The Stage Driver's Story

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The Stage Driver's Story

Chenango Union, June 19, 1884

The traveler of the present day [1884], as he is hurried along by the lightning express, in its buffet cars and palace sleepers, seldom reverts in thought to the time when the stage coach and packet were the only means of communication between distant points.  It is rare that one of the real old time stage drivers is met with now a-days and when the writer recently ran across Fayette Haskell, of Lockport, N.Y., he felt like a bibliographer over the discovery of some rare volume of "Forgotten lore."  Mr. Haskell, although one of the pioneers in the stage driving (he formerly ran from Lewiston to Niagara Falls and Buffalo) is hale and hearty and bids fair to live for many years.  The strange stores of his early adventures would fill a volume. At one time when going down a mountain near Lewiston with no less a personage than General Scott as a passenger, the brakes gave way and the coach came on the heels of the wheel horses. The only remedy was to whip the leaders to a gallop.  Gaining additional momentum with each revolution of the wheels the coach swayed and pitched down the mountain side and into the streets of Lewiston. Straight ahead at the foot of a steep hill flowed the Niagara river, towards which the four horses dashed, apparently to certain death.  Yet the firm hand never relaxed its hold nor the clear brain its conception of what must be done in the emergency.  On dashed the horses until the narrow dock was reached on the river bank, when by masterly exhibition of nerve and daring, the coach was turned in scarce its own length and the horses brought to a stand still before the pale lookers-on could realize what had occurred. A purse was raised by General Scott and presented to Mr. Haskell with high compliments for his skill and bravery.

Notwithstanding all of his strength and his robust constitution, the strain of continuous work and exposure proved too much for Mr. Haskell's constitution. The constant jolting of the coach and the necessarily cramped position in which he was obliged to sit, contributed to this end, and at times he was obliged to abandon driving altogether.

Speaking of this period he said:

   "I found it almost impossible to sleep at night; my appetite left me entirely and I had a tired feeling which I never knew before and could not account for."

   "Did you give up driving entirely?"

   "No.  I tried to keep up but it was only with the greatest effort.  This state of things continued for nearly twenty years until last October when I went all to pieces."

    "In what way?"

    "Oh, I doubled all up; could not walk without a cane and was incapable of any effort or exertion.  I had a constant desire to urinate both day and night and although I felt like passing a gallon every ten minutes, only a few drops could escape and they thick with sediment.  Finally it ceased to flow entirely and I thought death was very near."

   "What did you do then?"

   "What I should have done long before; listen to my wife.  Under her advice I began a new treatment."

   "And with what result?"

   "Wonderful.  It unstopped the closed passages and what was still more wonderful regulated the flow. The sediment vanished; my appetite returned and I am well and good for twenty more years wholly through the aid of Warner's Safe Cure that has done wonders for me as well as for so many others."

Mr. Haskell's experience is repeated every day in the lives of thousands of American men and women.  An unknown evil is undermining the existence of innumerable numbers who do not realize the danger they are in until health has entirely departed and death perhaps stares them in the face.  To neglect such important matters is like drifting in the current of Niagara above the Falls.

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Warner's Safe Cure Blog:  https://warnerssafeblog.wordpress.com/2008/04/09/safe-kidney-liver-cure-formula/

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Niagara Falls Gazette, February 19, 1964

Fayette Haskell came to Lockport soon after the Niagara Falls and Lake Ontario Railroad was completed to Lewiston in 1853.  The stagecoach business being no longer profitable, he opened a livery stable.  Of the many in Lockport, Mr. Haskell's was one of the most popular. We have a number of his advertisements and note this one in the Lockport Daily Journal of 1863:  "Mr Fayette Haskell has a new carriage, one of the finest in the city."  Another reads--"Fayette Haskell and William Bromley, proprietors of Hacks and Omnibuses running to and from the cars in this village are compelled by the high rate of taxation and the daily increase of other expenses to advance their fares of 25 cents for carrying passengers to and from the depot and inside the village corporation."

One more advertisement will complete the picture of public transportation of those days:  "Fay Haskell the hack liveryman is having a light omnibus built at Gaudy and Traubs Shops on Elm Street to use to run to the depot when all his hacks are attending funerals, weddings and other events.  The vehicle will contain room for 10 passengers," Lockport journal, 1889.

Most Lockportians of any generation will remember Fayette Haskell's Livery Stable at 47 Caldonia St.

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Fayette Haskell died 5 November 1898 and was buried in Cold Springs Cemetery, Lockport, Niagara Co., NY