William B. Waddell (Pony Express founder)
| William Bradford Waddell | |
|---|---|
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| Born | October 17, 1807 Fauquier County, Virginia |
| Died | April 1, 1872 (age 64) Lexington, Missouri |
William Bradford Waddell (1807–1872) is often credited along with Alexander Majors and William Hepburn Russell as the founders, owners, and operators of the Pony Express. He is described as “phlegmatic, stoical, inclined to sulk if displeased, a cautious penny-pincher, and unable to reach a decision without ponderous deliberation."
Waddell was born on October 17, 1807 in Fauquier County, Virginia to parents of Scottish descent. Following the remarriage of his father in 1811, he and his family moved to Mason County, Kentucky a busy center of immigration activity. In 1824, at the age of 17, he ventured from home to first work in the lead mines at Galena, Illinois, and then to St. Louis, Missouri, clerked for a time in the Berhoud & McCreery dry goods store. He returned to Kentucky soon after. On January 1, 1829 he married Susan Byram and settled down to farm. Finding farming not to his liking, he moved and opened a successful dry goods store in Mayslick, Kentucky.
In 1835, Waddell again moved his family, this time to Lexington, Missouri, where he opened another dry goods store on the waterfront near Jack's Ferry. In 1837, he joined William Hepburn Russell, and others in creating the Lexington First Addition Company, the Lexington Fire and marine Insurance Company and the Lexington Female Collegiate Institute. He was also able to build a brick store and a hemp warehouse.
Waddell's first experience with the freighting business came through his partnership with Russell. In 1853, they created Waddell & Russell, a wholesale trading firm. Later that year, they hauled military supplies by wagon train to Fort Riley, Kansas, and Fort Union, New Mexico. The firm failed to obtain a contract the following year.
Waddell and Russell brought on a new partner, Alexander Majors, and on January 1, 1855 the new firm of Russell, Majors and Waddell was created. This firm obtained a consolidated contract with the War Department to supply the majority of military forts west of the Missouri River. Later the firm started a stagecoach company, the Central Overland California and Pikes Peak Express Company, with the hope of receiving a mail contract from Missouri to California. Under charter from the Kansas legislature, the C.O.C. & P.P.E Company started an express mail business called the Pony Express which began operations on April 3, 1860. Waddell supervised the business activities of the office from the headquarters of the firm in Lexington, Missouri, and later Leavenworth, Kansas. The Pony Express would prove to be a failure, losing upwards of $1,000 a day. By October 1861, the Express was out of business due to the completion of the telegraph lines and the unwillingness of the national government to provide further funding.
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Wikipedia