William Hepburn Russell - The Pony Express

The Pony Express

Russell teamed with Waddell and Alexander Majors on December 28, 1854 to form the corporation of Russell, Majors, and Waddell. Acting as the firm's representative in Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, and New York, he lobbied for contracts with the War Department as well as financing from banks and other, less reputable sources. This partnership later formed the Central Overland California and Pikes Peak Express Company on November 19, 1859, with the hope of receiving a mail contract. Under charter from the Kansas legislature, the Pony Express(as the C.O.C. & P.P.E Company came to be known) began operations on April 3, 1860. This business venture would prove to be a failure, losing upwards of $1,000 a day. By October 1861, the Pony Express was out of business due to the completion of the telegraph lines and the unwillingness of the national government to provide further funding.

Russell became mixed up in a scandal involving Secretary of War John Buchanan Floyd and Godard Bailey, a clerk for the Department of Interior. After requesting and being denied funding for the Levenworth & Pike’s Peak Express Company (forerunner to the C.O.C. & P.P.E.C) from Floyd in 1858, Russell requested aid from Bailey. Through a series of illegal transactions, the money was obtained from the Indian Trust Fund. However, on December 1, 1860, Bailey confessed to Floyd and was arrested and brought to trial along with Russell. Although the verdict was largely covered up by the start of the American Civil War, Russell and the Company had lost face.