But
while travelling by stagecoach may seem like a fairy-tale chapter from the
past, in reality there was nothing glamourous about it at all. It was simply a
way to get from Point A to Point B. For one thing, passengers could count on
getting coated with plenty of road dust during the summer and fall. Such was
the fate for passengers Garrett Kavenagh and Eliza Williams as they made their
way along the Westmorland Great Road from the shire town of Dorchester, a distance
of a little less than thirty miles up to the bustling town of Moncton.
“She
leaned back and looked out the side window. He briefly considered pulling down
the leather curtain to spare them the billowing dust outside, but that would be
at the expense of the scenery, such as it was. The roadsides were heavily
forested so there wasn’t much to see, but at least there was daylight. The
temperature had risen to an uncomfortable level inside the coach, so any
attempt to block fresh air or hopefully a breeze would be most unwise.”
Another
unpleasant circumstance that stagecoach travellers had to contend with were
often deplorable road conditions (besides the dust). The roads in early New
Brunswick were usually rudimentary at best (the bridges were even worse),
although the main thoroughfares called the great roads were in better shape
than many secondary roadways. Memories of such experiences are set out in W. Eugene
Goodrich’s book The Stagecoach Era in Dorchester:
“…
anyone who rode the sixteen to eighteen hours between Saint John and Dorchester
in a … stagecoach must have been pretty sick of it by the end of the journey,
even if it was in a Concord. In bad weather, and in general during the last
years of the stagecoach era when the road had had time to deteriorate, it took
considerably longer than that. An English lady touring North America left a
harrowing account of a trip from Moncton to Saint John that took twenty
hours—with stops only for meals and a change of horses. After an unusually
soggy summer, the roads were so muddy that the passengers had to get out and
walk up the hills because the horses balked at dragging the heavily laden coach
through the mire. They also had to get out and walk across several bridges that
were in such bad shape they were in danger of collapsing under additional load.
It didn’t calm their nerves any when they were told, after crossing one
particularly rickety specimen, that only a few weeks before, a coach and six
horses had broken through its rotting planks—whether with injuries or
fatalities was left unsaid.”
Also,
in addition to the misfortune of being divested of your valuables by the
occasional highwayman, there were plenty of accidents … and fatalities,
including the horses. Long difficult journeys made for exhausted and all too
frequently injured animals. Since horses were the lifeblood of the operation,
their wellbeing was of utmost importance. Either a much-deserved rest or fresh replacements
awaited at relay stations situated at about twenty mile intervals along the various
routes throughout the province. (Some stagecoaches ran through the night).
Another
popular misconception about these early stagecoach days has to do with the
speed at which they travelled – which of course depended on the pace the horses
were able to maintain. This particular misunderstanding exists because of
television and the movies where stagecoach horses can be seen running for miles
on end at top speed without seeming to tire. In reality. a horse can only run
in full flight (a gallop) for about a mile and a half (unless gait varies with
cantering and trotting) before becoming fatigued. Actual stagecoach horses
usually travelled at a full trot (on good roads), averaging about six miles
(9.65 kilometres) per hour, and considering the poor road conditions they were
forced to navigate in some instances, they certainly earned their rest.
Also
called post houses where the stagecoach and horses were serviced and passengers
refreshed, these facilities were all too often found to be wanting. For the
most part they were taverns, and intoxicating spirits typically flowed freely.
Although there were indeed reputable establishments in use for this purpose,
most accommodations were spartan at best. Such was the case at Todd’s Place, a
stop along the line in Queens County, New Brunswick according to
backyardhistory.ca:
“In her book ‘A Time There Was,’ Marion
Gilcrest Reicker describes what was likely a nicer than average tavern called
Todd’s Place, in Mill Cove on Lake Washademoak. Curiously, while the
stable was by the road, the tavern itself was on the opposite side of the lake
from the road, meaning guests had to be paddled across. Inside Todd’s Place,
travelers would all eat together in a big common room, where they all sat at a
single large table on long benches. Wet clothes were hung on a line over the
large fireplace to dry. At night the travelers would all sleep in one big
bunk room at the back of the tavern. Often there were more travelers than beds,
and so strangers would sleep together in the same bed until there was
physically no space left. Those not lucky enough to fit into the beds would
sleep wrapped in blankets on the benches in the common room.”
Of
course not many women travelled alone during those times, but those who did
brave such an undertaking had better be able to hold their own in what was a male-dominated
transportation industry. Although physically demanding in any number of ways,
it might have been the question of proper accommodations during overnight stops
that a woman on her own would have found most challenging.
The
coaches themselves left much to be desired in terms of comfort, compared to the
amenities we’ve become accustomed to today. Nevertheless efforts were made in that regard during those early
times, including leather strap suspension designed to act as springs. These
straps also helped take stress off the horses or (or in some cases mules). And
if passengers suffered from motion sickness, and many did just like today, the relentless
“pitching, swaying and tossing” stagecoach would be a hard way to go. Coaches came
in various models, and depending on its size were pulled by anywhere from two
to six horses. There was usually room for nine (very cramped) passengers inside
the larger coaches, and they often had to hold their luggage on their lap. If
business was brisk, there was room for another eight or nine passengers on the
roof of the stagecoach.
Stagecoaches
in New Brunswick serviced the province’s population by way of several routes throughout
its 73, 440 square kilometres (28,354 square miles), mail delivery (at
designated stops) being one of the key components of stage line operations. After
freeze-up, “the rivers became ideal sleigh roads” to provide stage service. The
advent of rail beginning in the mid to late 1800’s made for a quicker, cleaner,
more comfortable means of travel although early trains, as set out in The
Stagecoach Era in Dorchester “had an appalling accident rate” compared to
stagecoaches.
But
perhaps the greatest misunderstanding of all about stagecoach travel in general,
is that of its origin. As many may mistakenly assume, stagecoaches are not a product of the old west.
“Stagecoaches are commonly
imagined thundering across the plains of the Old West with bands of robbers or
hostile Indians in hot pursuit, and indeed they sometimes did that. But they
were equally common in eastern North America many decades before they appeared
in the American West,” says W. Eugene Goodrich in his aforementioned book. “The
first stagecoach lines were developed in Europe and were already a familiar
sight in the time of Shakespeare.”
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