STAGECOACHES

STAGECOACHES. Vehicles pulled by teams of four or six horses. Used to carry passengers and freight, stagecoach horses were changed at stations, called stages, along the route. Because of poor roads, stagecoaches were not used widely in the Midwest until the 19th century. Their increasing use encouraged the development of better methods of road construction and maintenance.

Stagecoaches averaged forty miles per day in the summer and twenty-five miles in winter over a fifteen-hour day of travel. Stages often left Dubuque before dawn. Coach capacity was usually fourteen passengers in addition to baggage and the driver. Stagecoach lines with contracts to carry U.S. mail could count on additional income.

A somewhat reliable system of stagecoach service out of Dubuque began by the 1850s with routes leading west to Blackhawk County, south into Jackson County, north to Clayton County, and southwest along the MILITARY ROAD toward Iowa City. A successful stagecoach business operating out of Dubuque was the Western Stage Company that opened an office at Main and Second Street.

Stagecoach transportation was difficult on passengers. Advised to wear old clothes, customers were asked to make the trip more enjoyable. Wells Fargo, a famous stagecoach line, printed the following “rules of the road:”

1 Abstinence from liquor is requested, but if you must drink, share the bottle. To do otherwise makes you appear selfish and unneighborly.

2 If ladies are present, gentlemen are urged to forego smoking cigars and pipes as the odor of same is repugnant to the Gentle Sex. Chewing tobacco is permitted, but spit WITH the wind, not against it.

3 Gentlemen must refrain from the use of rough language in the presence of ladies and children.

4 Buffalo robes are provided for your comfort during cold weather. Hogging robes will not be tolerated and the offender will be made to ride with the driver.

5 Don't snore loudly while sleeping or use your fellow passenger's shoulder for a pillow; he or she may not understand and friction may result.

6 Firearms may be kept on your person for use in emergencies. Do not fire them for pleasure or shoot at wild animals as the sound riles the horses.

7 In the event of runaway horses, remain calm. Leaping from the coach in panic will leave you injured, at the mercy of the elements, hostile Indians and hungry wolves.

8 Forbidden topics of discussion are stagecoach robberies and Indian uprisings.

9 Gents guilty of unchivalrous behavior toward lady passengers will be put off the stage. It's a long walk back. A word to the wise is sufficient.