Theodore was born in Plattsburg, N.Y.
-----
1/19/2009 9:37:00 AM
History set in stone
Pony Express riders rest in Atchison
By PATTY MOORE
Reporter
An afterworld of history is set in stone in Atchison cemeteries, where markers bear notable names - governors, a U. S. senator, businessmen and others who helped shape local and national destiny.
Two names stand out in early American western lore - David R. Jay and Theodore P. Rand, aka, "Little Yank."
Their graves aren't distinguished by imposing stones. In fact, they weren't marked at all until hand-made concrete stones with bronze plaques were put into place in June 2005.
The plaques identify two men who carried the mail on horseback in 1860-61, riders of the Pony Express.
David Jay rests in Mt. Vernon Cemetery, and Theodore Rand is buried at Oak Hill, their graves marked by Western Trails Historian Joe Nardone of Laguna Hills, Calif.
Mr. Jay and Mr. Rand rode for the Pony from its start in April 1860 until its end in October 1861, after Atchison had become PE eastern terminus on Sept. 23.
David Jay, at 13 years old, the youngest rider ever hired by the PE, carried mail in Kansas from Seneca to Big Sandy (Marysville), sometimes on to Ft. Kearney, Neb.
Theodore Rand rode the 110-mile night route between Box Elder and Julesburg, Colo.
After completion of telegraph lines put the PE out of business, David Jay and Little Yank Rand eventually moved to Atchison.
Mr. Rand was quoted in the writings of George Remsburg, early-day Atchison historian, as saying he knew John Slade as a real gentleman.
This is an apparent erroneous reference to a notorious part-time outlaw and Julesburg Overland Stage Agent Joseph "Jack" Slade, who is said to have tied the original agent, Jules Beni, to a fencepost and put bullets into Beni's arms and legs before fatally shooting him 24 hours into the ordeal. Never convicted of the murder, Jack Slade continued to work for Overland/PE stations farther west.)
News of Mr. Rand's death Dec. 27, 1902, in the Globe that day said he was born in Plattsburg, N.Y., Feb. 4, 1827, and died at work at the Missouri Pacific freight office.
The obituary described his years as a Pony rider, stating he had been paid $40 a month and board, and had permanent damage to his eyes from "looking for the road at night."
Theodore Rand's only child, Will, also worked for the Mo-Pac, their home was 1024 Mound Street, and Little Yank's funeral was at the Kansas Avenue M.E. Church.
The June 12, 1930 Globe reported David Jay died at his Price Boulevard home that morning.
It said he was born at Lancaster, Mo. Jan. 7, 1847, came "west" in 1856, and as a Union veteran of the 11th Kansas Volunteer Cavalry, was mustered out at Ft. Leavenworth in 1865.
(Pony Express records note he fought in the Civil War Battle of Westport, now part of Kansas City.)
He was married to Emily Mize in 1869, and she died in Atchison in 1928.
Mr. Jay resided at Fairview in Brown County before moving to Atchison in 1892, In
Atchison, he worked for the Missouri Pacific and Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railroads, and as an Atchison police officer under Chief Owen Sipe.
His death notice reported that he never missed participating in a Memorial Day service until two weeks before his death, when "illness kept him away from Memorial Hall."
Stanton Funeral Home was in charge of services with military honors by Mr. Jays' fellow members of the American Legion.
His descendants now residing in Atchison include two great-grandsons, Tim Thomas and James Jay Thomas, and a great-great-grandson, Robert Jay Thomas.
Both Theodore Rand and David Jay were mail carriers and drivers for Ben Holladay's Atchison-based Overland Stage & Mail between 1861 and before they moved to Atchison. They are also said by 19th Century historians to have done "Indian fighting on the Plains."
Ben Holladay had taken over the Pony Express when the operation was moved in 1861 to his Atchison Overland Stage headquarters in the Massasoit Hotel between Second and Third on Main Street. A marker denoting the move stands at the corner of Third and Main. Among famous guests at the Massasoit were Mark Twain and Abraham Lincoln.
Cloud Cray Jr. and Ladd Seaberg of MGP Ingredients and Paul Adair of Exchange National Bank & Trust have been instrumental in documenting the Atchison link to the Pony Express.
They also helped fund the Main Street marker and placement and continuing upkeep of the riders' gravestones.
Ben Holladay established McCormick Distillery at Weston, formerly owned by the Cray family.
Holladay's cousin and lawyer, Bela Hughes, and his Atchison stage and PE agent, Robert Pease, were Atchison residents with direct ties in the 1850s and 60s to the Bank of Kansas, now Exchange National.
Patty Moore can be reached at [email protected]
(Article posted with permission of author)
-----
1/19/2009 9:37:00 AM
History set in stone
Pony Express riders rest in Atchison
By PATTY MOORE
Reporter
An afterworld of history is set in stone in Atchison cemeteries, where markers bear notable names - governors, a U. S. senator, businessmen and others who helped shape local and national destiny.
Two names stand out in early American western lore - David R. Jay and Theodore P. Rand, aka, "Little Yank."
Their graves aren't distinguished by imposing stones. In fact, they weren't marked at all until hand-made concrete stones with bronze plaques were put into place in June 2005.
The plaques identify two men who carried the mail on horseback in 1860-61, riders of the Pony Express.
David Jay rests in Mt. Vernon Cemetery, and Theodore Rand is buried at Oak Hill, their graves marked by Western Trails Historian Joe Nardone of Laguna Hills, Calif.
Mr. Jay and Mr. Rand rode for the Pony from its start in April 1860 until its end in October 1861, after Atchison had become PE eastern terminus on Sept. 23.
David Jay, at 13 years old, the youngest rider ever hired by the PE, carried mail in Kansas from Seneca to Big Sandy (Marysville), sometimes on to Ft. Kearney, Neb.
Theodore Rand rode the 110-mile night route between Box Elder and Julesburg, Colo.
After completion of telegraph lines put the PE out of business, David Jay and Little Yank Rand eventually moved to Atchison.
Mr. Rand was quoted in the writings of George Remsburg, early-day Atchison historian, as saying he knew John Slade as a real gentleman.
This is an apparent erroneous reference to a notorious part-time outlaw and Julesburg Overland Stage Agent Joseph "Jack" Slade, who is said to have tied the original agent, Jules Beni, to a fencepost and put bullets into Beni's arms and legs before fatally shooting him 24 hours into the ordeal. Never convicted of the murder, Jack Slade continued to work for Overland/PE stations farther west.)
News of Mr. Rand's death Dec. 27, 1902, in the Globe that day said he was born in Plattsburg, N.Y., Feb. 4, 1827, and died at work at the Missouri Pacific freight office.
The obituary described his years as a Pony rider, stating he had been paid $40 a month and board, and had permanent damage to his eyes from "looking for the road at night."
Theodore Rand's only child, Will, also worked for the Mo-Pac, their home was 1024 Mound Street, and Little Yank's funeral was at the Kansas Avenue M.E. Church.
The June 12, 1930 Globe reported David Jay died at his Price Boulevard home that morning.
It said he was born at Lancaster, Mo. Jan. 7, 1847, came "west" in 1856, and as a Union veteran of the 11th Kansas Volunteer Cavalry, was mustered out at Ft. Leavenworth in 1865.
(Pony Express records note he fought in the Civil War Battle of Westport, now part of Kansas City.)
He was married to Emily Mize in 1869, and she died in Atchison in 1928.
Mr. Jay resided at Fairview in Brown County before moving to Atchison in 1892, In
Atchison, he worked for the Missouri Pacific and Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railroads, and as an Atchison police officer under Chief Owen Sipe.
His death notice reported that he never missed participating in a Memorial Day service until two weeks before his death, when "illness kept him away from Memorial Hall."
Stanton Funeral Home was in charge of services with military honors by Mr. Jays' fellow members of the American Legion.
His descendants now residing in Atchison include two great-grandsons, Tim Thomas and James Jay Thomas, and a great-great-grandson, Robert Jay Thomas.
Both Theodore Rand and David Jay were mail carriers and drivers for Ben Holladay's Atchison-based Overland Stage & Mail between 1861 and before they moved to Atchison. They are also said by 19th Century historians to have done "Indian fighting on the Plains."
Ben Holladay had taken over the Pony Express when the operation was moved in 1861 to his Atchison Overland Stage headquarters in the Massasoit Hotel between Second and Third on Main Street. A marker denoting the move stands at the corner of Third and Main. Among famous guests at the Massasoit were Mark Twain and Abraham Lincoln.
Cloud Cray Jr. and Ladd Seaberg of MGP Ingredients and Paul Adair of Exchange National Bank & Trust have been instrumental in documenting the Atchison link to the Pony Express.
They also helped fund the Main Street marker and placement and continuing upkeep of the riders' gravestones.
Ben Holladay established McCormick Distillery at Weston, formerly owned by the Cray family.
Holladay's cousin and lawyer, Bela Hughes, and his Atchison stage and PE agent, Robert Pease, were Atchison residents with direct ties in the 1850s and 60s to the Bank of Kansas, now Exchange National.
Patty Moore can be reached at [email protected]
(Article posted with permission of author)
Theodore was born in Plattsburg, N.Y.
-----
1/19/2009 9:37:00 AM
History set in stone
Pony Express riders rest in Atchison
By PATTY MOORE
Reporter
An afterworld of history is set in stone in Atchison cemeteries, where markers bear notable names - governors, a U. S. senator, businessmen and others who helped shape local and national destiny.
Two names stand out in early American western lore - David R. Jay and Theodore P. Rand, aka, "Little Yank."
Their graves aren't distinguished by imposing stones. In fact, they weren't marked at all until hand-made concrete stones with bronze plaques were put into place in June 2005.
The plaques identify two men who carried the mail on horseback in 1860-61, riders of the Pony Express.
David Jay rests in Mt. Vernon Cemetery, and Theodore Rand is buried at Oak Hill, their graves marked by Western Trails Historian Joe Nardone of Laguna Hills, Calif.
Mr. Jay and Mr. Rand rode for the Pony from its start in April 1860 until its end in October 1861, after Atchison had become PE eastern terminus on Sept. 23.
David Jay, at 13 years old, the youngest rider ever hired by the PE, carried mail in Kansas from Seneca to Big Sandy (Marysville), sometimes on to Ft. Kearney, Neb.
Theodore Rand rode the 110-mile night route between Box Elder and Julesburg, Colo.
After completion of telegraph lines put the PE out of business, David Jay and Little Yank Rand eventually moved to Atchison.
Mr. Rand was quoted in the writings of George Remsburg, early-day Atchison historian, as saying he knew John Slade as a real gentleman.
This is an apparent erroneous reference to a notorious part-time outlaw and Julesburg Overland Stage Agent Joseph "Jack" Slade, who is said to have tied the original agent, Jules Beni, to a fencepost and put bullets into Beni's arms and legs before fatally shooting him 24 hours into the ordeal. Never convicted of the murder, Jack Slade continued to work for Overland/PE stations farther west.)
News of Mr. Rand's death Dec. 27, 1902, in the Globe that day said he was born in Plattsburg, N.Y., Feb. 4, 1827, and died at work at the Missouri Pacific freight office.
The obituary described his years as a Pony rider, stating he had been paid $40 a month and board, and had permanent damage to his eyes from "looking for the road at night."
Theodore Rand's only child, Will, also worked for the Mo-Pac, their home was 1024 Mound Street, and Little Yank's funeral was at the Kansas Avenue M.E. Church.
The June 12, 1930 Globe reported David Jay died at his Price Boulevard home that morning.
It said he was born at Lancaster, Mo. Jan. 7, 1847, came "west" in 1856, and as a Union veteran of the 11th Kansas Volunteer Cavalry, was mustered out at Ft. Leavenworth in 1865.
(Pony Express records note he fought in the Civil War Battle of Westport, now part of Kansas City.)
He was married to Emily Mize in 1869, and she died in Atchison in 1928.
Mr. Jay resided at Fairview in Brown County before moving to Atchison in 1892, In
Atchison, he worked for the Missouri Pacific and Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railroads, and as an Atchison police officer under Chief Owen Sipe.
His death notice reported that he never missed participating in a Memorial Day service until two weeks before his death, when "illness kept him away from Memorial Hall."
Stanton Funeral Home was in charge of services with military honors by Mr. Jays' fellow members of the American Legion.
His descendants now residing in Atchison include two great-grandsons, Tim Thomas and James Jay Thomas, and a great-great-grandson, Robert Jay Thomas.
Both Theodore Rand and David Jay were mail carriers and drivers for Ben Holladay's Atchison-based Overland Stage & Mail between 1861 and before they moved to Atchison. They are also said by 19th Century historians to have done "Indian fighting on the Plains."
Ben Holladay had taken over the Pony Express when the operation was moved in 1861 to his Atchison Overland Stage headquarters in the Massasoit Hotel between Second and Third on Main Street. A marker denoting the move stands at the corner of Third and Main. Among famous guests at the Massasoit were Mark Twain and Abraham Lincoln.
Cloud Cray Jr. and Ladd Seaberg of MGP Ingredients and Paul Adair of Exchange National Bank & Trust have been instrumental in documenting the Atchison link to the Pony Express.
They also helped fund the Main Street marker and placement and continuing upkeep of the riders' gravestones.
Ben Holladay established McCormick Distillery at Weston, formerly owned by the Cray family.
Holladay's cousin and lawyer, Bela Hughes, and his Atchison stage and PE agent, Robert Pease, were Atchison residents with direct ties in the 1850s and 60s to the Bank of Kansas, now Exchange National.
Patty Moore can be reached at [email protected]
(Article posted with permission of author)
-----
1/19/2009 9:37:00 AM
History set in stone
Pony Express riders rest in Atchison
By PATTY MOORE
Reporter
An afterworld of history is set in stone in Atchison cemeteries, where markers bear notable names - governors, a U. S. senator, businessmen and others who helped shape local and national destiny.
Two names stand out in early American western lore - David R. Jay and Theodore P. Rand, aka, "Little Yank."
Their graves aren't distinguished by imposing stones. In fact, they weren't marked at all until hand-made concrete stones with bronze plaques were put into place in June 2005.
The plaques identify two men who carried the mail on horseback in 1860-61, riders of the Pony Express.
David Jay rests in Mt. Vernon Cemetery, and Theodore Rand is buried at Oak Hill, their graves marked by Western Trails Historian Joe Nardone of Laguna Hills, Calif.
Mr. Jay and Mr. Rand rode for the Pony from its start in April 1860 until its end in October 1861, after Atchison had become PE eastern terminus on Sept. 23.
David Jay, at 13 years old, the youngest rider ever hired by the PE, carried mail in Kansas from Seneca to Big Sandy (Marysville), sometimes on to Ft. Kearney, Neb.
Theodore Rand rode the 110-mile night route between Box Elder and Julesburg, Colo.
After completion of telegraph lines put the PE out of business, David Jay and Little Yank Rand eventually moved to Atchison.
Mr. Rand was quoted in the writings of George Remsburg, early-day Atchison historian, as saying he knew John Slade as a real gentleman.
This is an apparent erroneous reference to a notorious part-time outlaw and Julesburg Overland Stage Agent Joseph "Jack" Slade, who is said to have tied the original agent, Jules Beni, to a fencepost and put bullets into Beni's arms and legs before fatally shooting him 24 hours into the ordeal. Never convicted of the murder, Jack Slade continued to work for Overland/PE stations farther west.)
News of Mr. Rand's death Dec. 27, 1902, in the Globe that day said he was born in Plattsburg, N.Y., Feb. 4, 1827, and died at work at the Missouri Pacific freight office.
The obituary described his years as a Pony rider, stating he had been paid $40 a month and board, and had permanent damage to his eyes from "looking for the road at night."
Theodore Rand's only child, Will, also worked for the Mo-Pac, their home was 1024 Mound Street, and Little Yank's funeral was at the Kansas Avenue M.E. Church.
The June 12, 1930 Globe reported David Jay died at his Price Boulevard home that morning.
It said he was born at Lancaster, Mo. Jan. 7, 1847, came "west" in 1856, and as a Union veteran of the 11th Kansas Volunteer Cavalry, was mustered out at Ft. Leavenworth in 1865.
(Pony Express records note he fought in the Civil War Battle of Westport, now part of Kansas City.)
He was married to Emily Mize in 1869, and she died in Atchison in 1928.
Mr. Jay resided at Fairview in Brown County before moving to Atchison in 1892, In
Atchison, he worked for the Missouri Pacific and Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railroads, and as an Atchison police officer under Chief Owen Sipe.
His death notice reported that he never missed participating in a Memorial Day service until two weeks before his death, when "illness kept him away from Memorial Hall."
Stanton Funeral Home was in charge of services with military honors by Mr. Jays' fellow members of the American Legion.
His descendants now residing in Atchison include two great-grandsons, Tim Thomas and James Jay Thomas, and a great-great-grandson, Robert Jay Thomas.
Both Theodore Rand and David Jay were mail carriers and drivers for Ben Holladay's Atchison-based Overland Stage & Mail between 1861 and before they moved to Atchison. They are also said by 19th Century historians to have done "Indian fighting on the Plains."
Ben Holladay had taken over the Pony Express when the operation was moved in 1861 to his Atchison Overland Stage headquarters in the Massasoit Hotel between Second and Third on Main Street. A marker denoting the move stands at the corner of Third and Main. Among famous guests at the Massasoit were Mark Twain and Abraham Lincoln.
Cloud Cray Jr. and Ladd Seaberg of MGP Ingredients and Paul Adair of Exchange National Bank & Trust have been instrumental in documenting the Atchison link to the Pony Express.
They also helped fund the Main Street marker and placement and continuing upkeep of the riders' gravestones.
Ben Holladay established McCormick Distillery at Weston, formerly owned by the Cray family.
Holladay's cousin and lawyer, Bela Hughes, and his Atchison stage and PE agent, Robert Pease, were Atchison residents with direct ties in the 1850s and 60s to the Bank of Kansas, now Exchange National.
Patty Moore can be reached at [email protected]
(Article posted with permission of author)
Family Members
Children
Sponsored by Ancestry
Advertisement
Explore more
Sponsored by Ancestry
Advertisement
