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WALLA WALLA - The Living History program at The Fort Walla Walla Museum will highlight stagecoach driver Charlie Potter. The man loved his horses; that's what the history books say about Charlie Potter, the famed stagecoach driver from Walla Walla. Visitors have seen the museum collection's iconic stagecoach and can now meet the driver.

Living History reenactor Ron Krause will bring Potter to life in the museum's Pioneer Village at 2 p.m. on April 14.

The stagecoach driver is a new character for the ensemble this year, and Walla Walla historian Susan Monahan gave the following account of Potter's life.

The 1880s were hard times for stagecoach drivers, according to Monahan. Railroads were taking over passenger and mail transportation. Due to the railroad's increased efficiency, stages went from essential to increasingly obsolete in just a few short years. Drivers, including Charlie Potter, devoted their lives to getting people and mail to their destinations and were significantly impacted.

Potter moved from London, England, in 1848 when he was 15. Four years later, at 19, he had his first job as a stagecoach driver with a company based in Alton, Illinois. Monahan said the time was right for providing transportation due to the gold rushes in the West, which lured him to driving coaches in California and Idaho. Along the way, Potter married Margaret McInroe, who immigrated from Ireland and served as a nurse during the American Civil War.

Potter was in a race with railroad expansion. Potters' older children were born in various frontier towns from Illinois to Missouri as he tried to keep one step ahead.

The Potters arrived in Walla Walla in 1871 and built a permanent home on Cherry Street. As railroads expanded, stagecoach lines in southern Idaho were being eliminated. However, the route between Pendleton and Walla Walla was still served by a stagecoach line owned by John Ladd. Potter drove a Concord-style stagecoach for that route, carrying passengers, mail, and errands for bankers, storekeepers, and merchants. The route took Potter through the Umatilla Indian Reservation, and his stage encountered no difficulties getting through, even during the Indian troubles. 

Monahan described the weather as an ever-present challenge to a stage driver. Potter proved his bravery and resourcefulness in 1875 when he saved his horses, passengers, and cargo in an accident. On route to Pendleton, Potter traversed along the Tum a Lum River on a Thursday when the water was even with the hubs of his stage. By Friday, the river had risen over four feet, his stagecoach overturned, and one horse drowned. Potter cut the other horses loose, the two passengers managed to exit the coach, and no mail or express cargo was lost.

After the Walla Walla to Pendleton route was eliminated, he continued driving a stage between Pendleton and Blue Mountain Station until it closed.

At the time, Athena, Oregon was called Centerville, and a journalist of the Centerville Examiner suggested that when the old stagecoach was "lain aside" and the loud crack of his whip "heard no more," that Charlie Potter might take the job of conductor on a train. Instead of changing jobs, Charlie retired.

Stagecoaches arrived and departed at the Stine House Hotel on the corner of 4th Ave. and Main St. The horses were stabled at the Kirkman Stable at the corner of Spokane St. and Sumach St. There is no mention of this stable in the Kirkman family records. However, the building is visible on the Sanborn Fire and Birdseye map renderings.

Harry Painter, a native of Walla Walla, was a schoolboy in the 1880s. As a student at the Baker School, he could observe the stage terminal and barns from a classroom window.

The stage's arrivals and departures from the Stine House were sure to bring a crowd. But that crowd numbered in the hundreds when Potter returned from his last trip to Pendleton. Painter's schoolboy memories inspired him to write a poignant account of Potter's last day as a stagecoach driver.

"Potter drove to the Stine House. His passengers exited, and he tossed the mail bags to the sidewalk and drove to Kirkman stage barn on Sumac Street. The hostlers hurried out to unhitch and unharness his horses. Without a word, he waved them to one side. One by one, he threw his arms about the horses' necks. He talked to them in a low tone, and no bystanders heard what he said. He did not notice the outstretched hands of those who tried to say goodbye. As he walked away, the horses followed him with their eyes. As days went by, the school children from across the street saw him sitting in a chair on his front porch, smoking his pipe and remembering. In about a month, his obituary appeared in the local papers. I don't know what the cause of his death was as written by the physicians on the death certificate, nor did I need to know, for the neighbors told me that he died of a broken heart."

Charlie Potter died at the age of 53, and the death certificate listed the cause as brain fever. Well-known through his work, Potter's death was announced in newspapers outside Walla Walla. His obituaries described him as a man of exceptional skill as a driver and praised his personal qualities.

"The Oregonian," said in its obituary for Potter, "The most remarkable and pathetic passing away of any of these old stage coachmen, was that of Charley Potter, after 35 or more years of continual service---a driver of various lines in California Oregon, Idaho, and Washington, which meant a life of great endurance, peril and hardship."

The Walla Walla Museum is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. through the end of October. Admission is $12 for adults, $10 for seniors and students, $5 for children ages 6-12, and children age five and under are free. Museum members receive free admission all year. Memberships start at $35 for seniors and students; a couple can buy a dual membership for $55, and a whole household can join for $65.

Membership entitles people to free admission, email announcements of special events, the quarterly newsletter, "The Dispatch," and a discount at the museum store. It also includes free admission to the Tamástslikt Cultural Institute near Pendleton. Visit the museum's calendar at fwwm.org/all events. For more information, call (509) 525-7703 or visit fwwm.org. The Museum is in Fort Walla Walla Park at 755 NE Myra Road, Walla Walla, Wash.