Paul Colt's Blog, page 50
February 7, 2016
Building The Transcontinental Railroad
Regular readers of these pages know I’ve long had an interest in the transcontinental railroad. It played a significant part in two of my books. It was perhaps the most significant engineering achievement of the nineteenth century, with social, cultural and economic implications that echo down to this very day.
Last year we did a post series on the route selection controversy. Recently I ran across information on the challenges of building the rail route to the Pacific. It provided some interesting insights. Maybe it’s just me, but it seems more has been said and written about the Union Pacific than its western counterpart the Central Pacific. For purposes of this post series, let’s give the Central Pacific its due. The movers and shakers on that end of the line had more to do with getting the project started than just laying track.
Theodore Judah was an easterner who went west in 1854 as a railroad surveyor. He became one of the early visionaries advocating for building a rail route to the Pacific. That same year the federal government completed surveys of three alternative routes. Sectional differences over the spread of slavery effectively prevented selecting a route until the south seceded with the outbreak of the Civil War. In 1860 Judah undertook a survey for a route to cross the Sierras through Donner Pass.
With a viable route in hand, big money Sacramento investors were drawn to the project. Collis Huntington, Mark Hopkins, Charles Crocker and Leland Stanford brought money and power to the venture, etching their names in California history to this day. The timing was perfect. Abraham Lincoln signed the Pacific Railroad Act July 1, 1861. The Central Pacific would build east along Judah’s route while the federally chartered Union Pacific would build west along a central great-plains routing. Both lines would receive federal loan subsidies as well as generous land grants along the right-of-way for every mile of track laid.
Next Week: Bill Collectors & Bilk Collectors
https://www.amazon.com/author/paulcolt
Ride easy,
Paul
Last year we did a post series on the route selection controversy. Recently I ran across information on the challenges of building the rail route to the Pacific. It provided some interesting insights. Maybe it’s just me, but it seems more has been said and written about the Union Pacific than its western counterpart the Central Pacific. For purposes of this post series, let’s give the Central Pacific its due. The movers and shakers on that end of the line had more to do with getting the project started than just laying track.
Theodore Judah was an easterner who went west in 1854 as a railroad surveyor. He became one of the early visionaries advocating for building a rail route to the Pacific. That same year the federal government completed surveys of three alternative routes. Sectional differences over the spread of slavery effectively prevented selecting a route until the south seceded with the outbreak of the Civil War. In 1860 Judah undertook a survey for a route to cross the Sierras through Donner Pass.
With a viable route in hand, big money Sacramento investors were drawn to the project. Collis Huntington, Mark Hopkins, Charles Crocker and Leland Stanford brought money and power to the venture, etching their names in California history to this day. The timing was perfect. Abraham Lincoln signed the Pacific Railroad Act July 1, 1861. The Central Pacific would build east along Judah’s route while the federally chartered Union Pacific would build west along a central great-plains routing. Both lines would receive federal loan subsidies as well as generous land grants along the right-of-way for every mile of track laid.
Next Week: Bill Collectors & Bilk Collectors
https://www.amazon.com/author/paulcolt
Ride easy,
Paul
January 31, 2016
A Bold Stroke
It isn’t clear who came up with the idea that would put the northern plains route on the map as it were. Senator Gwin of California may have put Russell up to it; but Russell embraced the plan and convinced his partners to go along. The idea was simple: cut the time it took for a letter to reach California by half. That astonishing challenge gave birth to The Pony Express.
That Russell convinced his partners to pursue the venture is little short of amazing. The company already faced bankruptcy. By his own memoire, Russell’s partner Alexander Majors declared a pony express, “Could not possibly be made to pay expenses.” Russell must have been a promoter worthy of P.T. Barnum himself. The partners cobbled together the monies and credit they needed to launch mail service between Missouri and California April 3, 1860.
The Pony Express employed eighty riders give or take at various times; and four to five hundred horses. Riders of ‘Modest stature and weight’ were preferred along with ‘A determination to see the mail through even in the face of mortal danger’. Riders were paid twenty five dollars a week, a handsome sum for such skills at the time, the premium justified by serious risk to life and limb. Relay stations were placed at intervals generally following the stage route.
The Pony Express dramatically improved mail service and communications between California and the eastern United States. Mail times were reduced from twenty days to between ten and thirteen days. The Pony Express was not a consumer service. The express carried letter correspondence, usually of a business or legal nature due to the expense. Riders also carried telegrams from one end of a telegraph line to the beginning of another. Rates for a letter were $5.00 (nineteenth century dollars) for the first half ounce, $10.00 for a full ounce. Telegrams cost $7.00 for the first ten words and thirty cents a word thereafter. Brevity in that being the soul of thrift. Despite these rates the Pony Express operated at a loss throughout its brief existence.
In March 1861 following southern succession, Congress passed legislation transferring the Butterfield mail line to the northern route. Butterfield, then known as Wells Fargo subcontracted a part of the route to Russell’s Central Overland, California & Pikes Peak Express. In June of 1860 Congress authorized bidding for construction of a transcontinental telegraph line. Western Union Telegraph Company was awarded the contract. Western Union completed the line October 24, 1861, the date The Pony Express ceased operations.
The Pony Express solidified selection of the northern route for the Transcontinental Railroad. It came too late for Russell Wadell & Majors. The Central Overland, California & Pikes Peak Express ended in bankruptcy. It was subsequently taken over by its former rival Wells Fargo.
https://www.amazon.com/author/paulcolt
Ride easy,
Paul
That Russell convinced his partners to pursue the venture is little short of amazing. The company already faced bankruptcy. By his own memoire, Russell’s partner Alexander Majors declared a pony express, “Could not possibly be made to pay expenses.” Russell must have been a promoter worthy of P.T. Barnum himself. The partners cobbled together the monies and credit they needed to launch mail service between Missouri and California April 3, 1860.
The Pony Express employed eighty riders give or take at various times; and four to five hundred horses. Riders of ‘Modest stature and weight’ were preferred along with ‘A determination to see the mail through even in the face of mortal danger’. Riders were paid twenty five dollars a week, a handsome sum for such skills at the time, the premium justified by serious risk to life and limb. Relay stations were placed at intervals generally following the stage route.
The Pony Express dramatically improved mail service and communications between California and the eastern United States. Mail times were reduced from twenty days to between ten and thirteen days. The Pony Express was not a consumer service. The express carried letter correspondence, usually of a business or legal nature due to the expense. Riders also carried telegrams from one end of a telegraph line to the beginning of another. Rates for a letter were $5.00 (nineteenth century dollars) for the first half ounce, $10.00 for a full ounce. Telegrams cost $7.00 for the first ten words and thirty cents a word thereafter. Brevity in that being the soul of thrift. Despite these rates the Pony Express operated at a loss throughout its brief existence.
In March 1861 following southern succession, Congress passed legislation transferring the Butterfield mail line to the northern route. Butterfield, then known as Wells Fargo subcontracted a part of the route to Russell’s Central Overland, California & Pikes Peak Express. In June of 1860 Congress authorized bidding for construction of a transcontinental telegraph line. Western Union Telegraph Company was awarded the contract. Western Union completed the line October 24, 1861, the date The Pony Express ceased operations.
The Pony Express solidified selection of the northern route for the Transcontinental Railroad. It came too late for Russell Wadell & Majors. The Central Overland, California & Pikes Peak Express ended in bankruptcy. It was subsequently taken over by its former rival Wells Fargo.
https://www.amazon.com/author/paulcolt
Ride easy,
Paul
January 24, 2016
Northern Route
Almost from the beginning of southern route mail service, Californians believed faster service would be possible by crossing the northern plains. The controversy was a mirror of the debate over a Pacific rail route, reflecting some of the same sectional biases. Those who opposed a northern route often based their arguments on the impassibility of the plains and mountains during the winter.
California Senator William Gwin was among those who advocated for a northern mail route. Gwin believed that if the northern route could be demonstrated to be practical year round, it would pave the way for a northerly routing of a Pacific Railroad. He found a willing ally in William Russell, partner in the freighting firm of Russell, Wadell & Majors.
In 1859 Russell’s firm established a stage line from Leavenworth Kansas to Denver Colorado to serve the Pikes Peak gold rush. The line fell on financial misfortune when the gold rush failed to ‘pan out’ (OK, sorry about that). Undaunted, Russell with the backing of his freighting partners purchased a line running from Independence Missouri to Salt Lake City, Utah. The line continued to struggle financially without the benefit of a government mail contract.
Senator Gwin convinced Russell that if he were to demonstrate the superiority of a northern route to the Pacific, he could not only secure a lucrative government mail contract; but also establish the northern route as the desired route for a Pacific railroad. Such a routing would create a bonanza for his business. At Gwin’s urging Russell added service from Salt Lake City to California to complete a line on which he proposed to offer mail and passenger service. Russell chartered a new company to operate his consolidated line dubbed the Central Overland, California & Pikes Peak Express. Russell’s northern route reduced the mail time to reach California by nearly a week.
Like Butterfield, Russell invested heavily to complete his line, but unlike Butterfield, he did so with weaker financial backing and without benefit of a government mail contract. With bankruptcy looming, Russell determined he needed a bold stroke to demonstrate superiority of his northern route and secure the government mail contract he sought along with realizing the promise of a rail route to the Pacific. It would take southern secession to resolve the congressional impasse over building a rail route to the Pacific; but the route selection controversy would be resolved by the greatest publicity stunt of the nineteenth century.
Next Week: A Bold Stroke
https://www.amazon.com/author/paulcolt
Ride easy,
Paul
California Senator William Gwin was among those who advocated for a northern mail route. Gwin believed that if the northern route could be demonstrated to be practical year round, it would pave the way for a northerly routing of a Pacific Railroad. He found a willing ally in William Russell, partner in the freighting firm of Russell, Wadell & Majors.
In 1859 Russell’s firm established a stage line from Leavenworth Kansas to Denver Colorado to serve the Pikes Peak gold rush. The line fell on financial misfortune when the gold rush failed to ‘pan out’ (OK, sorry about that). Undaunted, Russell with the backing of his freighting partners purchased a line running from Independence Missouri to Salt Lake City, Utah. The line continued to struggle financially without the benefit of a government mail contract.
Senator Gwin convinced Russell that if he were to demonstrate the superiority of a northern route to the Pacific, he could not only secure a lucrative government mail contract; but also establish the northern route as the desired route for a Pacific railroad. Such a routing would create a bonanza for his business. At Gwin’s urging Russell added service from Salt Lake City to California to complete a line on which he proposed to offer mail and passenger service. Russell chartered a new company to operate his consolidated line dubbed the Central Overland, California & Pikes Peak Express. Russell’s northern route reduced the mail time to reach California by nearly a week.
Like Butterfield, Russell invested heavily to complete his line, but unlike Butterfield, he did so with weaker financial backing and without benefit of a government mail contract. With bankruptcy looming, Russell determined he needed a bold stroke to demonstrate superiority of his northern route and secure the government mail contract he sought along with realizing the promise of a rail route to the Pacific. It would take southern secession to resolve the congressional impasse over building a rail route to the Pacific; but the route selection controversy would be resolved by the greatest publicity stunt of the nineteenth century.
Next Week: A Bold Stroke
https://www.amazon.com/author/paulcolt
Ride easy,
Paul
January 17, 2016
Southern Route
Butterfield set about building his southern stage road west. He planned his route from Missouri south through Arkansas, west Texas and New Mexico, continuing on through present day Arizona to southern California, then north to San Francisco. Because of the ‘long-way-around’ shape, the route became known as the Oxbow Express.
Butterfield built relay stations at ten to fifteen mile intervals. He staffed and stocked them with drivers, station masters, stockmen and some two thousand horses and mules. Fresh teams were stabled at each station. Stations also provided comfort and food services to passengers.
Butterfield equipped his overland mail service with coaches produced by Abbot Downing Co. of Concord, New Hampshire. Abbot Downing manufactured stage coaches in a variety of configurations with interior seating capacities ranging from six to nine with additional passenger space provided on the roof. Baggage and freight were carried in leather ‘boots’ positioned at the front and rear of the coach. The so-called Concord Coach boasted a leather strap suspension system that replaced the bouncing jolt of spring suspension with a more comfortable swaying motion. Weighing upwards of a ton, Concord coaches were known for durability. They were priced between twelve and fifteen hundred dollars.
Passenger service could be had in one of three classes. First class passengers rode. Second class passengers might have to get out and walk over difficult terrain. Third class passengers had an added responsibility, they pushed when necessary. For all of that you got a bone-jarring, dust- choking ride, featuring blistering heat, rain, snow, cold and all that before inconveniences like prairie fires, floods and hostile attacks.
Those who follow these posts know we had a sample a ride on a Concord Coach while on a research trip this past spring. We took a quarter mile ride in a coach configured for six. Six six-year-olds would have been a tight squeeze. The suspension transferred every rock and rut from wheel to spine. It’s hard to imagine extrapolating eleven thousand two hundred of those quarter miles into twenty-eight hundred miles on a Butterfield Overland Stage.
Creature comforts aside, mail delivery was the mission and Butterfield fulfilled his government contract, delivering mail to and from the coast in twenty four days. While that constituted a significant improvement over the time required for mail delivery by boat, many believed further improvement could be made by employing a shorter more northerly route. Politics secured the mail contract for Butterfield’s southern route, much to the displeasure of certain powerful influences.
Next Week: Northern Competition
https://www.amazon.com/author/paulcolt
Ride easy,
Paul
Butterfield built relay stations at ten to fifteen mile intervals. He staffed and stocked them with drivers, station masters, stockmen and some two thousand horses and mules. Fresh teams were stabled at each station. Stations also provided comfort and food services to passengers.
Butterfield equipped his overland mail service with coaches produced by Abbot Downing Co. of Concord, New Hampshire. Abbot Downing manufactured stage coaches in a variety of configurations with interior seating capacities ranging from six to nine with additional passenger space provided on the roof. Baggage and freight were carried in leather ‘boots’ positioned at the front and rear of the coach. The so-called Concord Coach boasted a leather strap suspension system that replaced the bouncing jolt of spring suspension with a more comfortable swaying motion. Weighing upwards of a ton, Concord coaches were known for durability. They were priced between twelve and fifteen hundred dollars.
Passenger service could be had in one of three classes. First class passengers rode. Second class passengers might have to get out and walk over difficult terrain. Third class passengers had an added responsibility, they pushed when necessary. For all of that you got a bone-jarring, dust- choking ride, featuring blistering heat, rain, snow, cold and all that before inconveniences like prairie fires, floods and hostile attacks.
Those who follow these posts know we had a sample a ride on a Concord Coach while on a research trip this past spring. We took a quarter mile ride in a coach configured for six. Six six-year-olds would have been a tight squeeze. The suspension transferred every rock and rut from wheel to spine. It’s hard to imagine extrapolating eleven thousand two hundred of those quarter miles into twenty-eight hundred miles on a Butterfield Overland Stage.
Creature comforts aside, mail delivery was the mission and Butterfield fulfilled his government contract, delivering mail to and from the coast in twenty four days. While that constituted a significant improvement over the time required for mail delivery by boat, many believed further improvement could be made by employing a shorter more northerly route. Politics secured the mail contract for Butterfield’s southern route, much to the displeasure of certain powerful influences.
Next Week: Northern Competition
https://www.amazon.com/author/paulcolt
Ride easy,
Paul
January 10, 2016
Overland Mail
Those of you who have followed these posts for a while will recall the sectional scrum brought on by choosing a route for the transcontinental railroad. The nation divided north and south over the prospect of a Pacific rail route upsetting the balance of power in the Senate by promoting territorial expansion favoring one side over the other. Low and behold that wasn’t the first time westward transportation faced impasse over the slavery issue. This particular squabble stirred up following the discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill in California and ran on in background to the railroad dispute.
Gold settled California and made it a prized national possession. Supplying California, defending it and communicating with it all became national priorities. Rail service presented a daunting engineering challenge that would take years to solve even after overcoming the politics of route selection. Communication and commerce couldn’t wait.
Communication in the mid-nineteenth century meant mail. In 1849 the fastest mail route to California left New York by ship bound for Panama. In Panama mail was transported across the isthmus- we hadn’t dug the ditch yet- to a second ship bound for San Francisco. The U.S. government subsidized a service that still cost 80 nineteenth-century-cents an ounce and took a month not counting the time it took your mail to get to its port of departure; and then to its recipient from the port of arrival. There had to be a better way.
In 1857 Congress authorized the award of a contract to carry mail and passengers from the Mississippi River to California by stagecoach. Offer of this contract again begged the question of which route to take. Many viewed a stage route as a precursor to a rail route. Northern interests favored a route from the central plains to the Rockies. Southerners favored a southerly route through territories recently acquired from Mexico. The northern route was considerably shorter than a routing that proceeded west to southern California and from there north to San Francisco.
John Butterfield, one of the founders of American Express and a southerner, advocated for the southern route. He proposed a route originating in Memphis Tennessee to St. Louis, continuing on to California through present day Arkansas, New Mexico and Arizona. Postmaster General Aaron Brown, also a southerner and native of Memphis, awarded the government contract to- you guessed it- Butterfield.
Next week: The Southern Route
https://www.amazon.com/author/paulcolt
Ride easy,
Paul
Gold settled California and made it a prized national possession. Supplying California, defending it and communicating with it all became national priorities. Rail service presented a daunting engineering challenge that would take years to solve even after overcoming the politics of route selection. Communication and commerce couldn’t wait.
Communication in the mid-nineteenth century meant mail. In 1849 the fastest mail route to California left New York by ship bound for Panama. In Panama mail was transported across the isthmus- we hadn’t dug the ditch yet- to a second ship bound for San Francisco. The U.S. government subsidized a service that still cost 80 nineteenth-century-cents an ounce and took a month not counting the time it took your mail to get to its port of departure; and then to its recipient from the port of arrival. There had to be a better way.
In 1857 Congress authorized the award of a contract to carry mail and passengers from the Mississippi River to California by stagecoach. Offer of this contract again begged the question of which route to take. Many viewed a stage route as a precursor to a rail route. Northern interests favored a route from the central plains to the Rockies. Southerners favored a southerly route through territories recently acquired from Mexico. The northern route was considerably shorter than a routing that proceeded west to southern California and from there north to San Francisco.
John Butterfield, one of the founders of American Express and a southerner, advocated for the southern route. He proposed a route originating in Memphis Tennessee to St. Louis, continuing on to California through present day Arkansas, New Mexico and Arizona. Postmaster General Aaron Brown, also a southerner and native of Memphis, awarded the government contract to- you guessed it- Butterfield.
Next week: The Southern Route
https://www.amazon.com/author/paulcolt
Ride easy,
Paul
Overland Mail
Those of you who have followed these posts for a while will recall the sectional scrum brought on by choosing a route for the transcontinental railroad. The nation divided north and south over the prospect of a Pacific rail route upsetting the balance of power in the Senate by promoting territorial expansion favoring one side over the other. Low and behold that wasn’t the first time westward transportation faced impasse over the slavery issue. This particular squabble stirred up following the discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill in California and ran on in background to the railroad dispute.
Gold settled California and made it a prized national possession. Supplying California, defending it and communicating with it all became national priorities. Rail service presented a daunting engineering challenge that would take years to solve even after overcoming the politics of route selection. Communication and commerce couldn’t wait.
Communication in the mid-nineteenth century meant mail. In 1849 the fastest mail route to California left New York by ship bound for Panama. In Panama mail was transported across the isthmus- we hadn’t dug the ditch yet- to a second ship bound for San Francisco. The U.S. government subsidized a service that still cost 80 nineteenth-century-cents an ounce and took a month not counting the time it took your mail to get to its port of departure; and then to its recipient from the port of arrival. There had to be a better way.
In 1857 Congress authorized the award of a contract to carry mail and passengers from the Mississippi River to California by stagecoach. Offer of this contract again begged the question of which route to take. Many viewed a stage route as a precursor to a rail route. Northern interests favored a route from the central plains to the Rockies. Southerners favored a southerly route through territories recently acquired from Mexico. The northern route was considerably shorter than a routing that proceeded west to southern California and from there north to San Francisco.
John Butterfield, one of the founders of American Express and a southerner, advocated for the southern route. He proposed a route originating in Memphis Tennessee to St. Louis, continuing on to California through present day Arkansas, New Mexico and Arizona. Postmaster General Aaron Brown, also a southerner and native of Memphis, awarded the government contract to- you guessed it- Butterfield.
Next week: The Southern Route
https://www.amazon.com/author/paulcolt
Ride easy,
Paul
Gold settled California and made it a prized national possession. Supplying California, defending it and communicating with it all became national priorities. Rail service presented a daunting engineering challenge that would take years to solve even after overcoming the politics of route selection. Communication and commerce couldn’t wait.
Communication in the mid-nineteenth century meant mail. In 1849 the fastest mail route to California left New York by ship bound for Panama. In Panama mail was transported across the isthmus- we hadn’t dug the ditch yet- to a second ship bound for San Francisco. The U.S. government subsidized a service that still cost 80 nineteenth-century-cents an ounce and took a month not counting the time it took your mail to get to its port of departure; and then to its recipient from the port of arrival. There had to be a better way.
In 1857 Congress authorized the award of a contract to carry mail and passengers from the Mississippi River to California by stagecoach. Offer of this contract again begged the question of which route to take. Many viewed a stage route as a precursor to a rail route. Northern interests favored a route from the central plains to the Rockies. Southerners favored a southerly route through territories recently acquired from Mexico. The northern route was considerably shorter than a routing that proceeded west to southern California and from there north to San Francisco.
John Butterfield, one of the founders of American Express and a southerner, advocated for the southern route. He proposed a route originating in Memphis Tennessee to St. Louis, continuing on to California through present day Arkansas, New Mexico and Arizona. Postmaster General Aaron Brown, also a southerner and native of Memphis, awarded the government contract to- you guessed it- Butterfield.
Next week: The Southern Route
https://www.amazon.com/author/paulcolt
Ride easy,
Paul
January 3, 2016
Maniacal Reaper
The Mechanical Reaper invented by Cyrus McCormick in 1831 wasn’t really maniacal, the ungainly machine only looked like a torture rack taken from Dante’s Inferno. If you use your favorite search engine you can find plenty of pictures. You’ll see what I mean. Drawn by horses or mules, the reaper looked like a sled piled high with a fanciful cargo of wooden arms and steel blades. A reel mechanism gathered wheat into wheel driven cutting blades powered by the team pulling the machine through a field. The first model was so noisy the teams had to be coaxed into pulling it.
The reaper may have looked unusual; but it revolutionized agricultural economics on the great-plains at a time when most considered the land little more than a Great American Desert. McCormick claimed his reaper could harvest fifteen acres a day compared with two harvested by hand. Unlike Mr. Whitney’s Cotton Gin, McCormick reaper productivity promoted free labor, diminishing demand for slave labor in new territories opening in the west. McCormick’s mechanized wheat harvesting made stark contrast when compared to large scale cotton harvesting by slave labor. It took twenty men cutting by hand to harvest an acre of wheat in the time it took Mr. McCormick’s reaper. Industrial mechanics began a revolution that changed agriculture forever.
In 1845 Cyrus McCormick made an important decision. He saw the market for his reaper moving west. He considered his choices and determined to follow the railroads building toward Chicago. His decision secured the future of his company. He obtained financing to build his factory in Chicago, repaying his investor in just two years. Enactment of the Kansas Nebraska Act in 1854 opened vast tracts of the plains to wheat production on a grand scale.
When his patents eventually ran out, McCormick faced stiff competition. Innovation became the key to success. He pioneered financing his sales by allowing farmers to purchase his one hundred twenty dollar machine and pay for it over several harvests. Innovation didn’t stop at marketing practices either. The reaper continued to evolve from basic cutting to mechanizing raking, binding, and eventually threshing the grain. Each engineering improvement increased the efficiency and productivity of the harvesting process. The company grew and prospered as the country made its way west.
In 1902 Cyrus McCormick’s son engineered the merger of three firms to create the industrial conglomerate we know in the twentieth century as International Harvester. Quite a legacy for a maniacal reaper. American ingenuity at its best.
https://www.amazon.com/author/paulcolt
Ride easy,
Paul
The reaper may have looked unusual; but it revolutionized agricultural economics on the great-plains at a time when most considered the land little more than a Great American Desert. McCormick claimed his reaper could harvest fifteen acres a day compared with two harvested by hand. Unlike Mr. Whitney’s Cotton Gin, McCormick reaper productivity promoted free labor, diminishing demand for slave labor in new territories opening in the west. McCormick’s mechanized wheat harvesting made stark contrast when compared to large scale cotton harvesting by slave labor. It took twenty men cutting by hand to harvest an acre of wheat in the time it took Mr. McCormick’s reaper. Industrial mechanics began a revolution that changed agriculture forever.
In 1845 Cyrus McCormick made an important decision. He saw the market for his reaper moving west. He considered his choices and determined to follow the railroads building toward Chicago. His decision secured the future of his company. He obtained financing to build his factory in Chicago, repaying his investor in just two years. Enactment of the Kansas Nebraska Act in 1854 opened vast tracts of the plains to wheat production on a grand scale.
When his patents eventually ran out, McCormick faced stiff competition. Innovation became the key to success. He pioneered financing his sales by allowing farmers to purchase his one hundred twenty dollar machine and pay for it over several harvests. Innovation didn’t stop at marketing practices either. The reaper continued to evolve from basic cutting to mechanizing raking, binding, and eventually threshing the grain. Each engineering improvement increased the efficiency and productivity of the harvesting process. The company grew and prospered as the country made its way west.
In 1902 Cyrus McCormick’s son engineered the merger of three firms to create the industrial conglomerate we know in the twentieth century as International Harvester. Quite a legacy for a maniacal reaper. American ingenuity at its best.
https://www.amazon.com/author/paulcolt
Ride easy,
Paul
December 27, 2015
Mr. Whitney's Contraption
This past spring we devoted a series of posts to the role selecting a rail route to the Pacific played in the run up to the Civil War. Sectional differences over the spread of slavery touched off the Kansas Missouri border conflict in a prelude to the Civil War. In doing research for an upcoming book on the period, I came across one of those insights that has an unexpected connection to subsequent events.
In the late eighteenth century, cotton was a modest agricultural crop largely confined to a variety of cotton that could be grown along coastal areas of the southeast. A hardier variety, better suited to inland growing conditions, could not be processed profitably, because of the intensely laborious effort needed to separate the seeds from the fiber. As a consequence of low yield coastal cotton and the high cost of slave labor, the practice of slave holding began to wane. Economics might very well have put and a natural end to slavery had Eli Whitney not invented a contraption known as the cotton gin.
Whitney’s 1793 invention mechanized the process of removing seeds from inland cotton, thereby reducing the cost to produce the crop. Whitney’s invention coincided with the early onset of the industrial revolution. Innovations in textile manufacture in England and the northeastern United States fueled demand for cotton. Armed with Mr. Whitney’s contraption and a ready cash market, cotton agriculture spread inland across the south. Grown on large plantations, cotton fueled demand for field labor, spreading the practice of slavery across the south and sowing the seeds of sectional discord that would ultimately lead to war.
In an ironic twist, antislavery abolitionist sentiment flourished in the north. Moral outrage and condemnation of the practice stood in stark contrast to the region’s growing demand for the fruits of slave labor. Industrialization in textile manufacture increased market demand for inland cotton thereby promoting expansion in the practice of slave holding.
Next Week: The Maniacal Reaper
https://www.amazon.com/author/paulcolt
Ride easy,
Paul
In the late eighteenth century, cotton was a modest agricultural crop largely confined to a variety of cotton that could be grown along coastal areas of the southeast. A hardier variety, better suited to inland growing conditions, could not be processed profitably, because of the intensely laborious effort needed to separate the seeds from the fiber. As a consequence of low yield coastal cotton and the high cost of slave labor, the practice of slave holding began to wane. Economics might very well have put and a natural end to slavery had Eli Whitney not invented a contraption known as the cotton gin.
Whitney’s 1793 invention mechanized the process of removing seeds from inland cotton, thereby reducing the cost to produce the crop. Whitney’s invention coincided with the early onset of the industrial revolution. Innovations in textile manufacture in England and the northeastern United States fueled demand for cotton. Armed with Mr. Whitney’s contraption and a ready cash market, cotton agriculture spread inland across the south. Grown on large plantations, cotton fueled demand for field labor, spreading the practice of slavery across the south and sowing the seeds of sectional discord that would ultimately lead to war.
In an ironic twist, antislavery abolitionist sentiment flourished in the north. Moral outrage and condemnation of the practice stood in stark contrast to the region’s growing demand for the fruits of slave labor. Industrialization in textile manufacture increased market demand for inland cotton thereby promoting expansion in the practice of slave holding.
Next Week: The Maniacal Reaper
https://www.amazon.com/author/paulcolt
Ride easy,
Paul
December 20, 2015
Buffalo Soldiers on San Juan Hill
So if Teddy Roosevelt’s Rough Riders weren’t solely responsible for taking San Juan Hill, what really happened July 1, 1898? TR’s regiment was one of twenty-six regiments making up the Fifth Army Corps in the Cuban campaign. Fifteen thousand troops took the field that day in two separate engagements. The assault on San Juan Hill gained notoriety as the more strategically important of two objectives. The task of taking the hill fell to the eight thousand troops of the 1st Infantry Division and the Dismounted Cavalry Division- that’s right dismounted. The Rough Riders didn’t have horses to ride in Cuba. Neither did any of the other cavalry units.
Among the regiments participating in the San Juan Hill assault were the 9th and 10th Cavalry and the 24th Infantry, three of four African American regiments, included in the expeditionary force. The other side of the San Juan Hill story recognizes these regiments as leading the charge to take the hill. That claim also appears to somewhat overstate the case, though without the widespread acceptance accorded the Rough Rider narrative.
The fact that TR’s press got all the credit should surprise no one. At the turn of the nineteenth century, African Americans may have been emancipated; but they were still subject to institutional discrimination especially in the south. Dating back to the Civil War, black and white soldiers fought in largely segregated units. Buffalo Soldiers were for the most part commanded by white officers. African American soldiers were heroes in the black community, but even in the face of battlefield heroics, publicly they received little if not grudging credit. Public opinion was conditioned to accept TR’s ‘P.T. Barnum-brand’ of self-promotion.
There is little doubt Buffalo Soldiers performed with distinction and honor on San Juan Hill. TR himself commented on the courage of the 9th Cavalry, rating it equal to that of his own command. Lieutenant John J. Pershing, who would later command the 10th Cavalry, earning his ‘Black Jack’ sobriquet, also praised the Buffalo soldier’s heroism in the field.
The reality of what happened on San Juan Hill that day broke new ground in neo-modern U.S. military history. Segregation blurred on San Juan Hill. In the heat of battle the assault inadvertently became an integrated military operation. Those touched by the experience had to come away questioning some of their stereotypes and prejudices. It may or may not have been the beginning of a long and painful road to social evolution; but at very least it was a significant milestone on a path to the future, popular history largely overlooks.
https://www.amazon.com/author/paulcolt
Ride easy,
Paul
Among the regiments participating in the San Juan Hill assault were the 9th and 10th Cavalry and the 24th Infantry, three of four African American regiments, included in the expeditionary force. The other side of the San Juan Hill story recognizes these regiments as leading the charge to take the hill. That claim also appears to somewhat overstate the case, though without the widespread acceptance accorded the Rough Rider narrative.
The fact that TR’s press got all the credit should surprise no one. At the turn of the nineteenth century, African Americans may have been emancipated; but they were still subject to institutional discrimination especially in the south. Dating back to the Civil War, black and white soldiers fought in largely segregated units. Buffalo Soldiers were for the most part commanded by white officers. African American soldiers were heroes in the black community, but even in the face of battlefield heroics, publicly they received little if not grudging credit. Public opinion was conditioned to accept TR’s ‘P.T. Barnum-brand’ of self-promotion.
There is little doubt Buffalo Soldiers performed with distinction and honor on San Juan Hill. TR himself commented on the courage of the 9th Cavalry, rating it equal to that of his own command. Lieutenant John J. Pershing, who would later command the 10th Cavalry, earning his ‘Black Jack’ sobriquet, also praised the Buffalo soldier’s heroism in the field.
The reality of what happened on San Juan Hill that day broke new ground in neo-modern U.S. military history. Segregation blurred on San Juan Hill. In the heat of battle the assault inadvertently became an integrated military operation. Those touched by the experience had to come away questioning some of their stereotypes and prejudices. It may or may not have been the beginning of a long and painful road to social evolution; but at very least it was a significant milestone on a path to the future, popular history largely overlooks.
https://www.amazon.com/author/paulcolt
Ride easy,
Paul
December 13, 2015
San Juan Hill
Those who follow these posts and my writing know I love turning over little known facts or insights tucked away in the margins surrounding some otherwise familiar historical character or event. You have also heard me observe: History is a prismatic lens through which we view the past as seen by those who record it. Well it seems this one is a two-fer!
One of the story lines in my Boots and Saddles: A Call to Glory acknowledges the Punitive Expedition against Pancho Villa as the beginning of the end for the mounted United States Cavalry. There is a scene at the end of the book where the proud cavalry regiments deployed in pursuit of Villa return home, symbolically passing in review and into the pages of history. In researching that scene, I investigated the unit histories of those regiments. One of them, the African American 10th Cavalry, known as Buffalo Soldiers, played a significant role in capturing San Juan Hill during the Spanish American War.
Wait a minute! That was Teddy Roosevelt and his legendary Rough Riders right? Legendary maybe, but not necessarily the triumph history portrays. TR and his boys got pages in all the history books, but it turns out there’s another side to the story. I was intrigued. I thought there might be a book in that story. Maybe there is someday, but for now, let’s just poke at the overlooked facts for these pages.
We know George Custer and a number of high profile military leaders built their legacies and legends by taking friendly newspaper reporters into the field with them. The public persona advantages of manufactured fame weren’t lost on an ambitious politician like TR either. He had a penchant for self-promotion that rode right up there with the likes of Custer and those who would follow him. Yup, you guessed it. TR had imbedded PR in the volunteer command he led up San Juan Hill that July day in 1898. Which of course explains the popular legend.
The 10th Cavalry unit history tells a slightly different story. In fact two other all black regiments also took part in the legendary assault. Their stories raised the question for me: What really happened that day on San Juan Hill?
Next week: Buffalo Soldiers on San Juan Hill
https://www.amazon.com/author/paulcolt
Ride easy,
Paul
One of the story lines in my Boots and Saddles: A Call to Glory acknowledges the Punitive Expedition against Pancho Villa as the beginning of the end for the mounted United States Cavalry. There is a scene at the end of the book where the proud cavalry regiments deployed in pursuit of Villa return home, symbolically passing in review and into the pages of history. In researching that scene, I investigated the unit histories of those regiments. One of them, the African American 10th Cavalry, known as Buffalo Soldiers, played a significant role in capturing San Juan Hill during the Spanish American War.
Wait a minute! That was Teddy Roosevelt and his legendary Rough Riders right? Legendary maybe, but not necessarily the triumph history portrays. TR and his boys got pages in all the history books, but it turns out there’s another side to the story. I was intrigued. I thought there might be a book in that story. Maybe there is someday, but for now, let’s just poke at the overlooked facts for these pages.
We know George Custer and a number of high profile military leaders built their legacies and legends by taking friendly newspaper reporters into the field with them. The public persona advantages of manufactured fame weren’t lost on an ambitious politician like TR either. He had a penchant for self-promotion that rode right up there with the likes of Custer and those who would follow him. Yup, you guessed it. TR had imbedded PR in the volunteer command he led up San Juan Hill that July day in 1898. Which of course explains the popular legend.
The 10th Cavalry unit history tells a slightly different story. In fact two other all black regiments also took part in the legendary assault. Their stories raised the question for me: What really happened that day on San Juan Hill?
Next week: Buffalo Soldiers on San Juan Hill
https://www.amazon.com/author/paulcolt
Ride easy,
Paul
