History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

MAIL SERVICE.
States mails between Salt Lake City and Indepen-
dence, Missouri, was annulled, ostensibly on account
of their non-arrival within the stipulated time. 33
Between
1851 and 1856 the service had been regularly performed,
the contract being held in the autumn of 1856
by the gentile firm of Hockaday & Magraw, 39 the lat-
38 In a distorted sketch of the Utah expedition, in the Atlantic Monthly,
March 1S59, p. .°»G7, the writer gives, as the actual reason, that the postmaster
believed the mails to have been tampered with, by order of Brigham Young,
at S. L. City or en route. It is improbable that Brigham would take such
risks, for, as we shall see, he now proposed to establish an express company in
connection with the mails.
3S During the winter of 1856-7 no regular mail service was performed, on
account of the severity of the season. The postmaster at S. L. City contracted,
however, with Messrs Little and Hanks to carry a mail to Independence for
$1,500. They made the trip in 78 days, having suffered severely from cold
and hunger. Little's Mail Service, MS., 35-8. Mr Little had been for several
years connected with the mail service. In 1850 Sam. H. Woodson of Independence,
Mo., made a contract with the U. S. P. 0. department to carry a
monthly mail for four years between that point and S. L. City. This was the
first government mail service performed between S. L. City and any point east of
the Rocky Mountains. Mr Little afterward contracted with Woodson to carry
the mail between S. L. City and Fort Laramie, where the mails exchanged,
commencing the service Aug. 1, 1851, and associating with himself Ephraim
K. Hanks and Charles F. Decker. At that time there was no settlement between
S. L. City and Fort Laramie, except the trading post at Fort Bridgcr.
On their first trip Little and Hanks met Secretary Harris and judges Brocchus
and Brandebury between Green River and South Pass. They reached Laramie
in nine days, without changing their animals, and there procured five unbroken
Mexican mules, with which they completed their journey. In Sept. 1851
C. F. Decker and Alfred Higgins set out in charge of a mail, Delegate Bernhisel
being a passenger. At Box Elder Creek their party was stopped by '20
Indians, who plundered the wagon. On Oct. 1, 1851, Mr Little started on a
second trip eastward, among his passengers being Judge Brandebury, and
among his fellow-travellers Judge Brocchus. Mr Little's third trip was made
in Nov. and Dec. 1852, Howard Livingstone, of the firm of Livingstone & Kinkead,
being one of his passengers. In Feb. 1852 and May 1S53 Mr Decker carried
the mails to Laramie, having a narrow escape from death at the hands of hostile
Indians on his second trip, on which occasion he met with Kit Carson, to
whose intercession he ascribes his deliverance. Another trip was made by
Mr Little in April 1853. Id., 1-34; Utah Early Records, MS., passim. For
further particulars on mail routes and services up to 185G, see U. S. Acts and
Aesol, 31st Cong. 1st Sess., Ill; H. Ex. Doc, 1, pt 3, 33d Cong. 1st
Sess., pt iii. p. 821; Burton's City of the Saints, 5; Frontier Guardian, March
7. 1849, Apr. 17, 1S50; Deserct News, Apr. 8, 1851, Dec. 25, 1852, May 14,
1853; Fisher's Amer. Stat. Annual, 1854, pp. 127-S; Sac. Union, Apr. 18,
1855. In the Mail Service across the Plains, by F. Little, MS. (S. L. City,
1SS4), are many incidents of travel during the years of which his manuscript
treats. The service was performed under great difficulties, the author suffering
many hardships and having several narrow escapes from Indians. Feiczmore
Little, a native of Cayuga co., N. Y., came to S. L. City in 1850, and
joined the Mormon church in 1S53. In 1854-5 he superintended the construction
of the Big Cottonwood canon wagon road and the building of the
penitentiary. In 1SGS-9 he was engaged in railroad work on the Union
Pacific, and afterward became interested, as we shall see later, in the Utah
Central and Utah Southern railroads.
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