Lot
829 
Estill & Co's Express, manuscript endorsement (Thomas EST-001) on 1850 blue folded letter from along the overland trail addressed to Hoosick Postoffice, Green Co., Wisconsin; entered mails with "Weston Mo. Aug 16" red cds and matching "10" cents due handstamp, with one light line canceling the "10" due and in blue ink "paid to here" (different hand, perhaps applied at the Hoosick post office, but appears to be the same ink and handwriting as the Sept 14th, 1850 message enclosed); lengthy letter enclosed with several datelines as the writer continued his message: June 24th 1850, Sept 14th, 1850 and Sept 29; interesting contents, in part, "…when I last wrote we were at Laramie…we are now within one and a half miles of the dividing ridge of the atlantick and passiffic nine hundred miles from St. Joe. We arrived at the ferry on the upper platte on the 15th…the price was $5.00 for the wagon, $2.00 per head for cattle, $1.00 for pony, and $3.00 to the ferryman to pass us…I expect to send this letter the express for the emigrants and is now recruiting five miles from here. This is the last letter you will be likely got from me that comes this way. The rest wil have to through calafornia…Albert S. Holmes…", Extremely Fine and choice.Estimate $3,000 - 4,000.
ONLY FIVE COVERS HAVE SURVIVED FROM THE ONE TRIP ESTILL MADE WITH HIS EXPRESS, TWO OF WHICH ARE HELD IN THE WILTSEE COLLECTION BY WELLS FARGO. THIS IS WITHOUT QUESTION THE FINEST KNOWN EXAMPLE.
Colonel James M. Estill made a single round-trip on the Oregon-to-California Trail between Weston, Missouri and Pacific Spring, in the Sweetwater River Valley of present day Wyoming. His idea was to promote a transcontinental express service in lieu of the U.S. mail by collecting the mail along the emigrant trail for a fee of 50¢ per letter. Estill reportedly deposited 4000 letters into the US mail system at Weston, Missouri on Aug 16, 1850. Only five Estill Express covers are known to survive, all sent collect 10¢.
Realized: $8,000