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The Contract

The six-year Overland Mail Company Contract No. 12,578 was awarded September
16, 1857, to John Butterfield of Utica, New York. He had one year to build the infrastruc-
ture for the trail, with service to begin September 15, 1858, and to end September 15, 1864.
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It was a stockholding company with 11 main stockholders who were also the
directors. John Butterfield was president and the sole manager and organizer. William B.
Dinsmore was the vice president, and John Butterfield’s son-in-law Alexander Holland
was treasurer. The Overland Mail Company was partly a Butterfield family affair as,
besides John Butterfield’s son-in-law as treasurer, John’s son Charles was the senior super-
intendent stationed in Fayetteville, Arkansas, and his son John Jr. was a senior company
assistant in Utica, New York. His son Daniel was employed as a clerk to record the route
of the trail and station sites. It was said the document was so large that it would stretch
across their office floor.
John Butterfield was the obvious choice for establishing a 2,700-mile-long stage line
through the Western frontier from Tipton, Missouri, to San Francisco, California. By the
time he was awarded the six-year mail contract, he had 38 years of staging experience and
was operating 40 stage lines out of his hometown of Utica. He also had the necessary
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business contacts to help him raise the $3.5 million to finance the costly project.
Newspapers in Washington, D.C., noted that no express companies bid on the contract
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since they had no staging experience.
One of the most important stockholder-directors is listed as “M.L. Kinyon.” His
name was misspelled in the contract as “Marcus L. Kinyon.” He was actually Marquis L.
Kenyon from Rome, New York. Kenyon was the only other director besides Butterfield
who had any staging experience.

The Architects of the Butterfield Trail:
Marquis L. Kenyon and John Butterfield Jr.

John Butterfield sent his son John Jr. and company director Kenyon from New York
to San Francisco. On January 16, 1858, they left San Francisco on mule back and traveled
about 40 miles per day through the Southern Overland Corridor, selecting the route and
stations sites. They completed the task by late April 1858.
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Very few stations had to be built from San Francisco to Los Angeles, as there existed
a well-used trail with establishments that could be contracted for use as stage stations. The
trail had been used since 1853 by the stage line of Phineas Banning.
From Los Angeles to Fort Smith, Arkansas, many new stations had to be built through
the 1,920-mile-long frontier. The trail from Fort Smith to Tipton, Missouri, had been in use
for many years, with some existing establishments that could be contracted for stations.
The train from Tipton to St. Louis carried the mail 160 miles for the rest of the distance.
Postmaster General Aaron V. Brown appointed Goddard Bailey to take the first But-
terfield stage from San Francisco to inspect the line. In his report, he listed the stations and

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