He at once hurried West, and at Fort Leavenworth met his partners, Messrs. Majors and Waddell, to whom he confidently submitted the new proposition.  Much to Russell’s chagrin, these gentlemen were not elated over the plan.  While passively interested, they keenly foresaw the great cost which a year around overland fast mail service would involve.  They were unable to see any chance of the enterprise paying expenses, to say nothing of profits.  But Russell, with cheerful optimism, contended that while the project might temporarily be a losing venture, it would pay out in time.  He asserted that the opportunity of making good with a hard undertaking — one that had been held impossible of realization — would be a strong asset to the firm’s reputation.  He also declared that in his conversation with Gwin he had already committed their company to the undertaking, and he did not see how they could, with honor and propriety, evade the responsibility of attempting it.  Knowledge of the last mentioned fact at once enlisted the support or his partners.  Probably no firm has ever surpassed in integrity that of Russell, Majors, and Waddell, famous throughout the West in the freighting and mail business before the advent of railroads in that section of the men, the verbal promise of one of their number was a binding guarantee and as sacredly respected as a bonded obligation.  Finding themselves thus committed, they at once began preparations with tremendous activity.  All this happened early in the year 1860.

The first step was to form a corporation, the more adequately to conduct the enterprise; and to that end the Central Overland California and Pike’s Peak Express Company was organized under a charter granted by the Territory of Kansas.  Besides the three original members of the firm, the incorporators included General Superintendent B. F. Ficklin, together with F. A. Bee, W. W. Finney, and John S. Jones, all tried and trustworthy stage employees who were retained on account of their wide experience in the overland traffic business.  The new concern then took over the old stage line from Atchison to Salt Lake City and purchased the mail route and outfit then operating between Salt Lake City and Sacramento.  The latter, which had been running a monthly round trip stage between these terminals, was known as the West End Division of the Central Route, and was called the Chorpenning line.

Besides conducting the Pony Express, the corporation aimed to continue a large passenger and freighting business, so it next absorbed the Leavenworth and Pike’s Peak Express Co., which had been organized a year previously and had maintained a daily stage between Leavenworth and Denver, on the Smoky Hill River Route.