Alexander Majors was the son of Laurania (Kelly) and Benjamin Majors, a native of North Carolina. He was born on October 4, 1814, near Franklin, Simpson County, Kentucky.
His father moved to what is now Lafayette County, Missouri, about 1819, and he later acquired an extensive farm with saw and flour mills in Jackson County, where the family lived from 1825 to 1858. The boy worked on the farm and served as a miller's boy.
After his marriage, Majors started farming on his own account. The returns from farming were not sufficient for his growing family, and on August 10, 1848, with an outfit of six wagons and teams, he undertook the business of carrying freight from Independence to Santa Fé. He made the round trip in ninety-two days and cleared $1, 500.
He avoided traveling and all unnecessary work on Sunday and his men had to take the pledge: "While I am in the employ of A. Majors, I agree not to use profane language, not to get drunk, not to gamble, not to treat animals cruelly, and not to do anything else that is incompatible with the conduct of a gentleman".
In all his operations, he persevered in this discipline. He carried freight on his own account for several years, most of the time transporting government supplies to the various forts in New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah. About 1855, he went into partnership with William Hepburn Russell and William B. Waddell and continued as Majors & Russell until 1858 when the firm name was changed to Russell, Majors & Waddell.
He took complete responsibility for all the business on the road, while the others managed the purchasing and financing. Their operations required the employment of more than four thousand men, forty thousand oxen, and one thousand mules. The shipments were made in trains of about twenty-five wagons each, stationed several miles apart; each wagon had twelve oxen and a teamster; and each train had thirty oxen in reserve, five mules, wagon master, and extra men.
The partnership agreement required him to move his home from Jackson County to Nebraska City. Their profits in 1855-56 amounted to about $300, 000. The business was very hazardous, and they would sometimes lose the profits of several years in one season. In 1859, the firm took over the operation of a daily stage-coach line from Fort Leavenworth to Denver, begun independently by Russell and John S. Jones, who were, however, unable to carry it financially.
Afterward, they included in their schedules, St. Joseph, Missouri, Atchison, Kansas, Salt Lake City, Fort Kearney, Nebraska Territory, and Fort Laramie in what is now Wyoming. On April 3, 1860, they established the famous pony express, a very daring and romantic enterprise, which lasted about eighteen months, and was a financial failure.
Nevertheless at the outbreak of the Civil War, it performed an important service in maintaining swift communication between the federal government at Washington and the population of the Pacific Coast, and, before the completion of the telegraph, it carried the news of Lincoln's inaugural address, the fall of Fort Sumter, the call for troops, and the battle of Antietam.
The old firm of Russell, Majors & Waddell collapsed in the early part of 1861, and, when liquidation failed to provide funds for the debts, Majors, as did his former partners, surrendered his personal estate for that purpose. He had purchased the interests of his partners in the freighting business, and he continued freighting until 1866.
In 1868, he worked on the Union Pacific Railroad and later prospected for silver near Salt Lake City until 1872. From 1869 to 1879, he lived in Salt Lake City. In 1893, he published a volume of reminiscences, Seventy Years on the Frontier, which was, however, edited by Prentiss Ingraham, the prolific writer of dime novels. For several years before his death, he lived in Kansas City, Missouri, and he died in Chicago.
Majors was twice married. On November 6, 1834, Majors married Katherine Stallcup. Hiis second wife was Susan Dudley.
January 1837 - 1915
26 February 1820 - 13 February 1856
Born in 1848.
1858 - 26 October 1938
21 January 1862 - 24 November 1932
1848 - 1848
Born on 1 January 1840.
12 November 1845 - 26 March 1938
3 December 1860 - 25 November 1928
1837 - 1837
