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

Helped by his oldtime experience as an overland mail contractor.

From Time Magazine Archive

One, of veteran rangers, to select frontiersmen to stir up the Indians to attack the northern overland mail stations.

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

He was a pony express rider in the days of the overland mail service.

From Roughing it De Luxe by McCutcheon, John T.

I had gone about twelve miles from Deadwood, at the mouth of Whitewood creek, when I met the overland mail running from Cheyenne to Deadwood.

From Life and Adventures of Calamity Jane by Calamity Jane

I have not the slightest doubt that I shall hear of him again as the proprietor of an overland mail, or the patron and capitalist of Greenland emigration.

From Campaigns of a Non-Combatant, and His Romaunt Abroad During the War by Townsend, George Alfred