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

The pony express flying eastward, the rapidly approaching telegraph, the southern overland mail with the other line across the plains, bring the news of Eastern excitement.

From The Little Lady of Lagunitas A Franco-Californian Romance by Savage, Richard

Early in 1862 the Indians threatened the overland mail route, and Fuller, having received instruction from Montgomery Blair to keep the route open at all hazards, called for thirty men to serve for thirty days.

From The Story of the Mormons, from the date of their origin to the year 1901 by Linn, William Alexander

Congress has given us $600,000 a year to keep up the Southern overland mail route.

From The Little Lady of Lagunitas A Franco-Californian Romance by Savage, Richard

I had previously left England by the overland mail of August to make arrangements at Newera Ellia for the reception of the whole party.

From Eight Years' Wanderings in Ceylon by Baker, Samuel White, Sir