Frontierado is celebrated the first Friday of every August, so this year it will be marked on August 2nd. This holiday celebrates the myth of the old west, not the grinding reality. Here’s a seasonal post regarding the Pony Express, the much-romanticized messenger service across the west that lasted from April 3rd, 1860 to October 26th, 1861.
PONY BOB HASLAM – One of the most famous Pony Express riders of them all, after Buffalo Bill Cody. (Wild Bill Hickok did not really work for the Pony Express, but rather as a teamster for its parent company.) Click HERE.
THE MAN CALLED BOSTON – This Expressman, real name Warren Fremont Upson, wasn’t really from Boston, but he was from back east and the nickname just stuck. For his colorful career with the the Pony Express and afterward, click HERE.
IRISH TOMMY RANAHAN – A look at his time with the Pony Express and his later career as an armed guard accompanying payroll shipments for gold and silver mines out west, then as an Army Scout. Click HERE. Continue reading
PONY BOB – Robert Haslam, better known as Pony Bob, holds multiple records set in the Pony Express during its year and a half history, including the longest individual round-trip ride – 380 miles – when one of his relay riders was put out of action during the Paiute War in 1860. 
BOSTON – Warren Fremont Upson, better known by his one-word nickname, was one of the Pony Express Riders aka Expressmen to ride with the service for its entire existence from April 3rd, 1860 to October 26th, 1861. His real name was so seldom used in the old west that in some sources on Pony Express history he was listed only as “Boston.” 
Our hero spent most of his time riding and exploring in the Sierra Nevadas, hunting and cooking his own food and acquiring a familiarity with the mountain range’s often-treacherous curves and turns and sudden drops. That familiarity would pay dividends later in life when Boston was assigned to the most geographically dangerous route of the Pony Express. 
As promised, Balladeer’s Blog returns to some brief looks at assorted Pony Express Riders as seasonal posts now that the Frontierado Holiday is fast approaching. (It falls on August 5th this year.) Frontierado is about the myth of the old west, not the grinding reality.
IRISH TOMMY – Thomas J. Ranahan was better known as Irish Tommy during his days as an Expressman (the official title of Pony Express riders). Ranahan was born in Ireland on August 28th, 1839 and his family moved to America in 1841, settling in Vermont. 
It’s less than two months until the major holiday Frontierado, so here’s a third blog post about Pony Express Riders – April 3rd, 1860 to October 26th, 1861. A few weeks ago came Balladeer’s Blog’s 
CHARLIE CLIFF – The younger of the two Cliff brothers to ride for the Pony Express was born in 1844 in St. Louis County, MO. Sometime in 1852 the family moved to St. Joseph, MO and by May of 1860 Charlie and his older brother Gus were Expressmen, the official title of Pony Express Riders. 
BILLY TATE – Born in 1846, Billy Tate traveled west with his family in 1857 as part of the Baker-Fancher Wagon Train from Arkansas. In September of that year, Billy’s family were among the pioneers slaughtered at the Mountain Meadows Massacre in Utah. The massacre was perpetrated by Mormons disguised as Native Americans. 
Balladeer’s Blog always marks the holiday called Frontierado, which is observed every year on the first
Friday in August. This year that will be August 5th. Frontierado is about the myth of the old west, not the grinding reality. 
I will cover many of the other riders as we get closer to the actual date of Frontierado, but for today here is a brief look at the first Pony Express riders to depart from Saint Joseph, MO headed west and from Sacramento, CA headed east. There is still some dispute about which men officially count as the first riders, with two men put forth for both routes. 
JOHNNY FRY was born in Bourbon County, Kentucky in 1840 (exact date unknown) and in 1857 his family moved to Missouri. After the firing of the cannon, whoever the first rider was, Fry or Richardson, they galloped to the ferry Denver waiting at the landing on Jules Street. The Denver carried the rider across the Missouri River to Elwood, KS where that first ride resumed. 
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