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Billy Richardson (Pony Express Rider)
Johnson William Richardson (c. 1834–1862) was a Pony Express rider. He was a native of Virginia and at a fairly young age he was shanghaied onto a seagoing freighter where he sailed the icy seas of the North Atlantic. It was a number of years before he found an opportunity to make a successful escape. He ventured to St. Joseph, Missouri where he was employed as a hostler by Fish and Robidoux in 1859. During that time he also rode race horses at a popular track on Sparta Road. Billy Richardson is believed by many to have been the first westbound rider for the Pony Express. The contemporaneous newspaper account (written within hours of the actual event) as it appeared on April 4, 1860 in the St. Joseph Daily West, recorded him as the first Pony Express rider on April 3, 1860, "The rider is a Mr. Richardson, formerly a sailor, and a man accustomed to every description of hardship, having sailed for years amid the snows and icebergs of the Northern ocean." The article was reprinted ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Riders Pony Express
Riders can refer to *Leicester Riders, a British basketball team *Riders (novel), Riders (Cooper novel), a book by Jilly Cooper **Riders (1993 film), a British film based on the book *Saskatchewan Roughriders, a Canadian football team *Steal (film), a 2002 American action film also called ''Riders'' * "Riders", a group of police officers involved in misconduct in Oakland, California; see ''Allen v. City of Oakland'' Gaming * Sonic Riders, a 2006 racing video game from the Sonic the Hedgehog series * Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity, a 2008 racing video game from the Sonic the Hedgehog series * Sonic Free Riders, a 2010 racing video game from the Sonic the Hedgehog series See also * Rider (other) * Ride (other) {{disambiguation ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pony Express
The Pony Express was an American express mail service that used relays of horse-mounted riders. It operated from April 3, 1860, to October 26, 1861, between Missouri and California. It was operated by the Central Overland California and Pikes Peak Express Company. During its 18 months of operation, the Pony Express reduced the time for messages to travel between the east and west US coast to about 10 days. It became the west's most direct means of eastwest communication before the first transcontinental telegraph was established (October 24, 1861), and was vital for tying the new U.S. state of California with the rest of the United States. Despite a heavy subsidy, the Pony Express was not a financial success and went bankrupt in 18 months, when a faster telegraph service was established. Nevertheless, it demonstrated that a unified transcontinental system of communications could be established and operated year-round. When replaced by the telegraph, the Pony Express quick ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shanghaiing
Shanghaiing or crimping is the practice of kidnapping people to serve as sailors by coercive techniques such as trickery, intimidation, or violence. Those engaged in this form of kidnapping were known as ''crimps''. The related term ''press gang'' refers specifically to impressment practices in Great Britain's Royal Navy. Etymology The verb "shanghai" joined the lexicon with "crimping" and "sailor thieves" in the 1850s, possibly because Shanghai was a common destination of the ships with abducted crews. The term has since expanded to mean "kidnapped" or "induced to do something by means of fraud or coercion." Background Crimps flourished in port cities like London and Liverpool in England and in San Francisco, Portland, Astoria, Seattle, Savannah, and Port Townsend in the United States. On the West Coast of the United States, Portland eventually surpassed San Francisco for shanghaiing. On the East Coast of the United States, New York easily led the way, followed by Boston, Phila ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hostler
A hostler or ostler is a groom or stableman, who is employed in a stable to take care of horses, usually at an inn. In the twentieth century the word came to be used in railroad industry for a type of train driver. Etymology The word is spelled "hostler" in American English, but "ostler" in British English. It traces to c. 1386, meaning "one who tends to horses at an inn"—and also, occasionally, "innkeeper"—is derived from Anglo-French ''hostiler'' (modern French ), itself from Medieval Latin "the monk who entertains guests at a monastery", from ''hospitale'' "inn" (compare hospital, hospitaller, hospitality). A similar word, ''hostelero'' (innkeeper, the one that took care of a hostal), exists in Spanish. Modern uses According to the ''Dictionary of Occupational Titles'', a hostler in motor transportation is a type of truck driver who directs trucks or tractors at vehicle parking or docking areas to move, position, or park trucks or trailers. In the United States railr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Weekly West
''The Weekly West'' was an American newspaper founded by twenty-two-year-old Frances Marion Posegate in St. Joseph, Missouri St. Joseph is a city in and the county seat of Buchanan County, Missouri. Small parts of St. Joseph extend into Andrew County. Located on the Missouri River, it is the principal city of the St. Joseph Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includ .... In 1859 it was expanded to a daily paper. In August, 1860 Posegate sold the paper to James Tracey & Co. It contains a first hand account of the start of the Pony Express: ''The Weekly West'' St. Joseph, Missouri, Saturday Morning, April 7, 1860 THE GREATEST ENTERPRISE OF MODERN TIMES!! At a quarter past seven o'clock, last evening, the mail was placed by M. Jeff. Thompson, on the back of the animal, a fine bay mare, who is to run the first stage of the great through Express from St. Joseph to her sister cities of the Pacific shore. Horse and rider started off amid the loud and continuous cheers of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Johnny Fry
John Fry, Jr. (1840 – October 6, 1863) was the closing rider on the first westbound Pony Express and later a soldier in the United States Cavalry who was killed in action during the American Civil War. Early life and The Pony Express Fry was born in Bourbon County, Kentucky to John Fry, Sr., the son of a German immigrant, and Susannah "Sally" Fry (nee Humble) in 1840. Sally moved with her son and new husband Benjamin Wells to Rushville, Missouri around 1857. In the winter of 1860, William H. Russell, Alexander Majors, William B. Waddell and Secretary of War John B. Floyd were working to undermine efforts by the Atlantic & Pacific Mail Company's efforts to secure from Congress $10,000,000 for rail mail service between the westernmost rail head in St. Joseph, Missouri and the gold fields of northern California. At the Willard Hotel, Russell's party bet the Atlantic & Pacific's backers $100,000 that men on horseback could make the journey of 1,950 miles in ten days. The bet r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
First Transcontinental Telegraph
The first transcontinental telegraph (completed October 24, 1861) was a line that connected the existing telegraph network in the eastern United States to a small network in California, by means of a link between Omaha, Nebraska and Carson City, Nevada, via Salt Lake City. It was a milestone in electrical engineering and in the formation of the United States of America. It served as the only method of near-instantaneous communication between the east and west coasts during the 1860s. For comparison, in 1841, the news of the death of President William Henry Harrison had taken 110 days to reach Los Angeles. Background After the development of efficient telegraph systems in the 1830s, their use saw almost explosive growth in the 1840s. Samuel Morse's first experimental line between Washington, D.C. and Baltimore—the Baltimore-Washington telegraph line—was demonstrated on May 24, 1844. By 1850 there were lines covering most of the eastern states, and a separate network of line ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1830s Births
Year 183 ( CLXXXIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Aurelius and Victorinus (or, less frequently, year 936 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination 183 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years. Events By place Roman Empire * An assassination attempt on Emperor Commodus by members of the Senate fails. Births * January 26 – Lady Zhen, wife of the Cao Wei state Emperor Cao Pi (d. 221) * Hu Zong, Chinese general, official and poet of the Eastern Wu state (d. 242) * Liu Zan (Zhengming), Chinese general of the Eastern Wu state (d. 255) * Lu Xun Zhou Shuren (25 September 1881 – 19 October 1936), better known by his pen name Lu Xun (or Lu Sun; ; Wade–Giles: Lu Hsün), was a Chinese writer, essayist, poet, and literary critic. He ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1862 Deaths
Year 186 ( CLXXXVI) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Aurelius and Glabrio (or, less frequently, year 939 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination 186 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years. Events By place Roman Empire * Peasants in Gaul stage an anti-tax uprising under Maternus. * Roman governor Pertinax escapes an assassination attempt, by British usurpers. New Zealand * The Hatepe volcanic eruption extends Lake Taupō and makes skies red across the world. However, recent radiocarbon dating by R. Sparks has put the date at 233 AD ± 13 (95% confidence). Births * Ma Liang, Chinese official of the Shu Han state (d. 222) Deaths * April 21 – Apollonius the Apologist, Christian martyr * Bian Zhang, Chinese official and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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