Cavalryman at the Reins, 1876

Jacob Bergman, 1876. In 1937, the Tribune noted that “friends affectionately called him ‘Dutch’…. [He] held the reins in 1858 on the first westbound Butterfield coach to cross the first western desert span of the [Great Southern Overland] trail.” As a cavalryman, Bergman went east to serve in the Civil War. He made it back to San Diego County and died in 1895.