Wednesday, April 11, 1934

Viola Kerns, Elizabeth Holland and Annabell Smith gave their Expressions today.

Alexander Majors (October 14, 1814 - January 13, 1900)

Alexander Majors was a U.S. businessman, who along with William Hepburn Russell and
William B. Waddell founded the Pony Express. In about 1860, the firm now known as
 "Russell, Majors and Waddell" formed the "Central Overland California and Pikes Peak Express
 Company" to get the contract to deliver mail between Missouri and California, which had previously
been held by Butterfield Overland Mail which was delivering the mail in 25 days or more over
a route that went through the South. With Civil War clouds brewing, the group proposed
delivering the mail over a central route through Salt Lake City, Utah, and proposed doing it
in 10 days via a horse relay called the Pony Express.

Even though they succeeded in making the deliveries they did not get the contract and went
bankrupt when the Transcontinental Telegraph opened in October 1861. Majors provided
rail ties for the crews of the Union Pacific Railroad working on the First Transcontinental
 Railroad. After the railroad was completed, he continued to haul freight to towns not yet
serviced by the railroad.

Majors' two-story frame farmhouse, built in 1855, still stands on the Missouri side
of State Line at 81st Street. The house is now a museum.