George Giddings’ first mail contract, June 1854–June 1857

“When his service was over he took a trip to California for business and pleasure…”

— Custodian of the Alamo, San Antonio Light, February 23, 1887.

Between 1854 and 1858, Thomas Rife traveled to California, according to him, “for business and pleasure,” ¹ perhaps as an employee of the Giddings stage line or perhaps as a gold miner. Thomas Rife does not appear in any records indicating that he worked for Henry Giddings during Giddings’ first mail contract that ran from July 1, 1854, to June 30, 1857. He reappears in records as a conductor on Giddings’ stages in 1858, continuing until the beginning of the Civil War.

George Giddings took over the San Antonio - Santa Fé route.

On June 30, 1854, Skillman’s earlier contract expired. Postmaster James General Campbell rejected Skillman’s bid to win a new contract. He awarded the contract to David Wasson, a fellow Pennsylvanian who probably had never been to Texas. “The gentleman who underbid the Captain [Skillman] must have been wholly ignorant of the character of the service and the country over which it has to be performed.” ² When no representative of Wasson’s company arrived to pick up the first delivery, the Santa Fé postmaster contracted two local businessmen, Elias Brevort and Joab Houghton, to carry the mail.³ Henry Skillman became their agent and carrier.⁴ In San Antonio, a similar scheme was devised, and it seemed that Skillman might win the contract after all. Finally, in August, in time for the next mail to be sent west, Wasson’s agents arrived in San Antonio and presented their credentials to the postmaster.⁵

What followed was five months of confusion. Wasson borrowed large sums of money from George H. Giddings, a San Antonio merchant, probably in the form of store credit. In October, Wasson informed Giddings that he couldn’t repay the loan. The only way Giddings could avoid losing the money he had advanced Wasson was to have the contract transferred to him.⁶ In this accidental way, George Giddings became the new mail contractor.

Henry Skillman already had extensive experience running the mail route; it appears that George Giddings and Skillman formed some kind of partnership. At any rate, Skillman continued to work for the mail line.⁷ With Giddings’ financial backing and Skillman’s experience, they may have hoped that they could make the mail line profitable.

George Giddings was experienced as a freighter as well as a storekeeper. After working as a surveyor, Giddings clerked for a San Antonio merchant and “spent a lot of time on the trail with the freighters, learning the vagaries of mules, Indians, Mexican customs officials and the land itself.” ⁸ He eventually bought out his employers and set up retail stores of his own in San Antonio, Fort Clark, and El Paso.⁹ Giddings’ stores supplied everything a California-bound emigrant could want. He believed correctly that “more gold would probably be spent by people en-route to California than was ever likely to be panned” in the goldfields.¹⁰

In the summer of 1854, Frederick Law Olmsted, a famous landscape architect and traveler from New York, left a description of the mail train as it prepared to leave San Antonio. He wrote that the mail train bound for El Paso and Santa Fé “consists of two heavy wagons and an ambulance for passengers…” Six men armed with Sharp’s rifles and Colt’s repeating pistols escorted the train.¹¹ Giddings employed from 20 to 30 men to drive and guard the coaches. These highly paid men were all armed with rifles and revolvers.¹² The leader of the escort, the conductor, was paid $100 per month, and the other men each received $40 per month.¹³

By 1854, Giddings and his men had established a routine. “The train camps from ten o’clock at night till four in the morning. At eight o’clock a stop of an hour is made to graze the mules and for breakfast. Another halt is made between three o’clock and sunset. The average distance accomplished in a day is over fifty miles…” ¹⁴ According to Giddings, “Between San Antonio and Fort Clark, two men were used after the first year or so. From Fort Clark to Fort Quitman, four men or more were in each mail. From Fort Quitman to El Paso, there were two men. I did not consider that there was much danger there. From Tucson to Mesilla, there were generally from four to eight men. From Tucson west, we had two men.” ¹⁵ By March 1856, between 125 and 175 mules were kept at manned relay stations along the route.¹⁶

Indians continued to create problems for the mail contractor.

The Native Americans were unaware of and unconcerned about the mail line’s new contractors. They were primarily interested in stealing the horses and mules used by travelers and haulers. Assaults on the mail carriers continued.¹⁷ By 1854, travelers were stopping to rest at Howard’s Well, and consequently, there was almost always someone camped there.¹⁸ Indian raiders knew this and routinely visited the spring.¹⁹ The mail trains twice came under attack while camped there in the fall of 1854.²⁰

On December 18, 1854, the mail run to El Paso was the occasion for another battle with Apache raiders involving two mail parties and 15 men. The mail party circled their wagons and made a stand. Skillman had an opportunity to put his “medicine gun” to good use. The Mescalero Apache Indians retired to a hilltop to lob heavy-caliber rifle bullets at the barricaded men below. Eventually, the mail coaches were hitched up and moved out of range, and Skillman, using his Sharps Rifle, shot at least three braves “that he got and others that were doubtless killed but not known to be killed.” He fired only a dozen rounds, but the rifle was so capable that “the awed Apaches soon sought cover in the brush.” ²¹

Relations between the mail contractor and the post office remained unsettled.

Before 1856, Giddings realized that the cost of carrying the mail was four times as much as the value of the contract.²² Giddings, and others writing on his behalf, wrote many letters to Congress and the Postmaster General, imploring them to correct the inequities in Giddings’ contract.

In January through February 1855, Giddings wrote to the US Senate and House of Representatives asking for compensation for his expenses not covered by the contract. He cited the loss of one horse, a large number of mules, and a wagon, totaling $2,140. He claimed to have spent $19,830 to move the mail and had received only $2,679.89 in compensation up to that time.²³

On January 31, 1855, a letter to Postmaster General Campbell from US Representative P. Hansbrough Bell and US Senators Rusk and Sam Houston asked for either weekly or semi-weekly mail service. They also pointed to the need for the Post Office Department to make changes in the Giddings contract.²⁴ In January 1855, letters from Major Belges (Assistant Quartermaster, US Army in San Antonio²⁵ and John Bowen (Postmaster at San Antonio)²⁶ attested to the necessity of using four-horse coaches for the mail service rather than two-horses as specified in the contract. Two horses could not pull the more massive wagons used by Giddings over the worst sections of the post road.²⁷

Finally, on March 13, 1855, Giddings became, by order of the Post Office Department, the official contractor to carry the mail between San Antonio and the Trans-Pecos region of Texas.²⁸ The following month Giddings was fined for leaving three mail sacks containing books at Castroville. The postmaster and Giddings’ agent in Castroville had decided that the coach was overloaded for the long haul to El Paso. The sacks of books were left behind and delivered later.²⁹ Affidavits from John Vance (the Postmaster at Castroville)³⁰ and Thomas Rogers (Giddings’ mail agent at Castroville)³¹ explained the reasons for this incident and asked that the service be upgraded to twice a month due to the increasing volume of mail and the Army’s need for faster service.³²

The spring and summer of 1855 were trying times for Giddings’ mail service.

Heavy rains turned the roads to mud and the creeks to torrents, slowing the mail carriers and resulting in fines of $650 from the Post Office Department. In June, two of Giddings’ employees were killed on the stretch of road in New Mexico known as Jornada del Muerto and the mail was lost. In a night raid in June 1855, a band of Indians stole all the mules from the corral behind Giddings’ store in El Paso.³³ Adding insult to injury, Giddings slept in the store as the mules were stolen.³⁴

In July 1855, over one hundred residents of Bexar County (including Bigfoot Wallace and George Giddings) signed a petition to Governor Elisha M. Pease of Texas seeking relief from Indian attacks. They wanted the Governor to authorize companies of rangers to patrol the northern and western parts of Bexar and Medina Counties to intercept raiding parties.³⁵ The US Army left its base at Fort Inge and moved troops further west.³⁶ The temporary army camp on Live Oak Creek near the Pecos River then became a permanent post; the men of the First Infantry built Fort Lancaster on a site between the creek and the mesa to the east.³⁷

The winter of 1855 was difficult for travelers.

During the winter of 1855-56, record snowfalls created misery and delay for all travelers on the Southern Plains. Giddings was fined $200 for late mail deliveries.³⁸ The cold did not seem to deter Indian raiders, who ambushed stages at Jornada del Muerto and Eagle Springs. A wagon train camped near Barilla Springs was also attacked. By Christmas 1855, Giddings had suffered losses of $3,890 each month since he started operations in October 1854. He got some relief when Congress increased his contract to $33,500 from $25,000 per year beginning on August 18, 1854.³⁹ In the next few months, he would see $5,607.37 taken back by the postal department to settle suits brought by Wasson and others arising out of broken contracts.⁴⁰ In December 1855, Giddings lost 208 mules and the bell mare from Barilla Springs Station, west of Fort Davis⁴¹ when Indians successfully stole the mules belonging to a supply train of sixteen twelve-mule wagons.⁴²

March 1856 was the first anniversary of Giddings’ amended mail contract. Giddings wrote to the US Congress asking to be either released from the contract or have it modified and “placed upon such a footing as to secure him a fair compensation for his service.” ⁴³ To back-up his demand, George and his brother Frank left the business in the hands of John Giddings and set out for the East Coast. Frank went to New York City to meet with the firm’s bankers, and George went to Washington City to lobby Texas Congressman Peter H. Bell and Senator Thomas Rusk.⁴⁴

When the Giddings’ brothers returned to San Antonio, they received reports from the field regarding the extreme winter weather. One of their men froze to death north of El Paso. The eastbound coach endured fifteen days of bitter cold. The men had driven through a “hurricane” at Escondido, “which took off the top of their ambulance.” On the trip west, the same conductor, James Dusenberry, drove through rain, sleet, and cold severe enough to cause the death of four mules from exposure.⁴⁵

The arrival of warmer weather brought out more Indians.

Albert J. Myers, while a soldier in the mid 1850’s, described the Indian’s horsemanship. He wrote, “They are the best horsemen in the world. In battle, they gallop around you, throwing themselves out of the saddle and hanging over the horse’s side, keeping the body of the horse between their enemy and themselves, while only a foot is seen clinging to the saddle. It requires skill to do this alone, but in addition, these warriors manage to keep arrows flying from under their horses’ necks with a degree of certainty and rapidity that is disagreeable to contemplate.” ⁴⁶

The station at Eagle Springs, newly built, was destroyed in July 1856, along with 20 tons of hay and 100 bushels of corn. Eighteen mules were stolen, and the three men manning the station died in the attack. The Eagle Springs station was later destroyed three times before 1861, usually with the loss of life.⁴⁷ Each time, the station was rebuilt at a cost to Giddings of at least $1,500.⁴⁸

In September 1856, Comanche Indians near Escondido Springs west of the Pecos River attacked Big Foot Wallace’s mail train. Nineteen mules were stolen, and the coach was destroyed.⁴⁹ Wallace testified later that this was the only time he was attacked by Indians while working for Giddings as the mail contractor.⁵⁰ In October, “twenty-four mules were stolen from Fort Davis Station and the herder killed. US Troops under the command of Lt. Zenas R. Bliss had been sent out after the Indians but had failed to recover the mules.” ⁵¹ The following December, Indians attacked a train under the command of James Cook at Eighteen-Mile Hole. All the mules were taken, and two coaches burned. George Giddings was on the coach and helped fight off the attack.

Shortly afterward, in January 1857, the mail party on a branch line between Fort Davis and Presidio was attacked near Cienega, Texas. The Indians destroyed two coaches, two sets of six-horse harness, and the mail. Twenty-eight mules were stolen.⁵² In February 1857, a howling blizzard east of El Paso resulted in more fines from the Postmaster General because of delays in delivering the mail.

In 1856, Giddings began to build more relay stations.

By April 1856, there were two more relay stations between San Elizario and Fort Clarke. One was the Limpia Station near Fort Davis, and the other was at Live Oak Creek just north of Fort Lancaster.⁵³ Soon there were stations at Comanche Springs (later Fort Stockton) and Eagle Springs.

Giddings must have used his earnings as a freighter and a merchant to subsidize the mail route. Somehow he was able to afford to build these new relay stations. In early 1857, a station was completed at Van Horn’s Well. The new station was a welcome sight to travelers, but it also attracted the attention of passing Comanche Indians who promptly, in March, ran off the herd of 18 mules grazing a short distance from the station.⁵⁴

On March 4, 1857, James Buchanan became President of the United States. With the new administration came a new cabinet and a new Postmaster General. Giddings was at last rid of Postmaster Campbell and hoped for a more evenhanded treatment for his mail route.

Petitions arrived in Washington, DC, from California containing 75,000 signatures calling for a wagon road and “overland mail service from the eastern states.” ⁵⁵ In response, Congress appropriated funds for two such roads, one from Fort Kearney, Nebraska, and one from El Paso to Fort Yuma on the eastern boundary of southern California. Congress could not agree on which route was more appropriate for the proposed overland mail service and so, funded both. Finally, in the Appropriations bill of 1857-58, the Postmaster General was authorized to contract for mail service from some point on the Mississippi River to San Francisco, California. The contractor who won the bid would choose the starting point at the eastern terminus. The contract would pay $300,000 for semi-monthly service, $450,000 for weekly service, or $600,000 for semi-weekly service at the option of the Postmaster-General.⁵⁶ The term of the contract would be for six years.

On April 20, 1857, the new Postmaster General, Aaron V. Brown, advertised for bids for the new route that was to begin service on July 1, 1857.⁵⁷ George Giddings, who already had a stagecoach line operating to within 450 miles of Fort Yuma, saw this as the opportunity to open up regular commerce between San Antonio and the Pacific Coast. A new chapter opened for George H. Giddings and his mail service.

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1. San Antonio Light, February 23, 1887 ↩︎

2. San Antonio Ledger and Texan, June 6, 1854 ↩︎

3. US Court of Clams Report, Brevoort & Houghton vs. The United State, December 18, 1860, Washington, D.C. ↩︎

4. Wayne R. Austerman, Sharps Rifles and Spanish Mules: The San Antonio-El Paso Mail, 1851-1881, (College Station, TX: Texas A & M University Press, 1985), 53 ↩︎

5. Austerman, Sharps Rifles and Spanish Mules, 55 ↩︎

6. U.S. Court of Claims, Memorial to the Postmaster General, George H. Giddings vs the United States, Comanche, Kiowa and Apache Indians, Records of the Court of Claims, RG 123, Indian Depredations 3873, Folder 7, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C. ↩︎

7. James M. Day “Big Foot Wallace in the Trans-Pecos Texas,” West Texas Historical Association Yearbook 55 (1979), 74 ↩︎

8. Austerman, Sharps Rifles and Spanish Mules, 65 ↩︎

9. Memorial to the Postmaster General, George H. Giddings vs. the United States ↩︎

10. Austerman, Sharps Rifles and Spanish Mules, 65-6 ↩︎

11. Frederick Law Olmstead, A Journey Through Texas or a Saddle-Trip on the Southwestern Frontier-1854, (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1978), 287 ↩︎

12. Memorial to the Senate and House of Representatives, Giddings vs. The United States ↩︎

13. Letter to Postmaster General, Giddings vs. The United ↩︎

14. Olmstead, A Journey Through Texas or a Saddle-Trip on the Southwestern Frontier-1854, 287 ↩︎

15. Deposition of George H. Giddings, Giddings vs. The United States ↩︎

16. Memorial to the Senate and House of Representatives, Giddings vs. The United States ↩︎

17. Deposition of William A. Wallace, Giddings vs. The United States; Deposition of William M. Ford, Giddings vs. The United States; Deposition of Archibald C. Hyde, Giddings vs. The United States; Deposition of George H. Giddings, Giddings vs. The United States; Petition from Giddings, Giddings vs. The United States ↩︎

18. James Bell, “A Diary Kept on the Overland Trail in 1854.” Frontier Times 4, (June 1927): 28-39 ↩︎

19. Austerman, Sharps Rifles and Spanish Mules, 41 ↩︎

20. Austerman, Sharps Rifles and Spanish Mules, 56-8 ↩︎

21. Texas State Gazette, (Austin), January 6, 1855 ↩︎

22. Statement from Giddings, Giddings vs. The United States. ↩︎

23. Memorial of George Giddings, Giddings vs. The United States ↩︎

24. Letter to Postmaster General, Giddings vs. The United States ↩︎

25. Letter from Assist. QM, USA, Giddings vs. The United States ↩︎

26. Letter from PM Gen. Of San Antonio, Giddings vs. The United States ↩︎

27. Letter from General P. Smith, Giddings vs. The United States ↩︎

28. Letter to Senator, Giddings vs. The United States ↩︎

29. Memorial to the Postmaster General, George H. Giddings vs. the United States ↩︎

30. Affidavit of Castroville Postmaster, Giddings vs. The United States ↩︎

31. Affidavit, Giddings vs. The United States ↩︎

32. Memorial to the Postmaster General, George H. Giddings vs. the United States ↩︎

33. Petition from Giddings, Giddings vs. The United States; Deposition of William M. Ford, Giddings vs. The United States ↩︎

34. Deposition of George H. Giddings, Giddings vs. The United States. ↩︎

35. Austerman, Sharps Rifles and Spanish Mules, 71-2 ↩︎

36. Ike Moore, Ed. The Life and Diary of Reading W Black: A History of Early Uvalde, (Uvalde, TX: The El Progresso Club, 1934), 74, 77 ↩︎

37. Austerman, Sharps Rifles and Spanish Mules, 72 ↩︎

38. Austerman, Sharps Rifles and Spanish Mules, 77 ↩︎

39. Letter to Senator, Giddings vs. The United States. ↩︎

40. Austerman, Sharps Rifles and Spanish Mules, 76-7 ↩︎

41. Deposition of James R. Cloud, Giddings vs. The United States; Deposition of John C. Monier, Giddings vs. The United States ↩︎

42. Deposition of William A. Wallace, Giddings vs. The United States; Deposition of William M. Ford, Giddings vs. The United States; Deposition of Archibald C. Hyde, Giddings vs. The United States; Deposition of George H. Giddings, Giddings vs. The United States ↩︎

43. Memorial to the Senate and House of Representatives, Giddings vs. The United States ↩︎

44. Austerman, Sharps Rifles and Spanish Mules, 78 ↩︎

45. Austerman, Sharps Rifles and Spanish Mules, 79 ↩︎

46. Albert J. Myers, “Letters from Texas, 1854-1856”, Southwest Historical Quarterly, Texas State Historical Association, Vol 82:1, July 1978 ↩︎

47. Petition from Giddings, Giddings vs. The United States. ↩︎

48. Deposition of William M. Ford, Giddings vs. The United States; Deposition of Archibald C. Hyde, Giddings vs. The United States; Austerman, Sharps Rifles and Spanish Mules, 70 ↩︎

49. Petition from Giddings, Giddings vs. The United States. ↩︎

50. Deposition of William A. Wallace, Giddings vs. The United States ↩︎

51. Deposition of George H. Giddings, Giddings vs. The United States. ↩︎

52. Petition from Giddings, Giddings vs. The United States; Deposition of John G. Walker, Giddings vs. The United States ↩︎

53. Letter from General P. Smith, Giddings vs. The United States ↩︎

54. Austerman, Sharps Rifles and Spanish Mules, 85; Petition from Giddings, Giddings vs. The United States ↩︎

55. Austerman, Sharps Rifles and Spanish Mules, 85 ↩︎

56. Austerman, Sharps Rifles and Spanish Mules, 86 ↩︎

57. San Antonio Ledger and Texan, February 2, 1857 ↩︎