Velda Brotherton lives in the wilderness of the Ozark National Forest only
fifteen miles from where she was born. Raised in Wichita, she and her husband lived in New York for a while, then returned to the state of her
birth. She designed and helped build the house in which they live. They have two children and three grandchildren.

They both enjoy flower gardening, swimming, traveling and tent camping in wilderness
areas.

Velda's most recent  historical romance novels written under her pen name of  Samantha Lee. 


ANGEL'S GOLD
Set in
Kansas in 1871 the story involves some unusual twists regarding a lost confederate gold
shipment and a reluctant outlaw.

click book to order

For more information
Visit Velda's Website

The Butterfield Stage Line

The route of the Butterfield Stage was established, not initially to carry passengers, but to deliver mail. A bill was passed in Congress on March 3, 1857 to authorize the Post Master General to issue a cross-country mail carrying contract. The route selection was left up to whatever agreement could be reached between the contractor of that route and the Post Master General. The bill, however, did stipulate for four horse coaches or spring wagons that would be suitable for the conveyance of passengers. It stated that the service had to be performed in 25 days for each trip and would begin within a year of the letting of the contract.

So what was to become a piece of history that would include Northwest Arkansas came into being. After a false start with a temporary route established by the Jim Birch Line that soon became known as the Jackass Line because of the slow service, a contract was awarded to a man who had never operated stage coaches. John Butterfield, an intimate friend of President James Buchanan, was the owner of the largest freight line in the East. Butterfields proposed southern route to California caused a massive outcry from citizens in the east and north.

Concord coaches were purchased and painted either red or green with bright yellow running gear. They were considered the best and most attractive coaches then being manufactured. The coach weighed 3,000 pounds and could carry an additional 4,000: six to nine passengers inside and as many as could be crowded on top plus their luggage and the mail. For the rougher sections of the route, Celerity Wagons were purchased. This would be very important to that part of the route from Fayetteville south through the Boston Mountains.

On September 16, 1858, John Butterfield helped the St. Louis Postal authorities pick up two small leather bags at the St. Louis Post Office and transport them by wagon to the train depot. The train arrived at Tipton, Missouri ten hours later to find waiting there a fine Concord Stagecoach drawn by six horses. Butterfield leaped from the train with the two mail bags, boarded the waiting coach, made a quick inspection and shook the drivers hand. The first Butterfield mail run was off, the coach driven by John Butterfield, Jr., with his father on board, along with Mr. and Mrs. John F. Wheeler and their two children from Fort Smith; T.R. Corbin of Washington, D.C.; Waterman L. Ormsby, reporter for the New York Herald and the conductor. Ormsby was the only through passenger, the others got off at Fort Smith.

The fare was $200 for west bound passengers, $100 for east bound, plus ten cents per mile for way fare. Passengers could take along 40 pounds of baggage and were asked not to carry valuables. This was to discourage hold-up attempts. To send a letter cost ten cents.

The stage stopped ten minutes at each station, with the exception of meal stops. Horses were changed, mail left and picked up. The stage averaged 120 miles daily. Though it is reported that Indians often attacked stations to steal the animals the mail was only delayed by Indians once in an open attack on the stage, and that was in Arizona in February, 1861.

After it left Springfield the stage approached Arkansas through Cassville and the final Missouri station one mile southwest of Washburn. The Dennis Callahan station in present day Rogers was the states first stop. At that time the city of Rogers did not exist, and wouldnt for another 23 years. From there the route ran south through Cross Hollows, Mudtown and on to John Fitzgeralds Station at Shiloh (now Springdale.) Though the Gladden Hotel in central Springdale was not on the route, the stage often swung by because of the delicious meals served there. There were very few hotels along the Ozark portion of the route and sometimes passengers would debark at Gladdens, spend the night and catch the next days stage just to get some relief from the constant swaying of the coach hung on thick steerhide thoroughbraces.

The road known variously as Missouri Road, Springfield Road, the National Highway, Government Post Route Road, Old Wire Road, the State Road, the Goshen Road and the Military Road was the route of the stage to Fayetteville, except where Butterfield deemed it necessary to construct his own road, which he did in many places. For one reason or another, he would bypass certain locales, construct short cuts or simply prefer another route and would deviate from the Missouri Road route.

The reporter, Ormsby, wrote: Fayetteville is located up among the hills in a most inaccessible spot. It has two churches, the county court house, a number of fine stores and dwellings, and about 1,800 inhabitants. It is a flourishing little town and its lack of a good hotel, I understand, will be supplied by Ma Butterfield, who has bought some property for this purpose.

That supposition would soon come to pass when Butterfield constructed a hotel and stage stop where the old County Court House is now located and where once the Ozark Theater was. Some of what is now College Avenue was a part of Old Missouri Road, the route of the stage line.

The route left Fayetteville and went to Cato Springs and Hog Eye. A tavern there was a popular stop for its good food and corn liquor served from large earthenware jugs. Then it was on to Strickler. Benjamin Strickler and his wife Mary Newman, settled on a large tract of land there in 1837. He was a blacksmith and soon built a store and blacksmith shop. The stage coach stopped at the Benjamin Strickler farm for a rest, perhaps a bit of food, maybe even a nights lodging. In 1975 the old log house and its mammoth fireplace chimney still stood a short distance south of the Strickler store.

Leaving this Strickler stop the stage proceeded down a crooked, narrow road for ten miles to Lees Creek crossing. Signal Hill Station, located on the old Collier-Yoes farm, was the next stop, and probably the highest point on the Boston Mountain section of the run. The route then headed south to Van Buren. It is written that the Celerity or Mud wagon was pulled by mules through the Boston Mountain section of the route, for it was barely a cleared road, with tree stumps in the center, huge rocks, sump holes and rough creek crossings until the stage reached the Arkansas River Valley to the south.

Some controversy over the route remains to this day. There was a stage stop in Winslow, then known as Summit Home, at the Woolem Stage Stop, but it can only be assumed today that this was a branch from the Butterfield Stage Line farther to the west. Probably carried mail and passengers from the smaller communities to the stop at Signal Hill somewhat west of town.

Copyright © 2001 Velda Brotherton
originally published in The White River Valley News, Elkins, Arkansas