Alexander Majors

Who was Alexander Majors?

Alexander Majors was a US businessman, who along with William Hepburn Russell and William B. Waddell founded the Pony Express, based in Kansas City, Missouri.

In about 1860, their freight firm, now known as "Russell, Majors and Waddell," formed the "Central Overland California and Pikes Peak Express Company" to get the federal contract to deliver mail between Missouri and California. It had previously been held by Butterfield Overland Mail, which delivered the mail in 25 days or more over a route that went through the South. With sectional tensions on the rise, Majors and his colleagues proposed to deliver the mail over a central route through Salt Lake City, Utah and proposed doing it in 10 days via a horse relay called the Pony Express.

Even though they succeeded in making the deliveries, they did not get the contract. They went bankrupt after the Transcontinental Telegraph opened in October 1861, as its competition eliminated the need for some mail service.

He provided rail ties for the crews of the Union Pacific Railroad working on the First Transcontinental Railroad. After the railroad was completed, he continued to haul freight to towns not yet served by the railroad.