Pony Express Rider

Thomas Owen King, Jr.

My father: Allan King Fowler     1928-1971
His mother (my grandmother): Louise King     1898-1987
Her father (my great-grandfather): Thomas Owen King     1869-1946
His father ( my great-great-grandfather)  Thomas Owen King Jr.   1840-1921

Experiences of Thomas Owen King Jr.

Pony Express Rider

In March 1860, T.O. King was employed to ride the pony express.  The first work he performed was with several other men distributing horses to the stations for one hundred miles east of Salt Lake City.  He was left at the mouth of echo Canyon to ride to Bear River -- forty miles distance -- when the rider from the west reached that point.  

He started on his first trip 7 April, 1870.  He was 20 years old that year.  Mounting his pony at 12 noon, he rode twenty miles, when a yell brought out a man from a station with a fresh horse.  He went five miles further and encountered a heavy snow with only a narrow path.  He lost the path, but recovered it and got through on the scheduled time. George Leonard, the next rider had given out and King had to double back.


"My longest ride,"  he writes, was from Salt Lake to Hanis Fork, 140 miles and return the next day; making the trip in 13 hours and I remember I went out walking that evening with my best girl.  I don't know how far I could have ridden in those days, with just time to eat a little.. I never tired."

When the semi-weekly express was put on, I rode from Salt Lake to Bear river -- 80 miles -- and opposite me rode Henry Worley, going and coming in the night.  Often the hostler would ask me where I met Worley, and I would say I hadn't even seen him.  It was the same with him; we were both asleep when we passed each other but our horses were going the same old gait.

The Pony Express, a system of transportation which employed ponies in relays, was started by private parties in 1860.

The ponies employed in the service were splendid specimens of speed and endurance.  There were fed and housed with the greatest care, for their mettle must never fail the test to which it was put.  Ten miles distance at the limit of the animals pace was extracted from him and he came darting into the station flecked with foam, nostrils dilated and every hair reeking with perspiration while his flanks thumped at every breath.


The case of letters carried made a bundle no longer than an ordinary tablet.  Twenty pounds was the limit of weight of mail carried.

The pony rider was usually a little bit of a  man, brimful of spirit and endurance.. No matter what time of day or night his watch came on, and not matter whether it was winter or summer, raining, or snowing, hailing or sleeting or whether his 'beat' was level straight road or crazy trail over mountain craggs  and precipices or whether it lead through peaceful regions or with hostile Indians, he must always be ready to leap into the saddle and be off like the wind!


There was no idling time time for a pony rider on duty.  He rode 50 miles without stopping, by daylight, moonlight, or the blackness of darkness.


The riders dress was thin, and fitted close; he carried not arms - he carried nothing that was not absolutely necessary for even the postage on his literary freight was worth $5.00 a letter.  His horse was stripped of unnecessary weight also.  He wore a little wafer of a racing saddle with no visible blanket.  He wore light shoes or none at all.


The stage coach traveled about 100 to 125 miles a day (24 hours), while the pony express riders about 250 miles.