Stagecoach Lines Proliferated in Pelham in the 1870s, Part of Pelham's Old Stage Coach Days

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On August 7, 1874, a cryptic announcement appeared in the New-York Tribune regarding the opening of a new stagecoach line through City Island and Pelham Bridge in the Town of Pelham.  It read:

"CITY ISLAND. -- A stage line was recently established between Mount Vernon and Yonkers, connecting with trains on the New-Haven, Harlem, and Hudson River railroads.  The success of the line has induced the proprietor to establish another line between Mount Vernon, Eastchester, Pelham Bridge, and City Island, so that persons can now cross between Long Island Sound and the Hudson River, passing through the villages named."

Source:  CITY ISLAND, New-York Tribune, Aug. 7, 1874, p. 8, col. 5 (Note:  Access via this link requires paid subscription).  

Although the announcement did not identify the "proprietor" of the new line, it noted that it was the same proprietor who had recently established a stage line between Mount Vernon and Yonkers to connect with trains on the New Haven, Harlem, and Hudson River railroads.  Thus, it seems nearly certain, the unidentified "proprietor" likely was Theodore Valentine who was the man who ran "Valentine's Mount Vernon and Yonkers Stage Line."  For a time in the 1870s, that stage line ran three trips daily.  It ran from Mount Vernon to Yonkers at 7:53 a.m., 12:00 noon, and 4:15 p.m.  It ran from Yonkers back to Mount Vernon at 9:15 a.m., 2:00 p.m., and 5:30 p.m.  The fare on Valentine's Mount Vernon and Yonkers Stage Line was twenty-five cents each way.  

1878 Advertisement for Valentine's Mount Vernon and

Yonkers Stage Line.  Source:  VALENTINE'S MOUNT

VERNON AND YONKERS STAGE LINE [Advertisement],

The Chronicle [Mount Vernon, NY], Jul. 5, 1878, Vol. IX,

No. 459, p. 4, cols. 5-6.  NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.

The move by Theodore Valentine to establish a stage line " between Mount Vernon, Eastchester, Pelham Bridge, and City Island, so that persons can now cross between Long Island Sound and the Hudson River, passing through the villages named" may have played some role in the decision by Robert J. Vickery of City Island to establish his stage line that shuttled between Bartow Station on the New Haven Branch Line and City Island.  I have written before of Robert J. Vickery and his stage.  See, e.g.:  

Fri., Jul. 25, 2014:  Stagecoach Accident in Pelham in Early 1883. 

Fri., Mar. 21, 2014:  Examples of Very Early Merchant Advertisements in the Town of Pelham. 

Wed., Mar. 03, 2010:  1879 Advertisement for Robert J. Vickery's City Island Stage Line, A Predecessor to the City Island Horse Railroad. 

Thu., Sep. 24, 2009:  Brief Newspaper Account of the January 1, 1883 Annual Meeting of the Pelham Manor Protective Club (article includes account of an accident involving one of Vickery's stages). 

Tue., Jan. 27, 2009:  Biography of William Vickery, a 19th Century Resident of City Island in the Town of Pelham.

No definitive history of stagecoach transportation in the Pelham region has been written.  That history, however, can be pieced together from a variety of sources and sheds light on the growth of the region and the role Pelham has played over the last few centuries as a small town along Boston Post Road near the metropolis of New York City.  (Included at the end of today's article is a bibliography of links to other Historic Pelham articles that touch on stagecoach days in old Pelham.)

One of the earliest efforts to provide regular stagecoach from New York to Boston on the Boston Post Road that passed through Pelham at the time via today's Colonial Avenue occurred in 1772, shortly before the onset of the Revolutionary War.  A carriage-maker in Hartford, Connecticut named Nicholas Brown partnered with a driver named Jonathan Brown to offer stagecoach service along the Post Road between New York City and Boston.  According to one account:

"[T]he partners had trouble attracting patrons.  The Browns may not have made any trips at all until late July.  Even then they had only enough interest to go twice a month, and be fall they went no more."

Source:  Jaffe, Eric, The King's Best Highway -- The Lost History of the Boston Post Road, the Route that Made America, p. 80 (NY, NY:  Scribner, a Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc., 2010).  

It was not until Autumn 1784 that another attempt to establish stagecoach travel between New York and Boston on the old Boston Post Road through Pelham.  That year, a group of four local stagecoach proprietors in the northeast successfully joined their various stagecoach lines to make stagecoach travel from the old Morris mansion in New York City to Boston.  See id., pp. 81-83.  These local stage lines included those of Jacob Brown (New Haven to Hartford to Springfield), Levi Pease and Reuben Sikes (Hartford to Somers to Boston), and Talmadge Hall (New York City to Norwalk).  For the next few years, the stage lines that made up the service were able to survive by supplementing their income carrying newspapers and U.S. mail back and forth along the Post Road.  

During the latter part of the eighteenth century the stages run by Talmadge Hall routinely rumbled through Pelham on today's Colonial Avenue carrying passengers, mail, newspapers, and more.  At the same time, Levi Pease played an ever greater role in the expansion of stagecoach transportation from Boston to as far as Philadelphia and even Baltimore in the later years of the eighteenth century and the first two decades of the nineteenth century.  

In 1796, the First Massachusetts Turnpike opened along the Boston Post Road near Boston in an effort to charge travelers fees that could be used to improve the rough roadway.  Soon, "turnpike fever swept the country" including the New York City region.  Soon a turnpike was built and opened through Pelham to shorten the travel between the Bronx and New Rochelle via the Boston Post Road.  

Thus, in about 1804, stagecoach traffic shifted in Pelham from the old Boston Post Road (today's Colonial Avenue) to the new Westchester Turnpike (today's Boston Post Road).  The Westchester Turnpike included toll gates along the roadway not far from the Shrubbery that once stood near today's Split Rock Road in Pelham Manor.  

At about this time, stagecoach lines popped into and out of existence, sending stagecoaches back and forth between New York and Boston through Pelham on the Westchester Turnpike.  For example, In 1813, New York City newspapers published announcements of the opening of another new stage coach line:  the New-York & Boston New Line Diligence Stage running from New York City to Boston by way of New Haven, Hartford, and Providence.  See Tue., Dec. 27, 2016:  Stage Coach Days In Old Pelham.  

For the next few decades, stagecoach and wagon traffic along the Westchester Turnpike through Pelham continued to grow.  During this time, however, the population of Pelham was beginning to grow on City Island and on Pelham Neck and along Shore Road on the mainland.  Shortly before the widespread advent of trains on the east coast, stagecoaches along the Boston Post Road were being engineered for speed for the benefit of passengers and the U.S. Mail.  Indeed, Pelham became a regular station stop for the mail and passenger stagecoaches of Dorance, Recide & Co.  According to an article published in The New York Times on May 8, 1880:

"A few New-Yorkers still remember the old stages of Dorance, Recide & Co., which used to carry the United States mails between this City and Boston. Fifty years ago two stages started from the corner of Bayard-street and the Bowery every morning. One of them was an especially fast stage. It carried the mails and never booked more than six passengers, and when the mails were unusually heavy no passengers were allowed at all. 'Six passengers only allowed inside,' was the announcement contained in the words painted on the panels of this nimble vehicle, which legend many a time carried dismay to the hearts of impetuous business men who arrived at the stage office only to find the last seat taken. The slow stage carried nine passengers inside and two upon the box. These two stages always left the hotel in company and proceeded up Third-avenue. They crossed Harlem bridge and stopped for dinner 28 miles out. The mail stage usually arrived at Boston half a day in advance of its companion coach. The principal stations on the route were East Chester, West Chester, Pelham, New-Rochelle, Port Chester, Horse Neck, Stamford, Norwalk, Hartford, Springfield, and Worcester."

Source:  Before the Locomotive - The Ways over Which the Stage-Coach Rumbled, N.Y. Times, May 9, 1880, p. 10.

By the early 1870s, the New Haven Main Line and the New Haven Branch Line had been built through Pelham.  Paradoxically, the advent of the railroads prompted local expansion of stagecoach lines that ferried passengers between the various railroads that traversed the region such as the stagecoach lines of Theodore Valentine described at the outset of today's article.  Similarly, local stagecoach lines such as that established by Robert J. Vickery between Bartow Station on the New Haven Branch Line and City Island sprang up to ferry passengers from railroad stations to specific nearby locations.  

By the 1880s, however, horse car railroads and, a little later, electric trolleys were beginning to overtake the region marking the decline of the stagecoach days in old Pelham.  Another chapter in the transportation history of Pelham was drawing to a close.

Post Card View of "Bartow and City Island Stage Line."

Post Card is Postmarked September 6,  1910.  NOTE:

Click on Image to Enlarge.

*          *          *          *          *

Below is a bibliography of links to other Historic Pelham articles besides those already listed above that touch on stagecoach days in old Pelham.  

Tue., Dec. 27, 2016:  Stage Coach Days In Old Pelham.

Fri., Nov. 11, 2016:  John Robert Beecroft and the Beecroft Family of Pelham Manor (describes December 19, 1900 NYAC stagecoach accident that led to death of Beecroft).

Fri., Mar. 11, 2016:  How Did Pelhamites Travel To and From Nearby New York City in 1857? 

Fri., Sep. 05, 2014:  Post Card Image of Bartow and City Island Stagecoach With Driver. 

Wed., Aug. 13, 2014:  The Nineteenth Century Stagecoach Presented to Local Boy Scouts by Famed Illustrator Edward Penfield During the 1920s. 

Fri., Aug. 08, 2014 1894:  Pelham School Budget Vote: Stagecoach Authorized To Transport Pelham Students in Days Before Autos and Buses. 

Mon., Apr. 12, 2010:  New York Athletic Club Stagecoach Accident Leads to Death of Pelham Manor Man. 

Mon., Oct. 26, 2009:  Pelham Was a Principal Station on the Stagecoach Route of Dorance, Recide & Co. Which Carried Mail Between New York and Boston. 

Mon., Mar. 21, 2005:  Pelham Was A Station Stop for the Stagecoach That Carried Mail from New York To Boston in the Early 19th Century.

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Post Card Image of Bartow and City Island Stage Coach With Driver

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Stage coaches once provided an important means of transportation in and around the Town of Pelham.   Perhaps the most famous regular stage line within the Town of Pelham was Robert J. Vickery's Stage Line that operated the short distance between City Island and Bartow Station on the New Haven Branch Line.  Vickery's stage coach met all the trains that stopped at, and departed from, Bartow Station.  

I have written about Robert J. Vickery, his father (William) and Robert J. Vickery's stage line on a number of occasions.  For examples, see: 

Fri., Jul. 25, 2014:  Stage Coach Accident in Pelham in Early 1883.

Fri., Mar. 21, 2014:  Examples of Very Early Merchant Advertisements in the Town of Pelham. 

Wed., Mar. 03, 2010:  1879 Advertisement for Robert J. Vickery's City Island Stage Line, A Predecessor to the City Island Horse Railroad.

Thu., Sep. 24, 2009:  Brief Newspaper Account of the January 1, 1883 Annual Meeting of the Pelham Manor Protective Club (article includes account of an accident involving one of Vickery's stages).

Tue., Jan. 27, 2009: Biography of William Vickery, a 19th Century Resident of City Island in the Town of Pelham.

Today's posting to the Historic Pelham Blog reproduces an image of the obverse of an undated post card showing a stage coach of the Bartow and City Island Stage Line pulled by a pair of horses with an unidentified driver on the seat holding the reins. 

"Bartow and City Island Stage Coach Line."

Obverse of Undated Post Card Issued by Artino Post Card Company.

The image is quite fascinating.  There is no explicit indication of precisely where the image was taken.  It is likely that the image shows the stage pulled over to the side of the roadway that forms a part of today's Orchard Beach Road.  There is a partial curb built of various stones along part of the roadway.  There do not appear to be any passengers in the stage which seems to have a rear entrance.  The tail of the white horse is bobbed (a bobtail).  The stage coach is right-driven and there appear to be carriage lights to be lit in the darkness on both sides of the front of the coach.  There are rails on the top of the coach presumably for securing baggage since the coach ran back and forth between Bartow Station and City Island, meeting all trains.  The driver seems to be seated on a blanket or cloth that extends along a portion of the driver's seat.

Care must be taken in assessing this image.  Although it might seem that this image most likely shows Robert J. Vickery handling the reins on one of his stage coaches that ran between Bartow Station and City Island until about the late 1880's, there is evidence that stage coaches ran after the Vickery Brothers retired by early 1890  The post card itself gives no indication as to who the driver may be or who owned this line.  Although the post card likely was printed between about 1905 and 1915, it is at least possible that the image may be from that time or from an earlier time.  

A detail from the image reflected on this post card appeared in the following book:  Flood, Allen  & Mullen, Robert, City Island History - Legend and Tradition - Yachting, pp. 42-43 (City Island, NY:  Allen Flood, 1949).  The caption that appears with the detail from the image of the post card in that book indicates that the image shows one of Vickery's stage coaches.  It states:  "Stagecoach once running between Bartow Station and City Island from the 1870's to 1884.  Vickery Brothers were the owners of the coach line."  For reasons stated above, it simply is not certain to this author whether the stage coach shown is one that belonged to Robert J. Vickery.  

If nothing else, this lovely image shows an important example of a critical means of transportation at an earlier time in the Town of Pelham -- a time when horses ruled the dirt roads and pathways that wound through the region and "mass transit" consisted of horse-drawn stage coaches.

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Stage Coach Accident in Pelham in Early 1883

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It may be difficult to imagine, but western-style stage coaches once provided an important means of transportation in and around the Town of Pelham.  Perhaps the most famous regular stage line within the Town of Pelham was Robert J. Vickery's Stage Line that operated the short distance between City Island and Bartow Station on the New Haven Branch Line.  One of the stages of that line was involved in an accident on January 10, 1883.  Today's posting to the Historic Pelham Blog provides a little information about Robert Vickery's Stage Line and transcribes the text of a brief article that references the 1883 accident.

Robert J. Vickery was a son of notable City Island resident William Vickery.  I have written about William Vickery before.  See Tue., Jan. 27, 2009:  Biography of William Vickery, a 19th Century Resident of City Island in the Town of Pelham.  William Vickery was born in Somersetshire, England in May, 1824.  He married Jane Vickery, no direct kin, in Bristol, England.  The couple emigrated and settled on City Island in the Town of Pelham in 1854.  There he became, first, a farmer and then a shopkeeper who ran a mercantile business and was known for his large garden with which he supplemented his incoming by selling produce for delivery in New York City.  

Robert J. Vickery was born to the couple on March 13, 1856.  Robert J. Vickery married Mary L. Prout who died in 1881.  He married again, on January 6, 1886, to Marian Horton.  The couple had three children and lived for many years on City Island.  See Pelletreau, William S., Historic Homes and Institutions and Genealogical and Family History of New York, Vol. IV, pp. 249-51 (NY and Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company 1907).

In about 1875, Robert J. Vickery established his stage line running between Bartow Station and City Island.  I previously have published an advertisement for Vickery's Stage Line published in 1877.  I have included that image below as well.

Source:  ROBERT VICKERY'S STAGE LINE,

The Chronicle [Mount Vernon, NY], May 25, 1877, p. 4, col. 3.

From the outset, Vickery's Stage Line made trips to and from every train that stopped at Bartow Station on the New Haven Branch Line, ferrying passengers back and forth to (and from) City Island.  As a side line, the business also delivered parcels as part of its services.

Vickery ran the stage line successfully for fifteen years.  With the advent of the horse-drawn railway system that was laid out from Bartow Station to City Island in 1887 and began operating in the late 1880's, the handwriting was on the wall for Robert J. Vickery and his stage line.  On January 30, 1890, a local newspaper reported that Robert J. Vickery and one of his brothers, Fred Vickery, had bought a local livery business in Mount Vernon, NY and would take over its operation.  See [Untitled], The Chronicle [Mount Vernon, NY], Jan. 30, 1890 (reporting "Messrs. Robert J. and Fred Vickery, of City Island, have bought out the livery business of Mr. A. B. Marsh [of Mount Vernon, NY], and will continue at the same stand.  Mr. Marsh will continue the business of veterinary surgeon at the same place.  Mr. Robert J. Vickery ran the stage line between Bartow and City Island over 15 years, and Mr. Fred Vickery conducted a lively stable and express business at Bartow more than 10 years.  They are reliable and obliging gentlemen.").  

Newspaper Advertisement for Robert J. And Fred Vickery's

New Venture, a Boarding and Livery Stable.

Source:  ROBT. J. & FRED. VICKERY [Advertisement],

The Chronicle [Mount Vernon], May 2, 1895, p. 4, cols. 5-6.

For a period of time, at least one other stage company attempted, unsuccessfully, to compete with the so-called horse-railroad that ran between Bartow Station and City Island, but by the mid-to-late 1890's, it seems that western-style stage coaches had disappeared as a mode of transportation within the Town of Pelham.  See City Island, The Daily Argus [Mount Vernon, NY], Jun. 6, 1894, Vol. 3, No. 665, p. 3, col. 2 (reporting "City Island . . . Some people's tongue get them into unnecessary trouble.  For instance, the stage company has been obliged to haul off on account of the onslaught one of its drivers made to the public against the Pelham Park [Horse] Railroad, and the consequence is a big law suit on hand between them.").  

Robert J. Vickery died on June 7, 1902.  His death was reported about a week later in the New York Times.  See Death List of the Week . . . VICKERY, N.Y. Times, Jun. 15, 1902, p. 2, col. 6.  

Below is the text of the article that includes a brief description of the stage coach accident that occurred on Robert J. Vickery's Stage Line on January 10, 1883.

"CITY ISLAND. 

On Thursday evening of this week, a party of young people gave a surprise to the Misses Scofield. 

The collector of taxes has given notice that he will sit to receive taxes for thirty days, from January 13th, inst., from 9 A.M. to 4 P.M., as follows: January 13th, 20th, 27th and February 3d, at the court-house, City Island; January 18th, 25th and February 1st and 8th, at the store of Robert Scott, Bartow Station. 

It is stated that from three to four hundred tons of coal are stolen, annually, from eastward bound vessels, while in the vicinity of City Island. Complaint has been made from time to time, of the shrinkage in weight of consignments of coal to eastern merchants. By careful estimate, it is calculated that in some seasons, during recent years, the shrinkage has been as high as 400 tons. In many instances, those in charge of the cargoes permit small vessels to come along side and, for a nominal consideration, the visitor is sent away loaded to the waters edge with coal, paid for by some enterprising eastern merchant. In other instances, it is thought that those in charge of the cargoes are in league with the thieves and deal out to them, coal in such an amount as is not likely to be missed by the owner. A large part of this business goes on while the vessels are at anchor over night, or sheltered from approaching storms. By this practice, tons and tons of coal, it is alleged, are sold along the shore, both on the Long Island and Westchester side of the Sound, as far eastward as New Rochelle, for less per ton than its best cost. City Island coal dealers feel most keenly the effect of this business. The great anchorage for vessels being so conveniently near at hand, a little extra precaution would in a measure, check this wholesale robbery. 

A serious accident, to the occupants of one of Vickery's stages was largely averted on Wednesday last. Owing to the extreme high tide which overflowed the road across the flat, to the depth of about two feet, the driver, Philip Flood, was obliged to make a detour to the eastward, through the seldom traveled streets of the King estate. He had barely completed the detour, when, of a sudden, with the horses on a swinging trot, horses and stage were precipitated into a hole three or four feet deep, which had been left by commissioner Cochran last sumer after taking out a rock. The driver was thrown from his seat down into the hole, between the horses and the single occupant of the stage was hurled with great violance against the forward part of it, sustaining severe bruises. One of the horses was considerably cut, and the stage was badly racked. 

Senator Covert has already introduced his bill of last year, abolishing compulsory pilotage through Hell Gate." 

Source:  City Island, The Chronicle [Mount Vernon, NY], Jan. 12, 1883, Vol. XIV, No. 695, p. 3 unknown, cols. 2-3.

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