HIGH SCHOOL, CENTRAL CITY
BRIDGE OVER WAPSIE AT CENTRAL CITY
As the railroad was pushed nearer and nearer Marion, the stage route became shorter and shorter, until it was finally between Cedar Rapids and the county seat. It was while driving between this city and Marion that he began to carry express, and that in an unusual way. One of the express messengers who ran into the county seat and whose home was at that place, had to accompany the express down to this city each night on the stage. There being no return stage until morning, he was compelled to spend the night in Cedar Rapids. He would very often ask Mr. Reiner to take charge of the express at Marion and bring it to this city. The express messenger was Dr. J. M. Ristine of this city, now one of the best known physicians in the state.
One day Supt. Thomas Adams, of the American Express company, was at Marion. He opened a conversation with Mr. Reiner in the course of which he asked him if he would be willing to take a position as express messenger on the western end of the Northwestern, at that time nearing the city of Boone. Mr. Reiner took the matter under advisement, and later accepted the position.
Going to Boone, Mr. Reiner was given the first express route from that city through to Omaha. With the railroad stopping at Boone, and nothing more than a mere trail to follow, with a few stopping places, this route on to the Nebraska city was everything but pleasant. Nevertheless Mr. Reiner took hold of the work, and on November 7, 1865, after forty-eight hours of almost continuous riding, he carried the first express ever hauled by the American Express company into the city of Omaha.
Early in the morning of the last day a stop had been made at Council Bluffs for breakfast, and when Mr. Reiner was ready to continue the regular stage had gone. The local agent hustled around and found a carriage which he turned over to Mr. Reiner, so that the first express which the American Express ever took into Omaha did not go by stage, but by carriage.