Kansas State History

Main Menu

  • Home
  • Articles
  • Web Links
  • Site Search
  • Web Search
  • About Us
  • Write For Us
  • Contact Us
  • Website Information
  • Log in

Reading Library

  • Library Home
  • The Journals
  • The Old Santa Fe Trail
  • The Prairie
  • Personal Recollections
  • The Price of the Prairie
  • Kansas Facts: Information about The Counties of the State
  • The American Indian as Participant in the Civil War
  • Expansion and Conflict, by William E. Dodd
  • Governors of the State of Kansas
  • The Ranche On The Oxhide
  • Adventures While Preaching the Gospel of Beauty
  • The Life of Hon. William F. Cody
  • The Border and the Buffalo

Whats New

  • The University Of Hesperus (aka University of Kansas)
  • Chapter IX: Passing of the Pony Express
  • Chapter VIII: Early Overland Mail Routes
  • Chapter VII:Anecdotes of the Trail and Honor Roll
  • Chapter VI: Riders and Famous Rides

The Story of the Pony Express

An account of the most remarkable mail service ever in existence, and its place in history.

By
Glenn D. Bradley

Author of Winning the Southwest

To My Parents


Preface

This little volume has but one purpose--to give an authentic, useful, and readable account of the Pony Express. This wonderful enterprise played an important part in history, and demonstrated what American spirit can accomplish. It showed that the "heroes of sixty-one" were not all south of Mason and Dixon's line fighting each other. And, strange to say, little of a formal nature has been written concerning it.
I have sought to bring to light and make accessible to all readers the more important facts of the Pony Express--its inception, organization and development, its importance to history, its historical background, and some of the anecdotes incidental to its operation.
The subject leads one into a wide range of fascinating material, all interesting though much of it is irrelevant. In itself this material is fragmentary and incoherent. It would be quite easy to fill many pages with western adventure having no special bearing upon the central topic. While I have diverged occasionally from the thread of the narrative, my purpose has been merely to give where possible more background to the story, that the account as a whole might be more understandable in its relation to the general facts of history.
Special acknowledgment is due Frank A. Root of Topeka, Kansas, joint author with William E. Connelley of The Overland Stage To California, an excellent compendium of data on many phases of the subject. In preparing this work, various Senate Documents have been of great value. Some interesting material is found in Inman and Cody's Salt Lake Trail.
The files of the Century Magazine, old newspaper files, Bancroft's colossal history of the West and the works of Samuel L. Clemens have also been of value in compiling the present book.
G.D.B.

Filters
List of articles in category The Story of the Pony Express
Title Author Hits
Chapter I: At A Nation's Crisis Written by Glenn D. Bradley Hits: 466
Chapter II: Inception and Organization of the Pony Express Written by Glenn D. Bradley Hits: 495
Chapter III: The First Trip and Triumph Written by Glenn D. Bradley Hits: 448
Chapter IV: Operation, Equipment, and Business Written by Glenn D. Bradley Hits: 453
Chapter V: California and the Secession Menace Written by Glenn D. Bradley Hits: 983
Chapter VI: Riders and Famous Rides Written by Glenn D. Bradley Hits: 1792
Chapter VII:Anecdotes of the Trail and Honor Roll Written by Glenn D. Bradley Hits: 1902
Chapter VIII: Early Overland Mail Routes Written by Glenn D. Bradley Hits: 1575
Chapter IX: Passing of the Pony Express Written by Glenn D. Bradley Hits: 1679
  • You are here:  
  • Home
  • Library Home
  • The Story of the Pony Express

Recommended Links

The Best Ways to Use a History Degree

Online History Programs


Kansas State History Disclaimer Notice | Kansas State History Privacy Statement | Web Site Terms and Conditions of Use
| Creative Commons License This Article on the Kansas State History website by Rick Brainard is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Based on a work at Kansas State History. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at Kansas State History Copyright Page.

Back to Top

© Kansas State History 2021