doc241 - Schoenherr Home Page in Sunny Chula Vista

E. Mason, and was the occasion of great rejoicing. It had made the unprecedented time
of 34 days from San Antonio.
In September, 1857, the government entered into a contract with John Butterfield
and his associates for carrying the mails between St. Louis and the Pacific Coast, at a
cost of $600,000 a year. The preparations were very elaborate, and the regulations read
curiously at this day. Each passenger on the mail coach was required to provide himself
with a Sharp's rifle, 100 cartridges, a Colt's revolver, belt and holster, knife and sheath,
a pair of thick boots and woolen pants, underclothing, a soldier's overcoat, one pair of
woolen blankets, an India rubber blanket, and a bag with needles, thread, sponge,
brush, comb, soap, and towels. The coaches were drawn most of the way by six horses.
The sub-contractors were Jennings and Doyle, and in 1859 Dana speaks of Doyle as
living in San Diego. When the Civil War came on, the military post in Arizona and New
Mexico were withdrawn and the Southern mail route abandoned. There had been much
trouble with Indians, especially in Arizona with the Apaches, and the protection was
never adequate.
In 1865, the overland mail by the Southern route was resumed, but it went to Los
Angeles by way of Warner's Pass, and thence to San Francisco, missing San Diego. In
1867, Major Ben. C. Truman was appointed postal agent for California and used his influence
to have the route changed to run by way of San Diego. The contractors,
Thompson & Griffith, had been losing money, and took advantage of this change to
abandon their contract. Mr. John G. Capron, who was then living in Tucson and had
been engaged in the mail route business for some years, driving for Jennings & Doyle
and others, thereupon went to Washington and secured the contract between Los Angeles
and El Paso, 913 miles. He then moved to San Diego, and continued to operate this
line for seven years, from 1867 to 1874. The portions of the route between El Paso and
Tucson, and from San Diego to Los Angeles, were sublet. Mr. Capron tells many interesting
stories of his troubles with the Apache Indians in Arizona, but the California Indians
never gave him much trouble.
In 1847, a census of San Diego County was taken by Captain Davis of the Mormon
Company, by order of Colonel Stevenson. It showed the following:
Page 255
[John G. Capron]
CENSUS OF 1850
Population of whites 248
Tame Indians or neophytes 483
Wild Indians or gentiles 1550
Sandwich Islanders 3
Negroes 3
Total population of the county 2287