Mt. Pleasant Daily Times, Mt. Pleasant, Texas
Wednesday, January 23, 1929
Pony Express Rider Spends Part of Two Days Here
Quite a bit of interest was created here Tuesday evening by the arrival in this city of D. L. Bull, called the last of the pony express riders, who left Artesia, New Mexico, on Christmas Day on his way to Scranton, Pa., to deliver a sealed message given him in Artesia. He is making the entire trip on horseback, and has until July first to complete the journey, but he hopes to reach his destination by April first.
Reaching the Broadway of America at Roscoe, he has traveled over this designated route, and will try to follow it to Washington, D. C. At Greenville, he was told that he could not possibly get over Highway One, even on horseback, and after having traveled over this route to this place he was anxious to have this report corrected, saying that there is no better roads in the State than can be found on this highway.
Dressed in approved cowboy style, the traveler says that be has had many adventures on his trip, but that he has always been able to cover at least thirty miles per day. He has no money, and depends on the old time ranching custom of getting his "board and keep" at the town where he stops free of charge. Through the efforts of the local Chamber of Commerce, his meals were furnished him here by the Broadway Cafe, his room by the Main Hotel and his pony was taken care of by J. M. Copeland.
He left Wednesday morning on his way to Texarkana.
Mt. Pleasant Daily Times, Mt. Pleasant, Texas
Monday, June 17, 1935
Mail Service Is Interrupted By Heavy Rains
Though very little rain fell in and around Mt. Pleasant during the latter part of last week, mail, train and bus service from the west was seriously interrupted during the weekend, due to heavy rains farther down the line. All trains going to Dallas Saturday and Sunday could go no farther than Commerce and had to be turned around and brought back. The same thing applied to trains coming from Dallas.
It is reported that a nine and one-half inch rain fell around Commerce and Greenville Friday night and Saturday morning and that the roadbed of the St. Louis Southwestern Railway was washed out at several places. One washout between Commerce and Sulphur Springs and several between Commerce and Dallas were reported.
All mail coming to Mt. Pleasant Saturday night front Dallas and Fort Worth had to be transferred at Greenville to the Katy road, taken to Texarkana, and then brought back over the Cotton Belt by No. 1 Sunday morning.
All trains going to and coming from Tyler were not affected by the heavy rains.
Buses from Dallas were held at an underpass near Greenville, where it was reported that water was standing five feet deep over the road and it was necessary for them to wait until the water receded before they could continue eastward.
Mt. Pleasant Daily Times, Mt. Pleasant, Texas
Tuesday, March 3, 1936
New Centennial Stamps at Post Office Tuesday
Texas Centennial stamps were placed on sale at the local post office Tuesday morning, and will take the place of all other designs until the closing of the Centennial celebrations over the State.
The new stamps are specially designed, and are considerably larger than the usual three-cent stamps. They have a picture of the Alamo in the center, with portraits of Austin and Houston on the sides, and are among the most attractive ever printed.
Sale of these stamps was begun Monday at Gonzales, where the first gun was fired in the war of Texas independence, and where a big celebration was being held Monday. There were over 700,000 of these stamps sold at Gonzales, there being a great demand all over the country for the first issue. No other office was allowed to sell any of the stamps except the Gonzales office on Monday.
Mt. Pleasant Daily Times, Mt. Pleasant, Texas
Saturday, August 1, 1936
First Air Mail Was Carried in Balloon in 1859
By International News Service
Crawfordsville, Ind. Aug. 1. - Air mail is not a recent innovation-it's old stuff, according to investigators for the Indiana Works Progress Administration's guide book activities.
Seventy-seven years ago the world's first air mail was carried from Lafayette to Crawfordsville, a distance of 26 miles.
The first air mail was borne by a balloon piloted by John Wise. The plan to carry mail in his balloon was made in connection with an ascension of Aug. 16, 1859. The ascent failed, but was made on the following day. The Lafayette postmaster advised that the Jupiter Wise's balloon would take the mail.
The balloon, bearing the mail hovered near Lafayette for more than one hour because of lack of wind and then drifted away towards evening. Wise placed the mail in a sheet and dropped it overboard. Then he let the balloon descend and the balloon and the mail bag landed 50 feet apart near Crawfordsville.
