Pioneer Pieces: Want to Ride the Box, Sir?

Stagecoaches were the "aristocratic" way to travel in the West - with drivers thought of as highly refined and cultured.  It was a privilege to be invited to "ride the box" with well known drivers like Hank Monk of Wells Fargo.

Stagecoaches were designed to be taken in "stages" from one destination to another, where like the Pony Express, the team of horses and sometimes the drivers were changed.

For the first time, a simple trip to the next town was more comfortable for the ladies with enclosed seating, regardless of the bumpy ride it really was.  It kept out the dust, dirt and some of the smell of the open roads of the new West.  Women and children were safer inside the coach than in a farm wagon or a buckboard.  It was far less cumbersome that the covered wagon for family trips and faster as well.

Of course the fares to take a coach were usually reserved for special trips if you were not of means but it was an option welcomed by most women.

There was just one problem with stagecoaches...robbery.  Next time...