overland mail

American  

noun

U.S. History.

1. a government mail service, started in 1848, for sending mail from the Mississippi to the Far West.

2. (initial capital letters) a stagecoach line, established in 1858, linking Memphis, St. Louis, and San Francisco, which was then paid by the government to carry U.S. mail to the Far West. With various changes in ownership, name, and routes it continued until the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869.

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

overland mail

Helped by his oldtime experience as an overland mail contractor.

From Time Magazine Archive

In 1861 Congress provided for an overland mail.

From The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. 10 (of 12) Dresden Edition?Legal by Robert Green Ingersoll

I wrote to you on the new year's day everything that had happened up to that time; the letter was to have gone by the overland mail of the 19th.

From Campaign of the Indus by T.W.E. Holdsworth

An overland mail was started from the busy town as early as 1849.

From The old Santa Fe trail The Story of a Great Highway by Buffalo Bill

The government had subsidized an overland mail service at nearly a million a year, called the Butterfield line, with daily mails from St. Louis to San Francisco, running through Arizona.

From Building a State in Apache Land by Charles D. (Charles Debrille) Poston