Y. X. Company, 1856-1857 (Neff)

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Brigham Young Express and Carrying Company (Y. X. Company)

(From Andrew Love Neff, "History of Utah, 1847 to 1869," 1940, pages 327-333, 348)

Far-and-away the most ambitious and immediately realizable plan for quickening and facilitating commerce and travel service between Utah and the outside was the movement that culminated in the organization and installation of the B. Y. Express and Carrying Company, conveniently referred to as the Y. X. Company. Experimentation and agitation for superior and cheaper modes of travel and transportation had filled the minds of the inhabitants from the day of colonization, the cost and efficiency of ox and mule train having been compared, the handcart system tried, the practicability of the Yellowstone, the Snake, and the Colorado water routes having been hopefully examined, while ever in the background of their vision was the dream of a railroad.

Despite these many hopeful prospects a decade had passed and the problem of transportation was still unsolved. In fact the government eastern mail service had declined markedly since its inauguration.

Propitious opportunity and occasion for discussion of the vexed problem was afforded by the convening of the Territorial legislators at Fillmore the winter of 1855-56. The English traveler Chandless, who was present, records that,

"The chief topic of discussion was a proposal to establish a daily line of stages from the Missouri, through Salt Lake to California; the journey to be made in fifteen days, and, therefore, even from New York, three or four days quicker than the Panama route. The difficulties of the plan, the vast expense of providing animals for nearly 2000 miles' coaching, the necessity of establishing inns of some kind every ten or fifteen miles, the danger from the Indians, and the clear impossibility of continuing the line through the winter, was set forth by one party; the other demonstrated the certain profit from the scheme as a business, the advantages to the country of an influx of wealth, and the probability of their carrying the United States mails, and receiving a good fat sum for the work, etc."

Chief Justice Kinney was one of the ardent champions of the proposal at the Fillmore mass meeting of Jan. 26, 1856 to consider, "the propriety of establishing a daily express and passenger communication between the Western States and California."

The existent inconveniences were strikingly emphasized by the statement that during the legislative sessions "private mail service had to be employed between Nephi and Fillmore, at some expense to the Territory, or but one mail would have reached there during the 40 days." The Deseret Express and Road Company received incorporation at this session.

The proposition of revolutionizing the carrying business gathered additional momentum at a mass meeting in the Salt Lake Tabernacle, Feb. 2, 1856. Serious consideration was now being given to the project of building a great transportation system between Middle-West river points and the Pacific Coast, comprehending passenger, express, mail, and freight service. Enthusiastic speeches were made by the prominent men of the Territory, both Gentile and Mormon, for all were impatient of the old order. Brigham Young subscribed for a block of the stock and proffered to equip three hundred miles of the route at his own expense. Four days later this card appeared in the local newspaper over Young's signature:

"Those who are interested in the express and transportation business, and who wish to take shares therein, are requested to immediately report, personally, or by letter, to the undersigned, what they are ready and able to do with regard to engaging in the transportation of letters and papers, and, so soon as may be, of passengers and freight."

Opportunely for the success of the local project, the national government was seeking a new mail contractor. Postmaster General James Campbell's request for bids for the route between Independence and Salt Lake City appeared in the Deseret News of Aug. 6, 1856, the contract to go into effect with the mail of Dec. 1, 1856, and continue to Nov. 30, i860. Heavy penalties were imposed for partial or non-fulfillment of contract as well as for failure to maintain schedule.

The opening of the sealed bids disclosed that Hiram Kimball of Great Salt Lake City had made the lowest responsible offer, the consideration being $23,000 per annum, hence the award went to him. Assured of this governmental backing, the Express and Carrying Company proceeded with despatch to execute its purposes.

The far-reaching character and magnitude of this project is best revealed by the personal and business letters of Brigham Young, who quickly grasped and reveled in the possibilities of the situation. Unfolding his plans to Feramorz Little at St. Louis, Feb. 5, 1857, three days subsequent to the Salt Lake mass meeting, he wrote:

"A contract for the carrying of the mail from the States to this place for 4 years has been offered to Hyrum Kimball, for $23,000, and a little over; he will not be able to start it this month, and has transferred it, subject to my orders and counsel. We shall send the February mail, by Wm. A. Hickman and others, and in all probability the March mail will go out by Porter Rockwell and others. I believe a sufficient number of men can be got, to begin a carrying company, for goods and passengers; mules, etc., are, and will be forthcoming; and I would like you to join us.

"I have offered the merchants here, again, to carry all their freight at 12-1/2c per lb. on their payment of all, or part, in advance; whether they will or not, I know not; if they do not, but wish us to bring only a part, per month, by our 'express train' then they will have to pay at a higher rate of course. By having stations on the road, and animals there, we can come through easily in 20 days, and from our own goods, those of other people, and passengers, we anticipate we shall be able to carry the mail without loss, or rather by this mode we think it can be made profitable."

After stating that mail will be hauled at present, goods in a few months, and eventually passengers, the letter continues:

"We shall take a course to establish a few substantial stations, where we shall deposit grain for supplies and for stock, cut hay, etc. Porter (Rockwell) will go to Laramie with the next mail, and operate from that point to this end of the road."

Little was advised to go East to purchase harness and carriages in connection with the financial agent J. M. Groesbeck, yet was cautioned not to go into debt unless the payment money was in sight.

Numerous communications to other points and persons followed in quick succession, one of Feb. 6th going to Lewis Robison at Ft. Bridger station:

"The mail contract will fall into the hands of the brethren, who will act under my direction and will shortly be followed by carrying passengers and freighting." The letter continues: "In regard to the Magraw animals, Wm. A. Hickman will appraise them at the instance of Mr. Gerrish who says that we can have them at our own price. Whatever they come to over and above what the old contractors are owing us we will pay here to Mr. Gerrish. Send us a note stating their valuation and the amount due us, so that we may know how the matter stands. We expect Bro. Bullock will also join the Company and will probably be stationed at Green River."

Orson Pratt in far-away England was apprised of the advantages of the proposed organization by letter, dated March 1, 1857:

"Thus our merchants, and those who can advance the means, can have their goods in large or small quantities, as they may order; eventually, this may destroy the merchants' trade, for who will give 40c per lb. for sugar and coffee when they can send on their means and orders and have it delivered here for 25c or 26c and other things in proportion. And as our passenger and goods trains will all be mule teams, traveling 50 miles per day, who that has means in England, or the States, will now be at the trouble of buying wagons and ox-teams, and be 3 months on the plains, wearied in body and harassed in mind; when he can take his passage and those of his family, on board these Express trains, accompanying which, he may have any amount of freight conveyed, at a lower rate, more speedily, and with far less trouble than he could by any other means transport his family and goods? No one.

Pratt was advised to send all emigrants via Boston, Chicago, and Iowa. "The railroad through to Council Bluffs will be completed this year, and then they can have a speedy through passage from the east we hope."

Horace S. Eldredge, who had been stationed at St. Louis to transact all business of the Church, was advised to keep in touch with Groesbeck, the Company agent. "I would like you to keep a clear eye upon the markets, and when sugar is abundant in the market, and but few purchasers, and prices in consequence fall, then take advantage and purchase at the lowest figures, and so with other staple commodities that we need."

On March 24, 1857, Kimball's contract arrived at Salt Lake City. Six days later President Young wrote Horace S. Eldredge as follows:

"The mail will be carried in the name of Hyrum Kimball. This was considered the best course to secure the contract. He has filed his bonds and enclosed is a power of Atty, from him to you, and a copy of the same, which you will forward to the second assistant Postmaster General, when you apply for the first quarter on contract."

The stupendous effort already made and in future contemplation was indicated in a communication from President-Governor Young to George Q. Cannon, July 4, 1857:

"The Y. X. Co. is in a flourishing condition, we are sending out from 40 to 65 animals every mail, which we wish to increasingly continue until we get the road stocked with 1800 horses and mules. We have sent Elders A. O. Smoot and J. N. V. Jones with 80 men, to locate permanent stations in the Black Hills, which we design as renting places to those of our emigration."

Clearly the Express and Carrying Company would constitute the biggest achievement of the Mormon people in many a year, if it functioned successfully. Almost a complete monopoly of the mail, express, passenger, and freight business of the Intermountain West might eventuate. Furthermore, as the busy mind of Young indicated, the commerce and trade of the Territory would probably undergo revolutionary changes. Altogether, it was the golden opportunity which was seized by Utah leaders to help the inhabitants out of the economic predicament in which they found themselves after a decade of futile endeavor to cope with the powerful commercial and transport interests that were slowly but surely draining the economic life-blood of the Basin. Obviously the temporal welfare of Mormondom hinged on the outcome of the attempt to break the chains of economic slavery which were perceptibly fastening around them. Conceivably the successful engineering of this far-reaching enterprise might even lead Brigham Young down from the mountain of protection to a free trade level and policy. Presumptively it would make the Mormon leader more than ever the undisputed economic dictator as well as the spiritual autocrat of the Intermountain West. Altogether the potentialities of the situation made prophecies of the future fascinating.

The tremendousness of the energy back of this vast transportation system and the comprehensiveness and thoroughness of the plans adopted for the attainment of the mastery of the wilderness and its inhabitants clearly indicate the high expectations anticipated from the consummation of the magnificent venture.

Yet this enterprise so promisingly begun was destined to an early and abrupt close. In June, 1857, the Kimball contract was annulled, the official reason being "the non-arrival of the mail within the stipulated time." Probably the real reason for this action was the transmission by the estranged W. M. F. Magraw of a malignant letter to the President of the United States in which he pictured the Saints "as being in an uncontrolled state of lawlessness, in which murder, rapine and terrorism flourished and which had been superimposed upon a helpless society by a vicious, despotic, self-constituted theocracy at the head of which was Brigham Young." Magraw, the reader will remember, had been superseded as mail contractor by the Mormon, Hiram Kimball.

When news of the annulment of Kimball's contract had been received, indignation was freely and generally expressed throughout the Territory. Brigham Young's reference to this unfortunate incident in his annual message to the Territorial Legislature, December, 1857, is typical of the feeling current at this time:

"You are all aware that on examining the bids for carrying the mail on the route between this city and Independence, Missouri in the fall of 1856, the contract for the route was awarded to Mr. Hiram Kimball, in compliance with the rule requiring the acceptance of the lowest responsible bid. You are also aware that the requisite service began to be put upon the route as early as February 1st, upon the first unofficial intimation of the acceptance of the bid and several weeks before the arrival of the official notification (March 24th) the letter containing that notification having wintered at the Devil's Gate in care of a mail contractor in the employ of a former contractor (Magraw). So soon as that notification came to hand, arrangements were entered into for the services of the requisite number of trusty and efficient men to transport the mail and select station points at convenient distances and erect suitable buildings and provide grain and forage thereat; animals and vehicles were rapidly forwarded throughout the whole length of the route and with such liberality and energy were these proceedings conducted, that, instead of occupying and often exceeding the schedule time of thirty days as had hereto been the custom in the most favorable seasons of the year, the trips were performed in less and still lessening number until Mr. John R. Murdock and Co. took the July mail through in the unprecedented short time of fifteen traveling days. This prompt safe and reliable service attained by the expenditure of upwards of $125,000 in a few months was well understood in the Post Office Department in Washington, but instead of ever making punctual quarterly payments at the low contract rate of $24,000 a year and extending every legal facility and encouragement in its power to the contractor, that Department, taking an unjust and altogether unwarrantable advantage of a clause wisely designated for the protection of public rights, tyrannically annulled the contract, alleging as cause for such outrageous usurpation, naught but a failure in commencing the service at the time required when it well knew the service was put upon the route weeks before the arrival of the acceptance of the bid, unduly detained through the faults of their pet contractor and bolstering that allegation with the false and slanderous assertion 'the unsettled state of things in Salt Lake rendering the mails unsafe under present circumstances.'"

The cancellation of the Kimball contract in June was followed by the approach of Johnston's Army in July, 1857. These events cut off all communications with Utah and the B. Y. Express and Carrying Company as a result died a-borning.

[Page 348]

The materialization of the plans of the B. Y. Express and Carrying Company, however, could not but prove ominous to the existent commercial regime. Moreover all western freighters would be adversely affected by the competition of the formidable new concern, and self-interest would suffice to align them against the monopoly-disposed intruder.

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