Charles C. Haynes was one of the Overland Stage Line’s most prominent drivers. Haynes was born in Ohio in 1837. He began his staging career in 1855, working on the Columbus Pike, which ran between Cleveland and Medina. The following year, he worked in Michigan on the Grand Rapids, Detroit, and Allegan Roads. When the Overland Mail Company was organized, Haynes went to Missouri in 1858 and first drove on Independence Road.

The following year, he drove for the Kansas Stage Company on the old Fort Leavenworth and Fort Riley military road. When the Civil War erupted in 1861, the Overland Mail route moved North, and Haynes drove several routes between Atchison, Kansas, and the Rocky Mountains until 1865.

In 1866, he worked in California for Wells Fargo. Two years later, he was in Salt Lake City, driving the Montana Road for Wells Fargo; in 1869, he worked the road between Salt Lake City and Austin, Nevada. In the Fall of 1870, he worked for the Northwestern Stage Company as a division agent on the 275-mile route between Elko, Nevada, and Boise City, Idaho. In 1872, he worked as a Division Agent on the Overland Stage line between Boise City and Kelton, Idaho, a position he retained until 1875.

After several more transfers to California, Nevada, and Idaho and operating a few small routes on his own, he retired to a ranch on Goose Creek in Idaho. He then bought an old Concord coach built by the Abbot-Downing Company and drove it for tourists to the Falls of Shoshone, Idaho.

Haynes also served as a U.S. Deputy Marshal under Fred T. Du Boise and Joseph Rinkhaus, served as a constable of Shoshone, Idaho, for many years, and served as the first sheriff of Lincoln County, Idaho.

 

©Kathy Alexander/Legends of America, updated October 2026.

Also See:

Cowboys, Trail Blazers & Stagecoach Drivers 

The Overland Stage and Telegraph Lines

Stagecoaches of the American West

Stagecoach Kings (Lines) & Drivers

See Sources.