The RHS Facebook page is a rich archive of history-related posts by Carol Flynn, RHS Facebook admin and writer until mid-2025. Carol prolifically wrote a wide variety of meticulously researched local history articles for RHS. She continues to write for the Beverly Review and other media sources with articles particularly focused on local Ridge history.
Cowboys on the Ridge
Cowboys on the Ridge – Part 2
The last post introduced Robert “Pony Bob” Haslam, a youth who came to the U.S. from London at the age of 16 and became a true-life Wild West hero. He’s buried in Mount Greenwood Cemetery.
Haslam earned his renown, and the title “Pony Bob,” considered an honor, for his feats as a Pony Express rider in 1860-61. He was known for having both the fastest and the longest rides recorded for the Pony Express riders.
In March 1861, he was part of the relay that carried Abraham Lincoln’s inauguration speech to California. He traveled 120 miles in 8 hours and 10 minutes, using nine horses, while wounded in an attack by Paiute Indians that fractured his jaw, knocked out five of his teeth, and injured his arm.
It took a total of seven days and 17 hours to carry the news to California that time. The average trip was usually around ten days.
The speech included the announcement that the Confederates had attacked Fort Sumter, starting the U.S. Civil War. This caused California to back the Union, sending gold and 17,000 troops east to help the cause. Some news sources credited Pony Bob as “the man who saved the Union.”
The longest ride occurred in May of that year, when Pony Bob completed a 380-mile round trip, covering not only his own route but that of another rider too frightened of the Indian attacks to make the run.
Pony Bob developed a strong friendship with Buffalo Bill Cody and joined his Wild West Show. Pony Bob decided to settle in Chicago and took a job with the Congress Hotel as a porter where he entertained guests with stories of his adventures. He was in Chicago with Buffalo Bill for the 1893 World’s Fair.
At the age of 47, he married Jenny Weiner, 19. Pony Bob died on Leap Year, February 29, 1912, at the age of 72. He was buried in Mt. Greenwood Cemetery, and it was rumored that Buffalo Bill paid for his grave, although cemetery records show it was purchased by his wife – but perhaps the money might have come from Buffalo Bill.
Jennie remarried, and they lived at 11825 S. Western Avenue in Morgan Park. That husband died in 1939. In 1940, Jennie had the marker there now in Mt. Greenwood Cemetery installed on the grave of her first husband, Robert “Pony Bob” Haslam.