OFFICE on the Levee.
(From Freedom’s Champion, Atchison, March 27, 1858.)
Squatter Sovereign, Atchison, Dec. 5, 1857: Omaha, Andrew Wineland, Master; J. J. Wilcox, clerk. Freedom’s Champion, Atchison, April 3, 1858: Ben Lewis, T. H. Brierly, Master; W. G. Barkley, clerk. Freedom’s Champion, March 12, 1859: Alonzo Child, D. DeHaven, Master; Stanley Ryland, clerk; H. P. Short, clerk.
CHAPTER X.
OVERLAND FREIGHTING.
ATCHISON AS AN OUTFITTING POINT—FREIGHTING COMPANIES—PRINCIPAL ROUTES—STAGE LINES—OVERLAND MAIL ROUTES—BEN HOLLADAY—BUTTERFIELD’S OVERLAND DISPATCH—TIME TO DENVER—TABLES OF TIME AND DISTANCES ON VARIOUS ROUTES—STATISTICAL.
Atchison was chosen as an outfitting point for the Salt Lake freighters, in addition to many other reasons, because we had one of the best steamboat landings on the river, and had the best wagon road in the country leading west. Twenty-four miles west of Atchison this road was intersected by the old overland mail trail from St. Joseph. Leavenworth had laid out a new road west, over which it was planned to run the Pike’s Peak Express stages in the spring of 1859, as well as the mule and ox teams, for Denver and the mountain mining camps. A branch road was also opened to intersect this route from Atchison in the spring of 1859, under the direction of Judge F. G. Adams. The expedition started west from Atchison in the spring of that year, over what is now known and was then known as the Parallel road, then through Muscotah and America City, across into the Big Blue river, near Blue Rapids, and westward through Jewell county. The object of this expedition was to open a shorter route to the mountains than the one opened by the Leavenworth company, and the route proposed did save sixty-five miles distance, and almost twelve hours time. E. D. Boyd, an engineer, measured the entire distance from Atchison to Denver. He also made an accurate report, showing distances and the crossing of streams, and a brief description of the entire route, which was published in the Atchison Champion, in June, 1859. According to that report, the distance from Atchison to Denver was 620 miles. But notwithstanding the advantage of this new road, it was abandoned immediately and never traveled by ox or mule trains out of Atchison, for the reason that the old military road by Fort Kearney and along the Platte river enjoyed Government protection from the Indians, and was settled at intervals almost the entire distance.
During the period of overland freighting on the plains, more trains left Atchison than any other point on the river. The leading firms engaged in the freighting business were, Stevens & Porter; Dennison & Brown; Hockaday-Burr & Company; J. S. Galbraith: George W. Howe; Brown Brothers; E. K. Blair; I. N. Bringman; Roper & Nesbitt; Harrison Brothers; Henry Reisner; J. C. Peters; P. K. Purcell; R. E. Wilson; Will Addoms; George I. Stebbins; John C. Bird; William Home; Amos Howell; Owen Degan, and a number of others.
The cost of shipping merchandise to Denver was very high, as everything was carried by the pound, rather than by the hundred pounds rate. Flour, bacon, molasses, whiskey, furniture and trunks were carried at pound rates. The rates per pound on merchandise shipped by ox or mule wagons from Atchison to Denver prior to 1860, were as follows:
| Flour | 9 | cents |
| Tobacco | 12½ | cents |
| Sugar | 13½ | cents |
| Bacon | 15 | cents |
| Dry goods | 15 | cents |
| Crackers | 17 | cents |
| Whiskey | 18 | cents |
| Groceries | 19½ | cents |
| Trunks | 25 | cents |
| Furniture | 31 | cents |