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

He passed by a Moqui village and thence on to the overland mail route.

From Mormon Settlement in Arizona A Record of Peaceful Conquest of the Desert by McClintock, James H.

The overland mail in 1861 was a little golden thread by which the Pacific and the Atlantic could be united through the great war.

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

In 1858 it organized the great overland mail that ran coaches to California in less than twenty-five days.

From The New Nation by Dodd, William E.

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