Lance Walker, age 10, of Meridian, Miss., for his question:

WHEN DID WE START USING STAGECOACHES?

A stagecoach was a horse drawn coach used to carry passengers and mail on a regular route. Some stagecoaches were also used to carry freight. The first long stagecoach line was the one established about 1670 between London, England, and Edinburgh, Scotland, a distance of 392 miles.

The first stagecoach line in colonial America was established in 1756 and operated chiefly between Boston, New York and Philadelphia. In 1785, Congress started mail service by stagecoach.

As time passed, comforts such as springs and cushions were added to the coaches.

Many of the finest stagecoaches were made at Concord, New Hampshire.

In the early 1800s, people could travel to Ohio by the National Road. In an elaborate Concord coach drawn by six horses, they rode along at a brisk 10 miles per hour. The trip from Baltimore and Washington to Ohio took about two and one half days.

Later stagecoach lines extended to the West. But the railroads gradually replaced stagecoaches, except in remote regions.