermont} by Ken Wheeling

Features: Cariole Sleigh Restoration by Jeremy Masterson - Page 14 2019 Carriage Showcase by Craig Paulsen - Page 20 The Overland Stage Wagon by Ken Wheeling - Page 26 Additional Articles: Heating Things Up At The CAA Carriage Conference The CAA Tour to Spain Four-in-Hand Club's Fall Meet by Robert Longstaff - Page 10 The Maker of Butterfield's Overland Mail Company Stage Wagons by Gerald T. Ahnert - Page 31 Transporting an Antique Vehicle - Page 36 Grain Painting with Charlie Poppe - Page 40 DeVries Historic Carriage and Sleigh Museum by Kathleen Haak - Page 45 Riding and Driving for Women by Belle Beach - Page 48 Jousting Sleighs - Page 64