JPK Huson 1863
Brev. Brig. Gen'l
- Joined
- Feb 14, 2012
- Location
- Central Pennsylvania
Talk about less than 6 feet of distance. It occurs to me daily that examining period photos is a terrific way to de-myth a ton of our history or at least wipe away Hollywood's fuzzy, indistinct filter. Our iconic stagecoach, swirling into town behind 6 horses or galloping over the plains- what a way to travel! OK. This Boston, Massachusetts stage blown-up. Six passengers, seats the airlines swiped for later designs in discomfort, knees touching, jolting, bumping, swaying and lurching to a destination hours later? How glamorous was it, really?
This once again might be a big snore- fatal flaw here in that everything is interesting.
As automatically identifiable as ' dog ' and ' cat ', children's primer's included " Stage Coach " - love this from " Dixie Primer " ( Hathitrust )
The thing is, we tend to look at a lot of these old treasures without looking at them. I mean really getting an idea at what we're seeing which can mean we're missing something inside history that's awfully valuable. You know where the cowboy waits for the stage and swings his perfectly coifed, not a hair out of place, un-wrinkled, not-frazzled, beautiful wife down from that stage coach? Never happened.
THIS is how we got anywhere and everywhere. Picturesque? I'm not so sure.
Sorry, not a photo- this is the era version of glamorizing stage coach travel! Note the happy passengers, galloping horses, effortless trip through ( this time ) Australia. Seriously- you know how much fun it is 4-wheeling on purpose because it's so raucous? That, sitting on top much less inside on of those things.
In our vanishing landscape you can still easily spot old stage coach stops. Honest. In some areas of the country they've been meticulously maintained, renovated and preserved. Around here another one was just earmarked for demolition. You know. A crumbling, old brick 3 story at the intersection of an old town? Last reincarnation was apartments, before that a seedy bar, maybe some seedier activity upstairs but before that? An incredibly busy, important and prosperous stagecoach stop and hotel, last one before a fresh team tackled that last, treacherous stretch over Peter's Mountain.
Sometimes examining era photos is examining who we aren't anymore, too. Maybe it's wondering how much of that is good- travel is a lot swifter in 2020 but I'm not sure the last time I flew those seats were a lot more comfortable than what you'd think it'd be like stuffed in one of these.
Seats on the roof were cheaper. They'd have been fun for maybe 25 minutes. This is from 1865.
Rail roads tied in with stops later and stages picked up and dropped off well-heeled visitors to those fashinable resorts discussed here not long ago. BUT it was still an incredibly uncomfortable way to travel. And frequently dangerous.
Short and long trips- this is 1863 so smack in the middle of the war- stage coaches were so much a part of our lives there was a position called ' Proprietor of Stages ', E. Ferguson apparently based in District of Columbia.
I ' think ' the last stage was booked in 1907? This image is around that time, not a lot of difference between colonial America and our stage coaches when it all began this final trip.
No intent here except ' examine ' these old images- who we were, how we lived, maybe what it was like. While we're all home.