View source for Stagecoach

{{short description|Type of covered wagon}}
{{About|the horse-drawn carriage used by long-distance passenger transport operators|other uses}}
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| image1 = Concord Stagecoach number 251.JPG
| caption1 = Preserved [[Concord stagecoach]] in [[Wells Fargo]] livery
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| caption2 = Postcoach or {{lang|fr|diligence}} in [[Switzerland]]
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A '''stagecoach''' (also: '''stage coach''', '''stage''', '''road coach''', '''{{lang|fr|diligence}}'''{{r|smith}}) is a four-wheeled [[public transport]] [[coach (carriage)|coach]] used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by [[four-in-hand (carriage)|four horses]] although some versions are drawn by six horses.
Commonly used before [[History of rail transport|steam-powered rail transport]] was available, a stagecoach made long scheduled trips using [[Stage station|stage stations]] or posts where the stagecoach's horses would be replaced by fresh horses. The business of running stagecoaches or the act of journeying in them was known as staging.<ref name=StagecoachEast>{{cite book |first1=Oliver Wendell |last1=Holmes |year=1983 |title=Stagecoach East: Stagecoach Days in the East from the Colonial Period to the Civil War |isbn=978-0-87474-522-1 |first2=Peter T. |last2=Rohrbach |publisher=[[Smithsonian Institution Press]] |pages=220 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=89PfAAAAMAAJ}}</ref>
Some familiar images of the stagecoach are that of a [[mail coach|Royal Mail coach]] passing through a [[Turnpike trust|turnpike]] gate, a [[Dickensian]] passenger coach covered in snow pulling up at a [[coaching inn]], a [[highwayman]] demanding a coach to "stand and deliver" and a [[Wells Fargo]] stagecoach arriving at or leaving an [[American frontier]] town. The [[yard of ale]] drinking glass is associated by legend with stagecoach drivers, though it was mainly used for [[Drinking game|drinking feats]] and special [[Toast (honor)|toasts]].<ref>{{cite journal |url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/652036/yard-of-ale-glass |title=Yard-of-ale glass (drinking glass) |journal=[[Britannica Online Encyclopedia]] |access-date=10 March 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110604172737/http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/652036/yard-of-ale-glass |archive-date=4 June 2011 |publisher=[[Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.]] |date=20 July 1998}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.theyardofale.com/index.php/history/ |title=The Yard of Ale : Our History |work=www.theyardofale.com |access-date=10 March 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100304113941/http://www.theyardofale.com/index.php/history/ |archive-date=4 March 2010 |year=2008}}</ref>
==Description==
The stagecoach was a closed four-wheeled [[vehicle]] drawn by [[horse]]s or hard-going [[mule]]s. It was regularly used as a public conveyance on an established route usually to a regular schedule. Spent horses were replaced with fresh horses at [[stage station]]s, posts, or relays. In addition to the stage driver or coachman who guided the vehicle, a [[shotgun messenger]] armed with a [[coach gun]] might travel as a guard beside him. Thus, the origin of the phrase "[[riding shotgun]]".
{{blockquote |text=Always a headed vehicle, fitted with roof seats or gammon boards, from the early 19th century. ... Driven from an elevated box seat, its footboard supported by brackets. At first unsprung or dead axle, but later hung on braces, elbow and finally Telegraph springs, as with the [[Mail coach|Mail Coach]]. ... Most stage coaches were named and painted in special [[Livery|liveries]]. |author=D. J. M. Smith in ''A Dictionary of Horse Drawn Vehicles'' <ref name="smith"/>{{rp|152}} }}
[[File:Wells Fargo (6079160244).jpg|thumb|Wells Fargo mud-coach]]
The American ''mud wagon'' was an earlier, smaller, and cruder vehicle, being mostly open-sided with minimal protection from weather, causing passengers to risk being mud-splashed.{{r|smith|page=120}} A canvas-topped [[stage wagon]] was used for freight and passengers, and it had a lower center of gravity, making it harder to overturn.{{r|smith|p=153}}
==Speed==
Until the late 18th century, stagecoaches traveled at an average speed of about {{convert|5|mph|0}}, with the average daily mileage traversed approximately {{convert|60|to|70|mi}}.<ref>{{Cite web| title = Mile Marker M to B 82 - U.S. Historic Survey Stones and Monuments |website=Waymarking.com| accessdate = 2023-10-20| url = https://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM3A0A}}</ref> With road improvements and the development of steel springs, speeds increased. By 1836 the scheduled coach left London at 19:30, travelled through the night (without lights) and arrived in Liverpool at 16:50 the next day, a distance of about {{convert|220|mi}}, doubling the overall average speed to about {{convert|10|mph}}, including stops to change horses.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.historic-uk.com/CultureUK/The-Stagecoach/|title = The Stagecoach}}</ref>
==History==
{{blockquote |text=[Stage coaches operated] between stages or stopping places, both in the ancient world and modern Europe/America. Revived in England during the late 16th or early 17th centuries, although a nationwide system was not organised until 1658. Considerable improvements came during the 18th century with the turnpike system and better engineering of public roads. ... Forced from its main trunk routes by railway competition from the late 1830's, although some lingered in remoter areas until the 1850's. In North America a few [[Concord coach|Concord Coaches]] survived until the first half of the 20th century. |author=D. J. M. Smith in ''A Dictionary of Horse Drawn Vehicles'' <ref name="smith"/>{{rp|152}} }}
===Origins===
The first crude depiction of a coach was in an [[England|English]] manuscript from the 13th century.<ref>Olmert, Michael (1996). ''Milton's Teeth and Ovid's Umbrella: Curiouser & Curiouser Adventures in History'', p.142. Simon & Fille, New York. {{ISBN|0-684-80164-7}}.</ref> The first recorded stagecoach route in Britain started in 1610 and ran from [[Edinburgh]] to [[Leith]]. This was followed by a steady proliferation of other routes around the island.<ref name="Lay">{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/waysofworldhisto00laym|url-access=registration|title=Ways of the World: A History of the World's Roads and of the Vehicles That Used Them|author=M. G. Lay|year=1992|publisher=Rutgers University Press|page=[https://archive.org/details/waysofworldhisto00laym/page/125 125]|isbn=9780813526911}}</ref> By the mid 17th century, a basic stagecoach infrastructure had been put in place.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?ParagraphID=kwq#1973|title=History of Transport and Travel|website=www.historyworld.net}}</ref>  A string of [[coaching inn]]s operated as stopping points for travellers on the route between [[London]] and [[Liverpool]]. The stagecoach would depart every Monday and Thursday and took roughly ten days to make the journey during the summer months. Stagecoaches also became widely adopted for travel in and around London by mid-century and generally travelled at a few miles per hour. [[Shakespeare]]'s first plays were performed at coaching inns such as [[The George Inn, Southwark]].
By the end of the 17th century stagecoach routes ran up and down the three main roads in England.<ref name="awoodley">{{cite web|url=http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~awoodley/carriage/history.html|title=Coaching History}}</ref> The London-York route was advertised in 1698:
{{blockquote|Whoever is desirous of going between London and York or York and London, Let them Repair to the Black Swan in Holboorn, or the Black Swan in [[Coney Street]], York, where they will be conveyed in a Stage Coach (If God permits), which starts every Thursday at Five in the morning.}}
The novelty of this method of transport excited much controversy at the time. One pamphleteer denounced the stagecoach as a "great evil [...] mischievous to trade and destructive to the public health".<ref name="awoodley" /> Another writer, however, argued that:
{{blockquote|Besides the excellent arrangement of conveying men and letters on horseback, there is of late such an admirable commodiousness, both for men and women, to travel from London to the principal towns in the country, that the like hath not been known in the world, and that is by stage-coaches, wherein any one may be transported to any place, sheltered from foul weather and foul ways; free from endamaging of one's health and one's body by the hard jogging or over-violent motion; and this not only at a low price (about a [[shilling]] for every {{convert|5|mi|km|0|spell=in|disp=sqbr}}) but with such velocity and speed in one hour, as that the posts in some foreign countries make in a day.|sign=|source=Angliæ Notitia: Or the Present State of England, Edward Chamberlayne, 1649}}
The speed of travel remained constant until the mid-18th century. Reforms of the [[turnpike trusts]], new methods of [[History of road transport|road building]] and the improved construction of coaches led to a sustained rise in the comfort and speed of the average journey - from an average journey length of 2 days for the [[Cambridge]]-London route in 1750 to a length of under 7 hours in 1820.<ref name="Lay" />
[[Robert Hooke]] helped in the construction of some of the first spring-suspended coaches in the 1660s and spoked wheels with iron rim brakes were introduced, improving the characteristics of the coach.<ref name="Lay" />
[[File:John Charles Maggs - The Mail Coach.jpg|thumb|A Greyhound or Flying coach]]
In 1754, a [[Manchester]]-based company began a new service called the "Flying Coach". It was [[advertisement|advertised]] with the following announcement - "However incredible it may appear, this coach will actually (barring accidents) arrive in London in four days and a half after leaving Manchester." A similar service was begun from Liverpool three years later, using coaches with steel spring suspension. This coach took an unprecedented three days to reach London with an average speed of {{convert|8|mph|km/h|spell=in}}
.<ref name="awoodley" />
===Royal Mail stagecoaches===
[[File:Houghton 44W-1384 - Pyne, Costume of Great Britain.jpg|right|thumb|Mail coach decorated in the black and maroon Post Office livery, 1804]]
[[File:The Public are Respectfully Informed that a neat and convenient stage coach..1831.jpg|thumb|A public notice advertising a new stage coach service in west [[Wales]], 1831]]
Even more dramatic improvements were made by [[John Palmer (postal innovator)|John Palmer]] at the [[General Post Office|British Post Office]]. The postal delivery service in Britain had existed in the same form for about 150 years—from its introduction in 1635, mounted carriers had ridden between "posts" where the postmaster would remove the letters for the local area before handing the remaining letters and any additions to the next rider. The riders were frequent targets for robbers, and the system was inefficient.<ref name="PO">{{cite web | url=http://postalheritage.org.uk/history/downloads/BPMA_Info_Sheet_MailCoaches_web.pdf | title=The Mail Coach Service | publisher=[[The British Postal Museum & Archive]] | year=2005 | access-date=21 July 2008 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110102210143/http://postalheritage.org.uk/history/downloads/BPMA_Info_Sheet_MailCoaches_web.pdf | archive-date=2011-01-02 | url-status=dead }}</ref>
Palmer made much use of the "flying" stagecoach services between cities in the course of his business, and noted that it seemed far more efficient than the system of mail delivery then in operation. His travel from Bath to London took a single day to the mail's three days. It occurred to him that this stagecoach service could be developed into a national mail delivery service, so in 1782 he suggested to the [[Royal Mail|Post Office]] in London that they take up the idea. He met resistance from officials who believed that the existing system could not be improved, but eventually the [[Chancellor of the Exchequer]], [[William Pitt the younger|William Pitt]], allowed him to carry out an experimental run between Bristol and London. Under the old system the journey had taken up to 38 hours. The stagecoach, funded by Palmer, left Bristol at 4&nbsp;pm on 2 August 1784 and arrived in London just 16 hours later.<ref>The Postman and the Postal Service, Vera Southgate, Wills & Hepworth Ltd, 1965, England</ref>
Impressed by the trial run, Pitt authorised the creation of new routes. Within the month the service had been extended from London to [[Norwich]], [[Nottingham]], Liverpool and [[Manchester]], and by the end of 1785 services to the following major towns and cities of England and Wales had also been linked: [[Leeds]], [[Dover]], [[Portsmouth]], [[Poole]], [[Exeter]], [[Gloucester]], [[Worcester, England|Worcester]], [[Holyhead]] and [[Carlisle, Cumbria|Carlisle]]. A service to [[Edinburgh]] was added the next year, and Palmer was rewarded by being made Surveyor and Comptroller General of the Post Office.<ref name="PO" /> By 1797 there were forty-two routes.<ref name="BS">{{cite web | url=http://www.stortfordhistory.co.uk/guide9/mailcoaches.html | title=Mail Coaches | publisher=Bishops Stortford Tourist Information | year=2004 | author=Paul Ailey | access-date=21 July 2008 | archive-date=4 March 2012 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120304164112/http://www.stortfordhistory.co.uk/guide9/mailcoaches.html | url-status=dead }}</ref>
===Improved coach design===
The period from 1800 to 1830 saw great improvements in the design of coaches, most notably by John Besant in 1792 and 1795. His coach had a greatly improved turning capacity and [[brake|braking system]], and a novel feature that prevented the wheels from falling off while the coach was in motion. Besant, with his partner John Vidler, enjoyed a monopoly on the supply of stagecoaches <!--interpolated 'to the Royal Mail' in order to make sense of the statement--> to the Royal Mail and a virtual monopoly on their upkeep and servicing for the following few decades.<ref name="PO"/>
Steel springs had been used in suspensions for vehicles since 1695.<ref>Frits van Sold, ''Obadiah Elliott & the Elliptic Spring'', The Carriage Journal: Vol 53 No 2 March 2015</ref> Coachbuilder Obadiah Elliott obtained a patent covering the use of [[elliptic spring]]s - which were not his invention. His patent lasted 14 years delaying development because Elliott allowed no others to license and use his patent. Elliott mounted each wheel with two durable elliptic steel leaf springs on each side and the body of the carriage was fixed directly to the springs attached to the [[axle]]s. After the expiry of his patent most British horse carriages were equipped with elliptic springs; wooden springs in the case of light one-horse vehicles to avoid taxation, and steel springs in larger vehicles.<ref>{{cite book|last=Adams|first=William Bridges|title=English Pleasure Carriages|publisher=Charles Knight & Co.|year=1837|location=London|url= https://archive.org/details/englishpleasure01adamgoog}}</ref>
===Improved roads===
[[Image:Rakeman – First American Macadam Road.jpg|thumb|Construction of a [[macadam]]ized road in the United States (1823). These roads allowed stagecoaches to travel at much greater speeds.]]
[[File:The hand-book of Wyoming and guide to the Black Hills and Big Horn regions (1877) (14780079804).jpg|thumb|Gentlemen ordered out of the coach to lighten the load on the horses. Three put their shoulders to the back.]]
{{nowrap|Steady improvements}} in road construction were also made at this time, most importantly the widespread implementation of [[Macadam]] roads up and down the country. The speed of coaches in this period rose from around {{convert|6|mph|km/h}} (including stops for provisioning) to {{convert|8|mph|km/h}}<ref>Gerhold: Stage Coaching and Turnpike Roads, Economic History Review, August 2014,, figure 1, p. 825</ref> and greatly increased the level of mobility in the country, both for people and for [[mail]]. Each route had an average of four coaches operating on it at one time - two for both directions and a further two spares in case of a breakdown en route. Joseph Ballard described the stagecoach service between Manchester and Liverpool in 1815 as having price competition between coaches, with timely service and clean accommodations at inns.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rGkwMwEACAAJ|title=England in 1815 as Seen by a Young Boston Merchant|author=Joseph Ballard|year=1913|publisher=Boston & New York |quote=The stage fare from Manchester to Liverpool, distance forty miles, is only six shillings. This is caused by the strong opposition, as there are eight or ten coaches continually running between those places. Besides the fare in the coach you have to pay the coachman one shilling per stage of about thirty miles, and the same to the guard whose business it is to take care of the luggage, &c. &c. Should the passenger refuse to pay the accustomed tribute he would inevitably be insulted. You must pay also, at the inns, the chambermaid sixpence a night, the "boots" (the person who cleans them) two pence a day, and the head waiter one shilling a day. The porter who takes your portmanteau up stairs moves his hat with "pray remember the porter, Sir."<br/><br/>The beds at the inns are surprisingly neat and clean. In many of the inns in a large town, the chambermaids furnish the chambers and depend upon their fees for remuneration. The stagecoaches are very convenient and easy. No baggage is permitted to be taken inside, it being stowed away in the boot places before and behind the carriage for that purpose. Here it rides perfectly safe, not being liable to be rubbed, as they ride upon the same springs that the passengers do. A person can always calculate upon being at the place he takes the coach for (barring accidents) at a certain time, as the coachman is allowed a given time to go his stage. The guard always has a chronometer with him (locked up so that he cannot move the hands) as a guide with regard to time.}}</ref>
===Taxation and regulation===
Stagecoaches in Victorian Britain were heavily taxed on the number of passenger seats. If more passengers were carried than the licence allowed there were penalties to pay. The lawyer Stanley Harris (1816–1897)  <ref>Obituary Stanley Harris - Liverpool Evening Express 28th October 1897</ref> writes in his books ''Old Coaching Days and The Coaching Age'' <ref>Old Coaching Days 1882 and The Coaching Age 1885 by S.Harris</ref> that he knew of informers ready to report any breach of regulations to the authorities. This could be overloading of passengers in excess of the licence or minor matters such as luggage too high on the roof. They did this in return for a portion of any fines imposed, sometimes as much as half. The tax paid on passenger seats was a major expense for coach operators. Harris gives an example of the tax payable on the London to Newcastle coach route (278 miles). Annual tax amounted to £2,529 for 15 passengers per coach (4 inside and 11 outside). Annual tolls were £2,537. The hire of the four coach vehicles needed  was £1,274. The 250 horses needed for this service also needed to be paid for. Operators could reduce their tax burden by one seventh by operating a six-day-a-week service instead of a seven-day service.
===Decline and evolution===
The [[History of rail transport in Great Britain 1830–1922|development of railways in the 1830s]] spelled the end for stagecoaches and [[mail coach]]es. The first rail delivery between Liverpool and Manchester took place on 11 November 1830. By the early 1840s most London-based coaches had been withdrawn from service.<ref name="PO"/>
Some stagecoaches remained in use for commercial or recreational purposes. They came to be known as road coaches and were used by their enterprising (or nostalgic) owners to provide scheduled passenger services where rail had not yet reached and also on certain routes at certain times of the year for the pleasure of an (often amateur) coachman and his daring passengers.
====Competitive display and sport====
[[File:Brewster park drag 1887.jpg|thumb|Park drag built by [[Brewster & Co.|Brewster]] in 1887]]
{{nowrap|While stagecoaches}} vanished as rail penetrated the countryside the 1860s did see the start of a coaching revival spurred on by the popularity of [[Four-in-hand (carriage)|Four-in-hand]] driving as a sporting pursuit (the [[Four-In-Hand Driving Club]] was founded in 1856 and the Coaching Club in 1871).
New stagecoaches often known as [[Park Drag]]s began to be built to order. Some owners would parade their vehicles and magnificently dressed passengers in fashionable locations. Other owners would take more enthusiastic suitably-dressed passengers and indulge in competitive driving. Very similar in design to stagecoaches their vehicles were lighter and sportier.
These owners were (often very expert) amateur gentlemen-coachmen, occasionally gentlewomen.{{efn|From ''Satire V. On Women''<ref>{{Cite book |title=The poetical works of Edward Young |first=Edward |last=Young |author-link=Edward Young |ol=24760494M |pages=106–7}}</ref>{{blockquote |text=More than one steed must Delia's empire feel,{{br}}Who sits triumphant o'er the flying wheel; {{br}}And, as she guides it through th' admiring throng, {{br}}With what air she smacks the silken thong; {{br}}Graceful as John she moderates the reins, {{br}}and whistles her sweet diuretic strains. {{br}}Sesostris like, such charioteers as these {{br}}May drive six harnessed monarchs, if they please. {{br}}They drive, row, run, with love of glory smit; {{br}}Leap, swim, shoot flying, and pronounce on wit. |author=[[Edward Young]]}} }} A professional coachman might accompany them to avert disaster. Professionals called these vehicles 'butterflies'. They only appeared in summer.<ref>Esdaile Malet, ''Annals of the Road: or, Notes on Mail and Stage Coaching in Great Britain'', London, Longmans Green 1876</ref>
{{Clear}}
===Spread elsewhere===
====Australia====
[[Cobb & Co]] was established in Melbourne in 1853 and grew to service Australia's mainland eastern states and South Australia.
====Continental Europe====
{{anchor|diligence}}
[[File:Maschine zum Übersetzen der Diligencen auf Eisenbahnwaggons.JPG|thumb|The body of a diligence being transferred to a [[railroad car]] with a simple [[Crane (machine)#Gantry|gantry crane]], an example of early intermodal freight transport by the French Mail, 1844. The drawing is exhibited in [[Deutsches Museum Verkehrszentrum]], Munich, Germany.]]
[[File:Diligència Igualada-Barcelona.JPG|thumb|''Diligencia'' that was used between [[Igualada]] and [[Barcelona]], [[Spain]]. A dedicated luggage deck is on the roof.]]
The {{lang|fr|diligence}}, a solidly built stagecoach with four or more horses, was the French vehicle for public conveyance with minor varieties in Germany such as the ''Stellwagen'' and ''Eilwagen''.
{{blockquote |text=Diligence. Late 18th century name for a French public coach working on long distance routes. So-named from its reputation for promptitude and good time-keeping, as with the English Mail Coach. Although normally well-sprung and enclosed, seating eight or more passengers, some types had a semi-open seat, for three or more passengers, shared with the driver. This latter was known as the banquette. Although most vehicles were coachman driven, others were in the care of [[Postilion|postillions]]. The number of horses varied according to difficulties of the route. Three, or a unicorn team were not unfamiliar, especially on the flatter roads of the north west. In Germany, Austria and some parts of Switzerland the Diligence was known as the Post Coach or Malle Post. —D. J. M. Smith in ''A Dictionary of Horse Drawn Vehicles'' <ref name="smith"/>{{rp|65}} }}
The ''diligence'' from Le Havre to Paris was described by a fastidious English visitor of 1803 with a thoroughness that distinguished it from its English contemporary, the ''stage coach''.
<blockquote>A more uncouth clumsy machine can scarcely be imagined. In the front is a cabriolet fixed to the body of the coach, for the accommodation of three passengers, who are protected from the rain above, by the projecting roof of the coach, and in front by two heavy curtains of leather, well oiled, and smelling somewhat offensively, fastened to the roof.  The inside, which is capacious, and lofty, and will hold six people in great comfort is lined with leather padded, and surrounded with little pockets, in which travellers deposit their bread, snuff, night caps, and pocket handkerchiefs, which generally enjoy each others<!--others in original--> company, in the same delicate depository. From the roof depends a large net work which is generally crouded<!--crouded in original--> with hats, swords, and band boxes, the whole is convenient, and when all parties are seated and arranged, the accommodations are by no means unpleasant.{{pb}}
Upon the roof, on the outside, is the imperial, which is generally filled with six or seven persons more, and a heap of luggage, which latter also occupies the basket, and generally presents a pile, half as high again as the coach, which is secured by ropes and chains, tightened by a large iron windlass, which also constitutes another appendage of this moving mass. The body of the carriage rests upon large thongs of leather, fastened to heavy blocks of wood, instead of springs, and the whole is drawn by seven horses.<ref>One of the horses was ridden by the postilion. John Carr, ''The Stranger in France, or, A tour from Devonshire to Paris'' London 1803:32.</ref> </blockquote>
The English visitor noted the small, sturdy Norman horses "running away with our cumbrous machine, at the rate of six or seven miles an hour". At this speed  stagecoaches could compete with [[Narrowboat|canal boats]], but they were rendered obsolete in [[Europe]] wherever the [[railroad|rail]] network expanded in the 19th century. Where the rail network did not reach, the ''diligence'' was not fully superseded until the arrival of the [[autobus]].
In France, between 1765 and 1780, the ''turgotines'', big mail coaches named for their originator, Louis XVI's economist minister [[Anne Robert Jacques Turgot|Turgot]], and improved roads, where a coach could travel at full gallop across levels, combined with more staging posts at shorter intervals, cut the time required to travel across the country sometimes by half.<ref>[[Fernand Braudel|Braudel, Fernand]], ''The Perspective of the World,'' vol. III of ''Civilization and Capitalism'' 1979 (in English 1984)</ref>
====New Zealand====
A Cobb & Co (Australia) proprietor arrived in New Zealand on 4 October 1861, thus beginning [[Cobb & Co (New Zealand)]] stagecoach operation.
====United States====
[[File:McLaughlin stagecoach, circa 1880s - DPLA - 294b58f952c4bb69ac1c19a050817dfb.jpg|alt=McLaughlin Stagecoach with birthday party, 1880s in Park County, Colorado.|thumb|McLaughlin Stagecoach with birthday party, 1880s in [[Park County, Colorado]]]]
[[Image:Concord stagecoach 1869.png|thumb|right|[[Buffalo Soldier|Buffalo soldiers]] guard a Concord stagecoach, 1869.]]
Beginning in the 18th century, crude wagons began to be used to carry passengers between cities and towns, first within [[New England]] by 1744, then between [[New York City|New York]] and [[Philadelphia]] by 1756. Travel time was reduced on this later run from three days to two in 1766 with an improved coach called the ''Flying Machine''. The first mail coaches appeared in the later 18th century carrying passengers and the mails, replacing the earlier post riders on the main roads. Coachmen carried letters, packages, and money, often transacting business or delivering messages for their customers. By 1829 [[Boston]] was the hub of 77 stagecoach lines; by 1832 there were 106. Coaches with iron or steel springs were uncomfortable and had short useful lives. [[Abbot-Downing Company|Two men]] in  [[Concord, New Hampshire|Concord]], [[New Hampshire]], developed what became a popular solution. They built their first [[Concord stagecoach]] in 1827 employing long leather straps under their stagecoaches which gave a swinging motion.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Stagecoach West|last=Moody|first=Ralph|publisher=Bison Books-University of Nebraska Press|year=1998|isbn=978-0-8032-8245-2|page=13}}</ref>
[[File:Concord_Coach_no._251_suspension_detail.jpg|thumb|right|Detail of leather-strap suspension on a Concord Stage Coach]]
[[File:Kinnear Express stage 1880.jpg|thumb|right|Kinnear Concord stagecoach in 1880, [[Tombstone, Arizona|Tombstone]] to [[Bisbee, Arizona|Bisbee]] route]]
Describing a journey he took in 1861, in his 1872 book, ''[[Roughing It]]'', [[Mark Twain]] wrote that the Concord stage was like "an imposing cradle on wheels".<ref>{{cite book |title=Roughing It |title-link=Roughing It |first=Mark |last=Twain |author-link=Mark Twain |pages=25–26 |ol=21834750M |year=1872 |publisher=American publishing company |quote=Our coach was a great swinging and swaying stage, of the most sumptuous description — an imposing cradle on wheels. It was drawn by six handsome horses...}}</ref> Around twenty years later, in 1880, John Plesent Gray recorded after travelling from [[Tucson]] to [[Tombstone, Arizona|Tombstone]] on J.D. Kinnear's mail and express line: {{blockquote|That day's stage ride will always live in my memory – but not for its beauty spots. Jammed like sardines on the hard seats of an old time leather spring coach – a Concord – leaving [[Pantano, Arizona|Pantano]], creeping much of the way, letting the horses walk, through miles of alkali dust that the wheels rolled up in thick clouds of which we received the full benefit ... It is always a mystery to the passenger how many can be wedged into and on top of a stagecoach. If it had not been for the long stretches when the horses had to walk, enabling most of us to get out and "foot it" as a relaxation, it seems as if we could never have survived the trip. |author=John Plesent Gray <ref>{{Cite book |title=When All Roads Led to Tombstone: A Memoir |first=John Plesent |last=Gray |editor1-first=W. Lane |editor1-last=Rogers |url=https://nebula.wsimg.com/2765d1d24236c019c2ad90da3422f7c5?AccessKeyId=85341038C0F9932A0169&disposition=0&alloworigin=1 |page=6 |year=1998 |publisher=Tamarack Books |isbn=9781886609136}}</ref>}} The horses were changed three times on the {{convert|80|mi|adj=on}} trip, normally completed in 17 hours.<ref>Richard D. Moore. ''Too Tough to Tame, p. 72'' AuthorHouse, Bloomington 2009 {{ISBN|9781438961903}}</ref>
The stagecoach lines in the U.S. were operated by private companies. Their most profitable contracts were with [[U.S. Mail]] and were hotly contested. [[Pony Express]], which began operations in 1860, is often called first fast mail service from the [[Missouri River]] to the Pacific Coast, but the [[Overland Mail Company]] began a twice-weekly mail service from Missouri to [[San Francisco]] in September 1858. Transcontinental stage-coaching ended with the completion of the [[First transcontinental railroad|transcontinental railroad]] in 1869.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.legendsofamerica.com/stagecoach/|title=Stagecoaches of the American West – Legends of America|website=www.legendsofamerica.com}}</ref>
====Southern Africa====
The railway network in South Africa was extended from [[Mafeking, South Africa|Mafeking]] through [[Botswana|Bechuanaland]] and reached [[Bulawayo]] in 1897.   Prior to its arrival, a network of stagecoach routes existed.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://rhodesianheritage.blogspot.com/2013/04/how-wild-west-coaches-opened-up-rhodesia.html|title = Our Rhodesian Heritage: How "Wild West" coaches opened up Rhodesia}}</ref>
====Ottoman Palestine====
Stagecoaches, often known by the French name "Diligence" - a smaller model with room for six passengers and a bigger one for ten, drawn by two horses (in the city, on the plain or on a good road) or three (on intercity and elevated roads) - were the main means of public transportation in Ottoman Palestine between the middle of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century.
The first stagecoaches were brought to Palestine by the German religious group known as the "[[Templers (Pietist sect)|Templers]]" who operated a public transportation service between their colonies in the country as early as 1867. Stagecoach development in Palestine was greatly facilitated by the 1869 visit of Austrian Emperor [[Franz Joseph I]]. For this distinguished guest, the road between Jaffa and Jerusalem was greatly improved, making possible the passage of carriages. Stagecoaches were a great improvement over the earlier means of transport used in the country, such as riding horses, donkeys or camels, or light carts drawn by donkeys.
When the stagecoach ran into a difficult ascent or mud, the passengers were required to get off and help push the carriage. The trip between Jaffa and Jerusalem by stagecoach lasted about 14 hours spread over a day and a half, including a night stop at [[Bab al-Wad]] (Shaar HaGai), the trip in the opposite, downhill direction took 12 hours.
The stagecoaches belonged to private owners, and the wagoners were mostly hired, although sometimes the wagoner was also the owner of the wagon. The license to operate the stagecoaches was granted by the government to private individuals in the cities and to the colony committees in the early Zionist colonies.  The license holders paid a special tax for this right and could employ subcontractors and hired wagons.
The stagecoaches linked Jerusalem with Jaffa, Hebron and Nablus, the Zionist colonies with Jaffa, Haifa with Acre and Nazareth. They were also used for urban and suburban transportation in the Haifa region.
The colony of [[Rehovot]] is known to have promulgated detailed regulations for stagecoach operation, soon after its foundation in 1890, which were greatly extended in 1911. Fares were fixed, ranging between 1.10 [[Grush]] for traveling to the nearby village of Wadi Hanin and 5.00 Grush for traveling from Rehovot to Jaffa. The stagecoach was required to work six times a week (except for the [[Shabbat]]) and to carry free of charge the mails and medicines of the Rehovot pharmacy.
While railways started being constructed in Palestine in the last years of the 19th century, stagecoaches were still a major means of public transport until the outbreak of the First World War, and in peripheral areas were still used in the early years of British Mandatory rule.
==In popular culture==
{{In popular culture|date=February 2018}}
Stories that prominently involve a stagecoach include:
* ''[[Winds of the Wasteland]]'', a 1936 film starring [[John Wayne]]
* ''[[Wells Fargo (film)|Wells Fargo]]'', a 1937 film starring [[Joel McCrea]]
* ''[[Stagecoach (1939 film)|Stagecoach]]'', a 1939 film starring John Wayne
* ''[[Arizona Bound (1941 film)|Arizona Bound]]'', a 1941 film starring [[Buck Jones]]
* ''[[Stagecoach to Denver]]'', a 1946 film starring [[Allan Lane]]
* ''[[Black Bart (film)|Black Bart]]'', a 1948 film starring [[Dan Duryea]]
* ''[[A Ticket to Tomahawk]]'', a 1950 musical comedy starring [[Dan Dailey]] in which stagecoach interests try to stop establishment of rail service.
* ''[[Riding Shotgun]]'', a 1954 film starring [[Randolph Scott]]
* ''[[Dakota Incident]]'', a 1956 film starring [[Dale Robertson]]
* ''[[Gunsight Ridge]]'', a 1957 film starring Joel McCrea
* ''[[The Tall T]]'', a 1957 film starring Randolph Scott
* ''[[Westbound (film)|Westbound]]'', 1959 film starring Randolph Scott
* ''[[The Magnificent Seven]]'', a 1960 film starring [[Yul Brynner]]
* ''[[Stage to Thunder Rock]]'', a 1964 film starring [[Barry Sullivan (American actor)|Barry Sullivan]]
* ''[[Stagecoach (1966 film)|Stagecoach]]'', a 1966 film starring [[Bing Crosby]]
* ''[[Hombre (film)|Hombre]]'', a 1967 film starring [[Paul Newman]]
* ''[[La Diligence (comics)|The Stagecoach]]'', a 1968 comic book by [[Goscinny]] and [[Morris (comics)|Morris]]
* ''[[Dusty's Trail]]'', a 1973 television series starring [[Bob Denver]]
* ''[[Five Mile Creek]]'', a 1983–1985 television series featuring [[Nicole Kidman]]
* ''[[Stagecoach (1986 film)|Stagecoach]]'', a 1986 film starring [[Kris Kristofferson]]
* ''[[Maverick (film)|Maverick]]'', a 1994 film starring [[Mel Gibson]]
* ''[[The Hateful Eight]]'', a 2015 film by [[Quentin Tarantino]]
Part of the plot of ''[[Doctor Dolittle's Circus]]'' is set in a stagecoach, where the animal-loving Doctor Dolittle is traveling along with a female seal, disguised as a woman, whom he is helping to escape from the circus. The Doctor is mistaken for a notorious highwayman.
Selling stagecoaches to the [[Fence (criminal)|fence]] in Emerald Ranch is a common method of making money in [[Red Dead Redemption 2]], as well as a [[fast travel]] transportation method.
==See also==
{{div col|colwidth=14em}}
* [[Carriage]]
* [[Stage wagon]]
* [[Charabanc]]
* [[Charley Parkhurst]]
* [[Coach (carriage)]]
* [[Horsebus]]
* [[Horse harness]]
* [[Jarbidge Stage Robbery]]
* [[Mail robbery]]
* [[O.K. Corral]]
* [[Riding shotgun]]
* [[Carriage#Roman carriage|Roman traveling carriage]]
* [[Stage Coaches Act 1788]]
* [[Stage Coaches Act 1790]]
* [[Toll road|Turnpike road]]
* [[Wagonette]]
* [[Wells Fargo (1852–1998)|Wells Fargo & Co.]]
* [[Wickenburg Massacre]]
{{div col end}}
==Notes==
{{notelist}}
==References==
{{reflist|refs=
<ref name="smith">{{cite book |title=A Dictionary of Horse Drawn Vehicles |first=D.J.M. |last=Smith |year=1988 |publisher=J. A. Allen & Co. Ltd. |isbn=0851314686 |ol=11597864M |pages=48, 65, 152}}</ref>
}}
==External links==
{{Commons}}
; United States
* [https://collections.leventhalmap.org/search/commonwealth:cj82kt56b Sherman & Smiths Railroad, Steam boat & Stage route map of New England, New-York, and Canada]
* [http://www.over-land.com/ccwords.html The Overland Trail:Stage Coach Vocabulary- Last Updated 19 April 1998] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080222125500/http://over-land.com/ccwords.html |date=22 February 2008 }}
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=17&v=yqEX1KdYQUQ Stagecoach Westward - Frontier Travel, Expansion, United States]
* [http://tombstonetimes.com/stories/stagecoaches.html Stagecoaches: TombstoneTimes.com] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180806223024/http://tombstonetimes.com/stories/stagecoaches.html |date=2018-08-06 }}
* [https://archive.org/details/goldenroadthesto013625mbp Felix Riesenberg, Jr., ''The Golden Road The Story Of Californias Spanish Mission Trail'', Mcgraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., 1962]
* [http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=25066 Stagecoach History: Stage Lines to California]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20101016235119/http://www.wildwesttales.com/index.htm Wild West Tales: Stories by R. Michael Wilson; Stagecoach]
* [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_HJLBUhRWGCkC/page/n381 <!-- pg=359 --> Robert Glass Cleland, ''A history of California: the American period'', The Macmillan Company, New York, 1922 Chapter XXIV, The Overland Mail and the Pony Express, pp. 359-368]
; United Kingdom
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060203155631/http://www.anvil.clara.net/stage.htm The Stage Coaches of Britain.] Anvil. Text based on ''Stagecoach'' by John Richards (1976).
; Australia
* [http://www.cobbandco.net.au Cobb & Co Heritage Trail.]
{{Horse-drawn carriages}}
{{American frontier}}
{{Authority control}}
[[Category:Coaches (carriage)]]
[[Category:Wagons]]
[[Category:Animal-powered vehicles]]
[[Category:History of road transport]]
[[Category:Horse transportation]]
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[[Category:Western (genre) staples and terminology]]