Entrepreneur. He was an American pioneer in transportation, who was a genuine 19th-century entrepreneur, savoring the challenge of business ventures that were both profitable and served the public good. He was a self-taught youngster born on a farm during the era of new technology, which saw the first steamboat, steam locomotive and the electric telegraph. At age 18, he decided that he wanted to be a stagecoach driver. He saved his money, which resulted in the startup of his own delivery business. Hard work found him owner of one of the largest stagecoach companies, the Overland Mail Company. Later in 1850, he helped to create the American Express Company, in which he was a directing partner until his death. With California becoming the 31st state in the Union in 1850, there was a need to transport people, freight and mail from the East to the new state. Overland Mail came into being after the United States Congress established a mail route in 1857 from St. Louis to San Francisco, which became known as the Butterfield Route. There were nine bids for the Federal Contract #12578 and the six-year contract worth $600,000 a year was awarded to Butterfield on September 16, 1857. He was given the job to deliver the mail, which also was the longest mail route in the world at that time. At a cost of over a million dollars and after a year of preparation, the line was ready to proceed. It consisted of 100 Concord Coaches and 500 other vehicles ready to roll; 1,800 best obtainable horses and mules; 3,000 tons of hay, grain and provisions stored in warehouses; and the manpower of hundreds of skilled superintendents, road bosses, drivers, guards, conductors, keepers, blacksmiths, harnessmakers, hostlers and clerks. The company built 139 relay stations for fresh horses and a meal for stage coach passengers and within six months had 175 relay station. The ride from St. Louis to San Francisco consisted of a 2,812-mile route through deserts, mountains, and bands of hostile Indians. A bi-weekly stage coach ride consisted of six passengers, freight and up to 12,000 letters. The western fare one-way for a passenger was $200, with most stages arriving at their final destination 22 days later. The line operated from 1858 to 1861 on the Southern Overland Trail. At the beginning of the American Civil War in March of 1861, the southern route was discontinued. The line operated for many years until its demise following the first transcontinental railroad in 1869, when passenger and mail travel by stagecoach was to be no more. Leaving the stress of that business, he directed his energies as the largest stockholder to the flourishing American Express. Living in Utica, New York he was instrumental in the city's development. He built the Morse telegraph line between New York City and Buffalo. In March of 1865, he became the 24th mayor of Utica and within weeks the Civil War ended and President Lincoln was assassinated. In 1869 at a cost nearly $250,000 to build and furnish, he built a fine hotel, the Butterfield House with 110 bedrooms plus a barber shop, reading rooms, smoking rooms and a billiard hall, and by the 21st century, the hotel had been demolished. While on a trip to New York City, he suffered a paralyzing stroke, dying at home a few weeks later. He married and the couple had six children including Theodore, a future mayor of Utica, and Daniel, who was a major general in the Civil War and credited by some sources as a co-composer of the bugle call, "Taps." Streets in Utica are named for him and other members of his direct family. In the 21st century, his American Express has evolved into a complexed worldwide organization based in New York City, providing travel-related and insurance services, as well as international finance operations and banking. A larger-than-life statue of him was erected on his grave marker. The Butterfield Overland National Historical Trail was declared by the National Park Service on January 5, 2023.