Russell, Majors & Waddell

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This page was last updated on September 30, 2026.

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Overview

Russell, Majors and Waddell, business partnership formed on December 28, 1854 by William Hepburn Russell, Alexander Majors, and William Bradford Waddell operated the largest freight, mail, and passenger transportation company in the United States during the period of the 1850s. The firm is best known for creating one of the first stagecoach companies to move the U.S. mail, as well as the legendary Pony Express mail service in 1860-1861, a temporary solution while the transcontinental telegraph was being completed.

The company was born from the U.S. Army's need to move supplies between Santa Fe and six new army posts in New Mexico Territory after the Mexican War. In 1854, the War Department began awarding two-year contracts to private freighters. The first went to Russell, Majors and Waddell, based in Leavenworth, Kansas. They also hauled civilian freight along the Santa Fe trail on a large scale.

Prior to this 1854 contract, government freighting was handled on the basis of single shipments, which included Russell and Waddell competing against Majors for shipments to posts in Kansas and New Mexico. In 1854 the War Department offered a single, two-year contract to transport supplies to most of the U.S. Army outposts in the Southwest and West. Only a very large company could compete. At the time, Alexander Majors owned a freight company that hauled freight for the Russell and Waddell wholesale trading partnership.

Realizing that their individual companies were not big enough on their own to handle this massive proposed Army freight contract, the three men joined forces on December 28, 1854, to form Russell, Majors and Waddell. On March 27, 1855, the new firm signed a contract with the government to freight supplies for two years. At the time, it was the largest freighting contract in history.

Having secured a virtual monopoly of freight transfer in the West, the firm sought to make their business even more profitable by establishing a new system of rates based on weight and distance rather than on weight alone, charging higher rates for shipping longer distances.

In April 1855 they also shifted their base of operation from Lexington, Missouri, situated on the Missouri River about 50 miles east of Kansas City, northwest to the larger and more prosperous town of Leavenworth, Kansas, situated farther west on the Missouri River, about 30 miles north of Kansas City. Leavenworth was the civilian town located adjacent to the Army's massive Fort Leavenworth, and was the stepping-off point for freight moving along the Santa Fe trail. As part of the move to Leavenworth, the company invested some $400,000 in offices, warehouses, a blacksmith and wagon shop, and a store for their employees.

"William Russell, prior to 1855, was running three wagon-teams, carrying army supplies from Fort Leavenworth to western military posts. Alexander Majors also owned three teams. In 1855 these two pooled their interests and formed a partnership. They established headquarters at Leavenworth City, two and one-half miles below the fort. The following year they furnished corn to Forts Laramie and Kearny. Their great opportunity for success, however, came in 1857 when they held the contract to furnish goods to the United States army in Utah during the Mormon war, commanded by General Albert Sidney Johnston." (Ben Holladay, The Stage Coach King, 1940, page 37)

"In December 1857 Secretary of War John B. Floyd reported to President James Buchanan that the Mormons had, from the beginning of their stay in that territory, planned to secede from the union. He said also that they were disobedient to federal authority and planned to massacre emigrants to the Pacific coast. Armed forces were sent westward under the command of General Johnston. They halted at Fort Bridger and encamped there to insure the good behavior of the Mormons. On April 26, 1858, the president signed a proclamation which promised amnesty to all who returned to their allegiance, and the 'war' was over." (Ben Holladay, The Stage Coach King, 1940, page 38)

"During the years of 1858 and 1859 Russell, Majors, and Waddell hauled many tons of government supplies to Camp Floyd. They were using about thirty-five hundred wagons and teams at the time, four thousand men, one thousand mules, and forty thousand oxen." (Ben Holladay, The Stage Coach King, 1940, page 39)

Growth for Russell, Majors and Waddell continued as the company won the follow-on two-year contract. The company was initially profitable in its early years, but the firm's government work eventually ruined it financially. The decline began in 1857, when the Army asked it to move 2.5 million pounds of freight to Utah during the so-called "Utah War." This was a contract much larger than previously given the company. To fulfill the new contract, the company borrowed heavily and waited for reimbursement.

There were heavy losses as the Army of Utah made its way across Wyoming. The Mormons resisted what they thought would be a federal takeover of the Utah Territory. The company lost an enormous amount of money as a result of Mormon opposition to their shipment of supplies for the troops of the Utah Expedition. The Mormons attacked and burned three company wagon trains, and ran off the herds of cattle, horses and mules. The Utah Expedition was unable to make it to Utah that first season and was forced to winter-over at Fort Bridger. Due to the combination of the bitter cold winter weather and the Mormon attacks, the company lost nearly $500,000 worth of oxen, wagons, and supplies that year. The next year, 1858, with the continuing contract to supply all the other Army outposts, the company made a profit of $300,000.

In the spring of 1858, the company secured a government contract to transport all provisions for all Army posts that were being setup along the emigrant trails across Nebraska and central Wyoming. As part of the contract, the firm relocated its headquarters to Nebraska City, about 130 miles north of Fort Leavenworth, but still on the Missouri River. Supplies arrived via steamboat up the Missouri River and were then distributed by wagon train.

With their profits in hand, in early 1860 the company established the nearly 2,000-mile Pony Express system to operate a premium-fee express mail service. Although it was short-lived, the Pony Express proved to be Russell, Majors and Waddell's signal accomplishment. The Pony Express was knowingly established as a short-lived component of the passage of the Pacific Telegraph Act in October 1860, to subsidize the construction of a transcontinental telegraph line, with the knowledge that the Pony Express only being active until the telegraph was completed. Despite the unprecedented speed with which the Pony Express delivered mail, and the high fees being charged, the hoped-for short-term profits did not materialize, and creditors grew increasingly uneasy as 1860 turned to 1861.

The debts from the Utah Expedition remained unpaid by the government, and the launch of the Central Overland California and Pikes Peak Express mail and passenger coach service in 1861-1862, again to fulfill a government U.S. mail contract, further drained the company finances.

In October 1860 Russell began to prepare for bankruptcy by authorizing the sale of the company's assets. A bond scandal that resulted in Russell’s arrest in December further shook confidence in the company. Russell defaulted on his obligations and became entangled in a major financial scandal involving Interior and War Department officials.

The end came in 1861, with the start of the Civil War when the federal government closed the Southern Route and combined the operations of Russell, Majors and Waddell along the Central Route with the Butterfield Overland Mail Company operating along the Southern Route. In October 1861, the Pony Express ended its service when the two ends of the telegraph line met in Salt Lake City. Russell, Majors and Waddell closed as a business in 1862.

Army Contracts of the 1850s

During the late 1850s, the freighting firm of Russell, Majors and Waddell operated as the primary military contractor for the U.S. Army, moving millions of pounds of supplies from river depots (such as Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and Nebraska City, Nebraska) to western military posts. Their operations expanded dramatically during the 1857–1858 Utah Expedition (the "Utah War"), requiring thousands of heavy-haul wagons.

The Russell, Majors and Waddell wagons traveled in organized "bull trains" of 25 to 26 wagons, managed by a wagon master, teamsters, and herders. During the height of the Utah Expedition contracts in 1858, Russell, Majors and Waddell mobilized over 3,000 wagons, 40,000 oxen, and 5,000 employees to move 16 million pounds of Army freight westward to Utah. Many of these robust "government wagons" survived the campaign and were later auctioned or re-purposed throughout the Utah Territory for heavy civilian hauling.

Heavy Government Wagons

The "government" wagons came to Utah in summer 1858 as part of contract freighters Russell, Majors and Waddell had with the U. S. Army to supply 16 million pounds of supplies for what many historians have called the Utah Expedition, commanded by Colonel Albert Johnston. It brought an army of 7,000 soldiers to Utah to control what was called by politicians in the East, a "Mormon Rebellion." To move the 16 million pounds of supplies from supply depots in Leavenworth, Kansas, and Nebraska City, Nebraska, the Russell, Majors and Waddell company hired 2,000 teamsters and purchased an additional 3,000 wagons, 40,000 oxen and 1000 mules. During the following fall and winter, the "rebellion" was put down through diplomacy and negotiation. The army remained at Camp Floyd, 50 miles south of Salt Lake City, until being called back East beginning in April and May 1860 to deal with the potential troubles with the Southern states. As the army deprated for the East, the wagon were auctioned off at pennies on the dollar, with the large numbers of high-quality wagons being a large boost to the Utah economy. Utah was also greatly in need of iron for tools and implements, and the large amount of scrap iron very nicely filled that need.

The Books

The importance of these two books cannot be overstated. Their value in understanding not just the Russell, Majors and Waddell partnership, but also the general situation of the Army and freighting in the West, is almost unknowable. The level of research far exceeds what is done in these modern times, 60 years after the most recent edition.

Here is a comparison between the two books:

Empire on Wheels (1949)

War Drums and Wagon Wheels: The Story of Russell, Majors and Waddell (1966)

Similarities

Differences

Feature Empire on Wheels (1949)(179 pages) War Drums and Wagon Wheels (1966)(280 pages)
Scope & Depth Functions as a concise, pioneering narrative history focusing on the rise and fall of the Russell, Majors & Waddell empire. Expands into a broader, more detailed institutional and economic study, incorporating additional research gathered by the authors over the intervening 17 years.
Documentary & Reference Appendices Lays out the general narrative framework with standard footnotes and bibliography. Features extensive supplementary sections, including full transcriptions of primary government contracts (e.g., the Great Contract of 1858), detailed financial schedules, a comprehensive Biographical Supplement, and a chronological table.
Focus on Military Logistics Emphasizes the business narrative, management dynamics, and express operations (Pony Express/Stage lines). Places stronger analytical emphasis on army supply lines, military quartermaster contracts, and the broader geopolitical impact of troop movements across the Great Plains.
Publication Context Published early in the authors' careers as one of their baseline studies on Western transportation (alongside their 1955 work Saddles and Spurs about the Pony Express). Represents the culmination of the Settles' decades-long archival research into overland transportation history.

Follow-On Research

This page and its associated pages about freighting, freight wagons, and the movement of the U.S. mail here at UtahRails, concern only these subjects as they apply to Utah, and the changes brought on by the arrival of the railroad in Utah in 1869.

Interested persons are encouraged to continue their own research concerning other freight operations in the West, prior to the completion of the railroad in districts such as Montana, Idaho, Colorado, Arizona and the central Nevada districts. Throughout the 1870s and 1880s there were mines and early settlements in all these regions prior to railroad service being established. And they all benefited from their own versions of passenger and mail coach service, as well as freight being hauled by wagon.

A few of these districts include:

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