HOLLADAY, Ben. Stagecoach and overland cartage king, known as the Napoleon of the Plains. Check signed ("Ben Holladay"), to George Weidler, San Francisco, July 16, 1870, 9 x 3 1/2 in., some staining, otherwise fine. The check is written on the Oregon California Rail Road Company in the amount of $248.65. By 1849, when the great race across the plains had begun Holladay already owned wagon trains, gold mines and a fleet of steam boats on the Sacramento River. He continued to expand, purchasing the Overland Mail Express Company and by 1864 had put together a nearly complete monopoly of the stage, mail and freighting business between the Missouri River and Salt Lake City.