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- The Old Clisbee
Line Stant Rhea Stage Stand
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- After the railroad reached
Amarillo in 1888, mail lines out of Amarillo were established,
with mail being brought south weekly.
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- T.B. (Bent) Clisbee, or
the Clisbee brothers, who ran a livery stable in Amarillo, secured
the mail contract from the government for two months and hired
W.L. Tharp to carry the mail. The first trip Mr. Tharp made was
the first time he had been over the route. It took him a day
and a half to get to Plainview, using a one-horse buckboard.
There were no towns between Amarillo and Plainview but there
was a good trail.
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- The demand for such extended
service required a great deal more equipment. W.H. Fuqua, who
came to Amarillo in 1889, secured the government mail contract,
and accompanied by James Goler, drove south from Amarillo in
a buggy hitched to a team of fine Bays. Using a compass, they
layed out a mail and stage line. Stations were established along
the way to Old Emma, where the line met drivers from Colorado
City. Mr. Fuqua formed a partnership with J.W. Weatherford and
the business prospered. Sometimes as many as forty people were
hauled by stage in one day to the South Plains.
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- In August, 1890, Mr. Fuqua
and Mr. Weatherford traded the mail and stage line contract to
the Clisbee brothers for their five-rig livery stable in Amarillo.
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- After the Clisbee brothers
obtained the mail route, they went to Mexico and purchased 150
to 300 mules for this stage route. They needed a large number
for the frequent changes of teams at the different stops between
Amarillo and Plainview.
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- The mules were wild and
hard to harness and hitch to the coach, but they took off like
the wind. The drivers, regardless of frightened passengers, gave
the mules full reign all the way to the next station. There the
mules would stand quietly to be unhitched and replaced by a fresh
team. When the changes were made, Mr. Curry, the driver, and
his sons, would tie them to a snubbing post until he got the
collars, hames, and tugs all on. They were then hitched to the
coach.
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- Mr. Curry had no set schedule.
The stage left Amarillo each morning and arrived at Plainview
sometime during the day, according to the speed and ability of
the mules, and whether not or they had to race over mud or dry
dirt on the way. Just how many changes of teams were made is
not known. Stops were made in Canyon, Happy, Tulia, and Plainview.
Happy was usually the dinner stop.
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- Tom Scott was postmaster
on the route from Plainview to Hale Center to Estacado to Old
Emma in Crosby County.
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- One of the more prominent
drivers and one of those that stayed with it for many years was
Sidney Stanton Rhea. Stant Rhea was born April 25, 1862, in White
County, Tennessee. He was a small red headed man who came to
Texas, became a stage driver, got into the stage business, and
homesteaded land. Rhea went into the cattle business and finally
acquired seven sections of land to accommodate them. He died
November 25, 1922 in Hale Center.
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- The people who lived here
depended on this stage line for the mail every day and some of
the supplies. The stage between Amarillo and Plainview ran every
day.
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- Fare on the stage was
8 to 10 cents per mile. The distance was 90 miles from Amarillo
to Plainview, and about 160 miles from Amarillo to Old Emma.
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- The Clisbee Post Office
was established in 1891 and was moved a few miles from its original
location later.
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- The Stant Rhea Stage Stand
was located fifteen miles south of Plainview on a branch line
of the Amarillo-Estacado mail route. Mr. Rhea carried the mail
to Hale Center where it was sorted by the Postmaster. The mail
for the people who lived near the stage stand was handed back
to the driver. This he placed in a tin bucket in an abandoned
dugout near his corrals. The people came there to get their mail,
each sorting and taking what belonged to him, leaving that of
his neighbor.
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- The dugout was about fourteen
feet square with dirt walls and dirt floors. It contained a bachelor
stove, a homemade table, and nail kegs for chairs. Repairs for
harnesses were piled in a corner and hung around the walls on
nails. Passengers used the dugout while waiting for the stage.
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- The mules were cream colored,
brown, or gray. Some had black or dark stripes around their legs,
zebra fashion. The hack was a lightweight buckboard with a slatted
floor and an iron rail around the bed. The waterproof mail sack
had a drawstring top. The drawstrings were tied to the iron rail.
Everyone of the mules was a brother to the other and they were
all rearing to go when they were hitched up. Stamps cost 2 cents
for a letter and 1 cent for a postcard.
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- These hardy stage drivers
who were willing to be out in all kinds of weather, snow, sleet,
wind, rain, sun, and sand, made settling this area much easier
for everyone else. People were willing to stay here because they
were not completely cut off from the rest of the world.
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- This stage route operated
for nineteen years.
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