Kindle Notes & Highlights
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December 19, 2018 - January 2, 2019
Central Overland California & Pike's Peak Express Company, which we remember by its abbreviated name, a name that remains forever endearing and enduring: the Pony Express.
A Calvinist, Majors was a deeply religious man, a fundamentalist who read the Bible daily and required his bullwhackers to sign a pledge that would become as famous as the business he ran: “While I am in the employ of A. Majors, I agree not to use profane language, not to get drunk, not to gamble, nor to treat the animals cruelly, and not to do anything incompatible with the conduct of a gentleman. I agree if I violate any of the above conditions to accept my discharge without any pay for my services.”
Most news coming from the East traveled along the meandering 2,700-mile Southern Route. Officially called the Butterfield Overland Mail Company Route, it crossed the Southwest from St. Louis, looping down to El Paso on the Mexican border, and then on to California and up to San Francisco, thus resulting in its nickname, the Oxbow Route. Sketched out on a crude map, the route resembled the bow of an ox's horns.
