Gillespie’s Store

Gillespie’s Store stood at this spot and also served as a Wells, Fargo and Co. office, with E. F. Gillespie as the company’s first agent in Vacaville. In 1860 there were only two overland horse trips from Sacramento to San Francisco, and in 1861 this was repeated another 18 times. On the first trip, Pony Express rider Sam Hamilton took the Yolo Plank Turnpike across tule swampland, crossed Putah Creek, made his first stop for another horse at the Solano House, continued to the halfway house at Silveyville where a red lantern hung high as a beacon, then rode on after another relay change to Vacaville and Gillespie’s Store. He arrived there at around 4:00 A.M. and left within a few minutes on another fresh horse.

Vacaville, California · United States