Operating out of Independence, Mo., Waldo, Hall and Company began providing stagecoach service in 1850 to and from Santa Fe, in addition to carrying the mail on a monthly basis.

With security in mind the coaches often passed over the trail two coaches at a time. A conductor was in charge of the mail, passengers, baggage, the driver, and additional armed guards.

Semi-monthly (every two weeks) service was inaugurated on Nov. 1, 1858. Service had recently been extended across the southwest to Stockton, Calif. The new contract required the company to shorten travel time to Santa Fe from 20 days to 15 days. Mail contractor, Jacob Hall left Neosho, Mo., by stage Nov. 5 to inspect the route to Albuquerque, N.M. He carried a mail packet consisting of four to five pounds of letters and papers.

The coaches that carried Hall were attacked by Comanches. Hall was wounded and captured, and the mail destroyed. He was able to escape and arrived in St. Louis, Mo., on March 11. 1859.

From the beginning of service, Comanches and Kiowas had plagued stage traffic from southwest Kansas into New Mexico.

Indian agent William Bent would later say, “A smothered passion for revenge agitates these Indians, perpetually fomented by the failure of food, the encircling encroachments of the white population, and exasperating sense of decay and impending extinction with which they are surrounded.”

A mail station had been established in 1857 at William Allison and Francis Booth’s trading post at Walnut Creek on the Santa Fe Trail (east of present-day Great Bend). The place was popularly known as Allison’s Ranche.

From Allison’s mail station to Fort Union, N.M., a desolate trail of no additional relay stations left the stage company with no support for its stage operations.

Following his return from captivity among the Comanches, Hall called for a mail station at Pawnee Fork (presentday Fort Larned National Historic Site), but Kiowas and Comanche leaders objected to any new stations west of Walnut Creek.

Hall abandoned the attempt in the face of threats to kill anyone sent to build the station.

However, by the first of August, Hall revisited the idea with U. S. officials, this time persuading the government to post a company of troops during construction of the station at Pawnee Fork. The troops returned to Fort Riley in September.

Almost immediately trouble erupted at Allison’s Ranche. Two Kiowa chiefs, Satank and Big Pawnee, influenced by liquor, had attacked two employees at Allison’s Ranche. The drunken chiefs were driven back without casualty, but concern was high that the station was about to be attacked by a large force of warriors. Two companies of cavalry were sent back to Allison’s Ranche to defend the station.

Capt. W. T. Walker sought out and arrested Big Pawnee as soon as he arrived on Sept. 22. But, while under guard, Big Pawnee ran for his warhorse and escaped. In a long chase over the prairie Lt. George Bayard eventually shot him to keep him from getting away.

Realizing that the Kiowas would not let the death of Big Pawnee go without reprisal Capt. Walker camped close to Allison’s Ranche.

Additional troops under Capt. W. D. DeSaussure arrived that evening. A single mail coach arrived at Allison’s the next day with only three employees and no armed guards. Conductor Michael Smith requested an escort to Pawnee Fork.

At Pawnee Fork Smith requested further escort, but Lt. Elmer Otis and his compliment of 30 troopers were under orders to not go beyond Pawnee Fork.

Five or six miles west of Pawnee Fork the coach was overtaken by a band of 15 Kiowas who at first appeared friendly. Suddenly, one of them grabbed William Cole and ordered him to mount up behind one of the warriors. Cole broke free just as the driver, Conductor Smith’s brother, was shot in the breast.

A lead ball grazed Cole in the back of the head and another in the shoulder. A dozen shots filled the air, but both Conductor Smith and Cole were spared.

Cole took the reins as Smith jumped on one of the mules and whipped them into a frenzy. Several Kiowa raced along side of the running team as Smith frantically fought for his life.

A shot from a Kiowa pistol brought him down.

Cole shot the warrior causing him to fall in front of the stampeding mules. One of the mules reared up, and the team became entangled, bringing the coach to a stop.

Fortunately, Cole jumped into some tall grass and was able to evade the Kiowas who soon lost interest and left with the mules.

Cole found his way back to Pawnee Fork where he related to Lt. Otis the death of the Smith brothers an his own harrowing tale of survival on The Way West.

“The Cowboy,” Jim Gray is author of the book Desperate Seed: Ellsworth Kansas on the Violent Frontier, Ellsworth, KS Contact Kansas Cowboy, 220 21st Road, Geneseo, Kan. Phone: (785) 531-2058 or kansascowboy@kans.com.