Sorta Paid - Postal History Sunday

Greetings and welcome to Postal History Sunday on the GFF Postal History Blog.  This is cross-posted from the Genuine Faux Farm blog, which may be the only place where you can read about snow one day, reusing legal pads the next, interplanting vegetable crops after that and THEN postal history!

Tuck those worries into the trash can and take them out for your mother, your spouse or yourself and then come back and maybe learn something new.  Put on some fuzzy slippers.  Get yourself a beverage of your choice.  And let's see where we can take you this week.

Paying the Postage - Sort of

We're going to start with a letter that was mailed in August of 1866 from Bordeaux, France to Jerez de la Frontera (near Cadiz), Spain.  The sender paid the postage for a single weight letter, but it was found to be too heavy and required more postage.  

Just last week, we showed a series of items that traveled from the United States to the United Kingdom.  Several of those items did not have enough postage - so they were treated as if they were completely unpaid.  The French and Spanish had a different sort of agreement.  This agreement at least provided for some credit when a person put postage on an item - even if it was not enough postage.

The postal convention between these two countries was put into effect on February 1, 1860 and to make matters simple for explanation, the basics were as follows:

If someone in France wanted to mail a letter to Spain, they would have to pay 40 centimes (French currency) for every 7.5 grams of weight.  If someone in Spain wanted to mail a letter to France, they would have to pay 12 cuartos (Spanish currency) for every 4 adarmes in weight (4 adarmes is about 7 grams).

Do you see a possible problem?  I sure do!  Technically, an item that weighed 7.2 grams would be light enough for a single rate in France, but it would require a double rate in Spain.  Clearly a recipe for potential problems.

The treaty also allowed people to send letters UNPAID.  If they opted for this service, the recipient would have to pay a different rate to receive their letter.  If a Spaniard received an unpaid letter from France, they would have to pay 18 cuartos for every 4 adarmes in weight.

So, what happened if a person paid for a letter that they thought was light enough for a single rate letter (40 centimes), but it actually required double rate postage?  Well, we get to find out because that is exactly what happened with this letter.

Apparently, the French post office was aware that this item weighed too much, so they put the red boxed handstamp on the cover which reads "Affranchissement Insuffisant" (insufficient postage).  I believe it was the French traveling post office on the train to Irun that calculated the amount due and put the big red "24" on the front of the cover.  

Hm, so the recipient in Jerez had to pay 24 cuartos for the honor of receiving this letter, even though their correspondent thought they had paid enough.  Why? It weighed more than 7 grams and no more than 7.5 grams.

Unpaid rate of mail from France to Spain was 18 cuartos / 4 adarmes

Double this amount due = 36 cuartos
Less amount paid = 12 cuartos    (equal to 40 centimes in French postage already paid)
Total due = 24 cuartos

And there you have it.  Underpaid mail was penalized for failure to prepay the service properly by charging the unpaid mail rate to calculate the total fee due.  However, unlike many other mail agreements of the time, this one actually gave some credit for the attempt to prepay the postage.

If you would like to read more about this particular item, I have more detail on the GFF Postal History Blog.

Upping the Ante

In this case, the letter was mailed as a double rate letter from Marseille, France to Madrid, Spain.  Unfortunately for the recipient, the letter was found to be underpaid and they were required to pay 30 cuartos to receive this piece of mail. 

Once again, the red box with "Affranchissement Insuffisant" was applied to indicate that the postage was insufficient to pay for the letter to get to the destination without further payment.  The bold, red "30" indicated that 30 cuartos were due at delivery.

Just as a reminder, the process for short paid mail between France and Spain at the time was to determine the postage by using the higher UNPAID mail rate.  Once that amount is calculated, credit is given for the amount of postage paid.

The weight of this item was greater than 8 adarmes (roughly 14 grams) and no more than 15 grams.  This explains why the person mailing thought 80 centimes was enough.  After all, that was the correct amount by the French calculation (40 centimes for every 7.5 grams).  But, if it weighed 14.5 grams, the Spanish weren't going to see it that way because they expected a rate for every 7 grams!

Once again, unpaid mail from France to Spain is charged 18 cuartos for every 4 adarmes in weight.

Triple rate due = 54 cuartos
Less amount paid = 24 cuartos   (80 centimes in France)
Total due = 30 cuartos

If you would like to read a bit more about this cover, you can go here. 

It Wasn't Just France and Spain

Ok, maybe it has something to do with France...  Here is a letter sent from Bar-le-Duc, France to Padove, Venetia in 1865.  At this time, Venetia was under Austrian control, which means the postage rates to Venetia were the same as those for letters sent to Austria, but not the same as rates to Italy.

Why does that matter?

A person had to pay 40 cents for every 10 grams to mail a letter to Italy in 1865, but a letter to Austria would cost 60 cents for every 10 grams.

I could certainly make things more complex by telling you that the Austrians used yet another weight measurement (1 loth was about 16 grams), but that doesn't come into play with this item.  It is far more likely that the sender simply identified Padova as a part of Italy rather than Austria.  But, the good news for them was that the French and Austrians also agreed that postage paid - even if it was not enough - should count for something.

Just like the agreement with Spain, Austria and France had separate rates for paid and unpaid letters.  The prepaid rate was 60 centimes per 10 ounces and the unpaid letter rate was 80 centimes.

Single Rate due for unpaid letter = 80 centimes
Postage paid    = 40 centimes
Difference due    = 40 centimes
Convert to Austrian kreuzer = 16 kreuzer due 

After awhile, you start to recognize that the postal clerks that handled foreign mail throughout the world in the 1860s had a job that was a bit more complex than you might expect.

No Explanation for This One!

In each of the three previous examples, it wasn't too hard to speculate as to why the sender applied the wrong amount of postage.  In fact, I think it would be safe to say that the sender likely thought they had done everything correctly to avoid having the recipient pay any extra money.  But, I can find no such explanation for the letter above that was sent from Paris, France to Vienna, Austria in 1875.

The rate was still 60 centimes per 10 grams, though it was soon to change for a lower amount with the General Postal Union.  The sender attached a 40 centime stamp and a 15 centime stamp, totaling 55 centimes.

The postal clerks didn't care what the reason was, they just simply marked it as short paid (red marking at top right), wrote the expected amount in pencil (_60) and calculated the amount due from the recipient (a blue 10 in a circle).

Unpaid letter rate = 80 centimes / 10 grams
Postage paid    = 55 centimes
Difference due    = 25 centimes
Convert to Austrian kreuzer = 10 kreuzer due

Why a Different Rate for Unpaid Mail?

With the invention of the postage stamp (the British issued the first one in 1840), the idea that letters should be prepaid in full, rather than sent collect (or partially paid) gained strength.  It was not at all uncommon for recipients to simply refuse mail rather than pay for it.  This was especially true with the extremely high rates of postage required for items that had some distance to travel.

It should not be surprising that postal services would rather receive payment up front rather than risk receiving no compensation for services rendered.  To encourage prepayment, many postal services offered lower rates for prepayment, while others simply added an additional fee for underpaid or unpaid mail.

And, there you have it!  Another Postal History Sunday in the books!

I hope you enjoyed reading about something new and that you have a good remainder of the weekend and see good things throughout the coming week.

For those who would like to explore other Postal History Sunday posts, please check out the Postal History Sunday tag on this blog.

That Doesn't Seem Fair - Postal History Sunday

Welcome again (or maybe for the first time) to Postal History Sunday!  Take a moment of time to read about something different and maybe learn something new.  Stuff those worries in the cookie jar for a little bit and make sure you take some cookies out to enjoy while you read.

This week I am going to write about a topic that I often find myself explaining to other postal historians who do not share my specific area of interest.  Now, before you think this will be 'too much,' I can assure you that if you have read any of the other Postal History Sunday posts, this one won't get any more into the weeds than those.  You're going to do just fine.  

It's me I'm worried about!

Oh - and if you are curious.  I post these PHS blogs on our farm blog first on Sundays and then crosspost later on this, the GFF Postal History Blog. 

Sending A Letter to England

In 1862, a person who wanted to a send a letter from the United States to England would have to pay 24 cents for a letter that weighed up to 1/2 ounce.  For comparison, you can send a letter that weighs up to one ounce in today's mail for $1.20.  So, if you're thinking, "Wow.  It sure does seem like it cost a fair bit to send a letter to England in 1862."  You would be correct.

In fact, the letter rate actually decreased to 12 cents in 1868 and was reduced further to six cents not long after.  By the time we get to the days of the General Postal Union (1875), that price was 5 cents!

You might recall from last week's Postal History Sunday post, that the postage was split into three pieces:

• 5 cents was kept by the United States for their internal mail service
• 16 cents were paid to the sailing company that carried the letter across the Atlantic
• 3 cents were kept by the British for their internal mail service.

The wild card here was that some sailing companies had contracts with the British and some had contracts with the U.S.  It actually mattered which ship carried this letter because it determined which mail service got 16 cents worth of the postage.

The US Post Office sold the stamp for 24 cents to the customer, who put it on the envelope to show that they had paid for the service.  This letter went via a British packet (steamship), which means the British needed 19 cents (16 + 3) to pay for their part of the services needed to get the mail to the Reverend A.P. Putnam in London. 

What if it Weighed More than a Half Ounce?

But, what if it weighed more than a half ounce?  Well, 24 cents would not cover the cost of mailing that item - of course!

Here is a larger envelope that must have been more than a half ounce, but no more than one ounce in weight.  It was mailed from Chicago to Shaftsbury, England.   Below is a summary of the rate table for mail from the US to the United Kingdom from 1849 through 1867.

You might notice that the rate of postage was not 24 cents per 1/2 ounce.   It might be better to think of the 24 cent rate as a special rate for very light mail.  The actual rate might more accurately be said to be 48 cents per ounce.

But, wait a minute - did I say that the letter above was mailed from Chicago?  How did I know that?

 One of the magic powers postal historians develop over time is the ability to recognize certain markings and understand where they came from.  The "6 Cents" marking was used in Chicago to show that the British got 6 cents out of the 48 cents in postage.  There is a similar, more commonly found "3 Cents" marking used for letters that were a half-ounce or less in weight.

But, What if They Didn't Pay Enough?

People don't always get the postage right - so there had to be some sort of an agreement to determine how "short paid" letters would be handled.  For example, the letter below (from 1867) has a single 24 cent stamp on it - but it must have weighed more than a half ounce, so it needed 48 cents in postage.

The New York foreign mail exchange office placed a "Short Paid" marking on the envelope and used black ink for their circular marking (the one that has a "42" in it).  The interesting thing is that this letter must have caused the postmaster some trouble because there is a red marking just to the right of it that indicated it was paid.

You can guess how that might happen.  The clerk was going through a pile of letters, stamping them with the red paid marking and got into the rhythm of the work.  He hit this one and then said "hmmmmm."  Weighed it out and realized his instincts were correct - so he put the "short paid" and the black circular marking on the envelope.

The British Post Office agreed with this assessment and wrote the squiggle on the envelope that is a 2 with a squiggly tail.  This was their way of saying the recipient owed 2 shillings for the privilege of receiving this letter.  The envelope contained a death announcement, which is indicated by the black border.  I have a suspicion most people would have found a way to pay the 2 shillings in this case.

How much was 2 shillings in US money?  48 cents.  

The agreement between the United States and the British at this time was that a letter that was not paid in full would be treated as COMPLETELY UNPAID.  Well, that's one way to make a death announcement sting a bit more.  The sender spent 24 cents to send it and the recipient had to pay the equivalent of 48 cents to receive it.  Ugh!

It Could Be Worse!

The letter below has 72 cents in postage applied to it AND the recipient had to pay 4 shillings (equal to 96 cents) to receive it.

This larger envelope must have weighed more than one ounce, so it would require more postage.  So, let's remind ourselves of the postal agreement rates:

Oh... yeah.  It isn't 24 cents per 1/2 ounce - it's 48 cents per ounce once you get to things heavier than a half ounce.  But, that's not what everyone understood when they mailed things.  After all, if you wanted to send a letter inside of the United States it was 3 cents for EVERY 1/2 ounce.  It would be natural to expect a rate to a foreign country to follow the same pattern - and that's what the sender of this envelope did.

The letter must have weighed over one ounce and up to 1 1/2 ounces.  They figured 72 cents was correct if you had 24 cents per 1/2 ounce.  But, they were wrong - which means the letter was Short Paid.  Which means it is treated as UNpaid.  

Ugh again!

Oh My Goodness!

If you thought that was bad - what about poor Mr. Robert Stiver (sp?) of Dundee, Scotland?   He had to pay 6 shillings for this item sent in the mail to him.

You can guess what happened here.  There are five 24 cent stamps - probably put on there by a sender who figured this letter that weighed over 2 ounces but not more than 2 1/2 ounces should require 5 times the 24 cent rate per half ounce.  But, sadly, the rate is really 48 cents per ounce.  The letter weighed more than 2 ounces and no more than three ounces - so it needed $1.44 instead of the $1.20 affixed to the envelope.

When all was said and done, this letter cost the equivalent of $2.64 between the stamps paid for by the sender and the 6 shillings given by Mr. Stiver.

I sure hope the content of this envelope was worth every penny!

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Thanks for joining me in this Postal History Sunday and that maybe, you learned something new!  Have a great remainder of the weekend and a good week to come.

New Language - Postal History Sunday

Welcome to the space on the blog that occurs every seven days on a Sunday - also known as Postal History Sunday on the Genuine Faux Farm blog.  Pour yourself a beverage of your choice and make yourself comfortable.  For a few moments, forget about the dirty dishes and put your worries under the place mat on the kitchen table.  We're going to take a tour together!

A tour around some selected letters from days gone by!  

This week, we're going to teach you a little bit about the language that I read when I look at a piece of postal history.  Don't worry, there isn't a quiz at the end!  We'll just keep it light and... hopefully... fun!

1863 from Boston to London

I'm going to start us by reading about the trip this letter took from Boston to London, England.  There is a single stamp at the top right that represents 24 cents of postage.  It just so happens that the price of mailing something from the US to England at that time was 24 cents, so it was cancelled with a round grid marking with the word PAID on it in black ink.  This was done so people could not reuse the stamp.

From a historical standpoint, you can guess that the American Civil War was raging, with fighting at Stones River (Tennessee) and Fort Hindman (Arkansas).  The Emancipation Proclamation had just gone into effect on January 1.  As momentous as all that might have been, business went on.

Perhaps you remember that we talked about dockets a couple of weeks ago?  If you don't, you can always take the link and read it at your leisure.  For now, we'll just point you to the handwriting at the top center.  This was written by the addressee (Charles H Hudson).  He recorded for future reference the date he received the letter (January 19), the date he sent a reply (January 24) and who sent him this letter (Rideout & Merritt).

This docket has nothing to do with the postal aspect of this envelope - but it gives us some background as to the purpose of this mail.  It also provides us with checks for consistency to be sure all is as it should be here.  The red London marking at the right (by the name Hudson) also gives a date of January 19 - that's a match with the docket, so things are lining up nicely!

You might also note that both the London and Boston markings are in red ink and they both include the word "PAID."  If you'll recall, we talked about ways the postal service communicated that postage was properly paid in a blog in October of last year.  So, this all makes sense - there is a stamp that is the right amount for the postage of the time.  There are two markings that seem to show that the postal service saw this letter as paid to the destination.  And...  the dates line up with expected travel times and dockets.

Let's look more closely at the Boston marking!  There is actually more information that I can extract just by knowing what I am seeing - by knowing how to read this "language."

"Br. Pkt"

This is an abbreviation for "British Packet."  A packet was a steamship that carried the mail across the Atlantic Ocean.  Some mail packet companies had contracts to carry the mail for the United States (an "American Packet") and some had contracts to carry mail for the United Kingdom (a "British Packet").  This marking actually gives me a chance to identify the ship that carried this letter from Boston and across the Atlantic!

On January 7, 1863 the Europa left Boston.  This ship was owned by the British & North American Royal Mail Steam Packet Company - a shipping line that is often referred to as the Cunard Line (for its founder Samuel Cunard).  It arrived at Queenstown, Ireland on January 17 and probably went on to Liverpool the next day.

"19 Paid"

Well, we all understand the "Paid" part.  But, what's with the "19?"  Didn't we say that it cost 24 cents to mail this letter?

Indeed we did!  And, indeed it DID cost 24 cents.  The issue is that the United States provided some of the mail service and the British provided some of the mail service.  At this time, it was important to account for how much of the 24 cents went to each post office so it covered the expenses.

Five cents covered the mail service within the United States.  Sixteen cents paid for the Atlantic voyage.  Three cents covered mail service in the United Kingdom.  Since the British had the contract with the Cunard Line, they had to pay the shipping company.  So, the British needed 16 cents for that and 3 more cents for their own mail services.

This marking simply says the United States must pay 19 of the 24 cents they collected in postage to the British Post Office.   They kept the remaining five cents.

New York to Tampico - 1918

Below is a much more recent letter.  The New York Life Insurance Company sent this item from their offices in New York for their "Mexican Branch" to a grocery store company (tienda de abarrotes) named "El Relampago" in Tampico, Mexico.  The letter was sent from New York on August 21, 1918. The cost to mail this item from New York to Mexico was 3 cents.

World War I still had a couple more months to go until Armistice Day (Nov 11) when Germany surrendered.  The second wave of the Spanish Flu pandemic was just getting underway - fueled by troop movements (among other things).  The tape that reads "Opened By" at the right of this envelope shows that this letter was opened by a censor prior to its delivery in Tampico.  Interesting enough, censors may well have redacted items that might have been related to military actions as well as the pandemic, feeling that dissemination of information on the illness would give rise to panic.

This cover also has another marking that was applied in Tampico.   The marking reads "Lista Oct 7 , 1918."  Clearly, the letter had been in the Tampico post office for a while, but no one had come to claim this mail.  "Lista" is a reference that the item had been advertised in local papers as being available at the post office.  This was still a common practice for mail sent as a "general delivery" item.  General delivery, also known as "poste restante" in Europe meant that the letter was sent to the post office and not delivered to the recipient by a carrier.  It was the recipient's responsibility to come to the post office and check to see if they had any mail.

Le Havre to Philadelphia - 1873

If you detect a big change in postal processes, you can usually attribute it to one or more historical events that led to the adjustments being observed in the postal history.  For example, mail handling between the United States and France had been fairly consistent since 1857, when a postal treaty was put into place.  Once we get to 1870, letters look quite a bit different.  Interestingly enough, France lost to Prussia in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, which included the Siege of Paris into early 1871.  It would be incorrect to say that the war was the sole cause for the change.  But, it might be accurate to say that the conditions that led to that war also contributed to the postal changes.

First, we can exercise our "docket reading" once again.  The top left reads "Via Queenstown, p. Steamer City of Brooklyn."  It just so happens the City of Brooklyn was scheduled to be in port at Queenstown on June 6.  This ship was owned by the Liverpool, New York & Philadelphia Steam Ship Company, founded by William Inman.  I suspect you see a pattern here.  People have historically looked for shortcuts when referencing things - so this company was routinely known as... the Inman Line.  (imagine that!)  The ship would arrive in New York on June 16.

The words around the circle of this marking read: "Le Havre Le Port."  Le Havre would be the city and Le Port would be the post office branch that received this item for mailing.  And if you look at the words inside the circle, you will likely recognize the date: June 3, 1873.  You might, however, be uncertain as to what the "4E" might reference.  Larger post offices had multiple mail distribution and departure time each day.  This would be the 4th collection period of the day on June 3.  This was apparently early enough for this item to get to London on June 4 by a channel steamship.

Holland to France - 1836

Now we'll take you back before there were postage stamps!  Here is a letter from Amsterdam to Montpellier, France in September of 1836.  At this point, the Netherlands was still trying to hold on to Belgium, despite the latter's proclamation that it was independent in 1830.  This conflict would not be settled until 1839.

At this point in time, the cost of postage for a letter was calculated as much by distance as it was by weight (or sometimes the number of sheets in a letter).  Most letters were sent unpaid or partially paid, with the expectation that the recipient would pay for the honor of receiving the item.

One of the funny things about postal history of the 1800s is that numbers don't always look like the numbers you and I might expect.  One must remember that postal clerks were often handling A LOT of mail and we have to expect some shorthand.  What was important is that they and their compatriots understood the markings.  

What you see above is a "19."  This represents 19 decimes or 1 franc, 90 centimes, which was the amount the recipient was going to pay in order to receive the letter.  That is a fair amount of money considering the cost would only be 60 centimes when we get to the 1860s.

The postal rate calculation is aided, in part, by this marking that appears at the top right of the folded letter.

L.P.B.5.R. = Les Pays Bas 5th Rayon

The French know the Netherlands as "Pays-Bas" or "Les Pays-Bas," which is literally translated as "Low Country (ies)."  This shouldn't sound odd since the English refer to it as "the Netherlands" with "nether" being defined as "lower in position."  You could also, of course, refer to it as Holland(e).

The 5th rayon refers to a region or a distance within Les Pays Bas.  The 5th region was furthest from France and required the most postage to cover the distance from Amsterdam to Thionville in France.  Then, French postage would be added for the distance from Thionville to Montpellier.  If you want to know how that works, I went through that process with this Postal History Sunday post!

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Thank you so much for taking this little postal history journey with me.  I hope you were able to relax, learn something new, and take comfort in the enjoyment I have with sharing my hobby with you.  As always, I am happy to take questions and turn them into future "Postal History Sundays."  I expect to keep writing them as long as I have motivation and energy to do so.

Have a great remainder of the weekend and I hope your coming week is a good one!

Independent Mail - Postal History Sunday

Welcome to Postal History Sunday!  

I started this week's PHS post more than once and was having a difficult time getting anywhere with it.  I started and stopped on three different topics and just couldn't go much further than loading up an image or two and writing a couple of lines. 

You see, I invite you here to join me as I discuss something I enjoy.  I am hopeful that you will feel comfortable and you will be entertained as you (quite possibly) learn something new or read about something that you might find interesting.  I was forgetting that I should also have some fun with the process.  This is a chance for me (and you) to decompress a little.  So, let's see if I can manage that.

Things I Never Thought I'd See

As a young stamp collector, I remember seeing pictures of items that were interesting - but far beyond what I could ever hope to own.  Part of the issue was that I was a typical young collector in that I wanted everything.  It was exciting and interesting to explore everything you could possibly find in the hobby.  The other problem, of course, was that spending 25 cents for one item was a big deal. 

There were a few pictures of older (and more valuable than 25 cents) stamps in the beginner stamp albums most kids worked with.  Things like the "Black Jack," a United Stamps issue of 1863 that shows an over-large representation of Andrew Jackson.  

You can imagine how I felt when I finally was able to have one of these in my own collection years later.

I recently had the opportunity to acquire another such item and I thought I would share that with you today.

The Pile of Envelopes Stamp

Another very odd item that got my attention early was this octagon-shaped design that depicted a pile of letters.  You see, most of the older stamps showed a bunch of "old dead guys" and here was something that was very different from other stamps that were created in the 1800s to pay for mail.

No, the item shown above is not mine.  I just grabbed this image from a presentation file I have on the topic of this particular issue so I could illustrate the design.

Over the years, as I started paying attention to postal history (instead of just the stamps) I began to realize that this was probably not something I was going to add to my collection.  Pieces of mail with this stamp just didn't show up all that often, and when they did...   Well, my budget was going to go elsewhere for the hobby.

But, this December, there was an auction of material being offered where there was not just one, but hundreds of lots featuring this design.  One individual had been accumulating and studying these for some time, ultimately writing the definitive work on the topic (an excellent work by Michael Gutman).  The time had come for him to part with the collection - which meant there was actually an opportunity for me to *maybe* pick one up at a price I could afford.  After all, this was an advantageous supply vs demand situation.  The supply of these stamps on letters available for purchase was probably going to never be higher and the demand was not sufficient to keep prices high.

Long story short - I was able to pick one up!

Hale and Company - Independent Mail Company

James W. Hale created a network of private post offices and mail delivery routes in 1843 centered around New York and Boston.  Hale had this stamp design created in 1844, printing them in sheets of twenty.  Patrons could purchase a single stamp for 6 cents, which would pay for mail service between Hale's offices.  To encourage repeat business, a person could buy a whole sheet of 20 stamps for one dollar (5 cents per stamp).  

To put this in perspective, the first United States Postal Service stamp was issued in 1847.  The British had issued their first stamp in 1840.  Printing stamps to show payment for services was still a very new thing and Hale was very much on the forefront of this innovation.

Below is the item I was able to acquire for my own collection.  All I was looking for was a presentable example.  I was perfectly happy to let others bid on the host of other items with more 'going for them.'

This folded letter was sent by Susan G Spooner of New Bedford, Massachusetts to Augustus H Gardner in Boston on July 12, 1844.  The blue stamp with the "NB" pen marking showed payment for the 6 cents required to get the letter from New Bedford to Boston.  It did NOT pay for delivery directly to Mr. Gardner.  It is likely that it was picked up at the Hale & Company offices in Boston.

The distance traveled was a little over 50 miles, so a similar letter sent via the US Postal Services of the time would have been 10 cents (for distances over 30 miles and up to 80 miles).  A four cent difference (and perhaps 5 cents if Ms. Spooner bought a whole sheet of stamps) was not inconsiderable in 1844.

While a person could certainly write in much more detail about Hale & Company, I'm going to keep it short - which would be in keeping with the relatively short period that these stamps were used to show payment for carriage by Hale's independent mails.  Congress passed new laws that were enacted on July 1, 1845 that reduced postage to 5 cents for distances up to 300 miles and made it unlawful for alternate postal services to operate as Hale's had done. 

A Run-On Letter

The entire letter is present, with a couple of holes that make it hard to read a few words.  Apparently Susan Spooner wrote as she talked and she randomly applied punctuation as it suited her taste.  I have added some punctuation to increase readability... I think.  Feel free to click on the image below to get a taste of what the letter is like.

----------------Letter transcript--------------------

New Bedford.  July 12 1844

My dear Augustus:
It is so warm today that I cannot settle myself down to any regular employment, and am going to throw myself upon your kindness whilst I indulge in a short tete-a-tete with your humble self.  Although I have not yet received an answer to my last epistle which was sent just two weeks ago this day.  But I suppose every moment of your time is occupied in your studies, as your final examination comes off next month.  Tell me what day so that my thoughts may be with you, if I am not there in proper persona.  "The Ship" has at last arrived, but where we shall start on our journey is yet quite uncertain.  It may possibly be week after next.  The route which we now propose going is first to Boston, thence to Springfield, Hartford and then toward adjoining down the Connecticut to New York.  Then, up the Hudson to West Point and Saratoga Springs, perhaps to Niagara.  Though we have not decided on that yet ??? it be delightful.  I wish you could be of the party.  Our stay in Boston will be very short, which I shall very much regret as I always enjoy myself so much there, or I should say I have of late, but I hope you will come and see us.  Remember that when you get to New York that it will a much longer time that we shall not see each other than it is now.  And do you (know) that is now nearly eight months?  But I suppose that time with you passes very swiftly you have so much to do that you sometimes forget that you have a friend in New Bedford until she forces herself upon your memory by a letter.
     Be that as it may she would very much prefer intruding herself into your presence and having a real old fashioned talk.  Why I should talk you blind in half an hour.  I have so much to say and so many questions to ask you so you had better be preparing yourself for my visit.
     Mr Tarbell has been making us a visit.  He arrived in town last Friday and left on Tuesday and what do you think, he did not call on me until the day he left.  Isn't it melancholy?  But I think I know the reason why he did not come before and I think to he knows what I thought of his calling at to late an hour.  He will not trouble me much more.  I met him at a party the evening he came and he seemed delighted to see me.  And afterwards I met him at a dancing party and we danced and waltzed together and were very good friends.  He acted very strangely for there was no consistency in his doings.  I guess he is an odd fellow.  He told me that he liked New Bedford so much that he was coming down to spend the month of August.  What an honor he is conferring upon us.  I hope we shall be able to appreciate it.  Mr. Currier has left ?? and gone on to one of the wharves??  I was very glad to hear it for it seems to me rather small?? business, a man of his years.  Clerk in a dry goods establishment.  How unlike he and Tarbell are, but I believe they are neither of them great favourites of yours, so I will say no more about them only that if you knew Mr. C you could not help liking him or else you would be unlike every one else who has his acquaintance.  I mean gentlemen of course.
     Do you know that is just a year this month that I was in Boston and that our acquaintance commenced which has now ripened with friendship.  Had you told me then that a year from that time I should be writing you I should have thought it the most absurd thing possible as you know what my views on that subject was then.  But I have cause to be truly grateful that I have overcome those foolish notions.  My enjoyment has been so great ?? in receiving your kind letters which are always filled with entertaining matter and kind feelings that it seems to me, without them time would have passed on leaden wings.  I ?? that I fully appreciate your kindness and wish that I was more worthy of them but you know we are never satisfied so I have a new request to make. which is that you keep a journal and send it o me every Saturday with a postscript..... I shall expect one next Saturday.  Send it by Hale & Co's Independent Mail, which I shall patronize altogether.
    Your friend ??? Shepherd I met at a party this week.  She was looking very pretty.  I thought of you and wanted to ask her some questions about you but did not dare to as I am but slightly acquainted with her.  I am sorry to say that she is carrying on a great flirtation with a Mr. Williams of ? town.  You had better be looking after her.  Young girls that have too much beauty as she has it is dangerous to leave them.  Have you seen any of the Dr's family lately?  I should like to see Sophia, she is a disappointed woman.  Her situation in life and everything is so entirely different from what she wished that I pity her very much.  How can she be happy with such a husband?  Why I should rather be buried alive than live with such a man.  He is so cold and forbidding in his manners that there is no pleasure in his society.  I should very much prefer that my husband should be ? fond of society than be as he is.  But I have no patience to talk about this so I will stop now and begin to think a little more of you so as not to quite exhaust your patience as I fear it will be if I make this poor apology for a letter much longer. 
     Do write me soon for it seems an age since I heard from you and besides if we start on our journey as soon as we expect to I shall write you a third letter before hearing from you.  I will take that back for I don't think I should if you could not write me I should not think that you would care about knowing of my being in B (oston) so it depends upon you whether you receive that intelligence.
And now believe me sincerely . your friend. Susan

Susan G Spooner to Augustus H Gardener
dated  July 12, 1844
rec'd July 13th
Ans(wered) 31st

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Augustus appears to have written (as a docket on the letter) the pertinent dates for this correspondence, which was a common practice for the time.   Perhaps we shall never know if Susan took it poorly that Augustus waited over two weeks to respond to her letter.  Did she meet him in Boston?  Was he, perhaps, more interested in his flirtatious, pretty friend who appeared to be attracted to Mr. Williams?  Or maybe, he was just busy trying to pass his exams.

I hope you enjoyed today's entry in the Postal History Sunday archives.  Be well everyone!

Tell 'em Where to Go - Postal History Sunday

Welcome to the first Postal History Sunday of 2021!  We hope you take the opportunity to enjoy learning something new - or at least you like to be entertained by a person who thoroughly enjoys their hobby.  Either way, this isn't a half bad way to spend a few moments of your day.

So, let's get to it!

What's a "Docket?"

Postal historians and postal history collectors often reference docketing on various mail pieces, which can take various forms.  Docketing would be some sort of handwriting on the letter or piece of mail that either provides record-keeping functions for the recipient OR directives for the postal services.

 For example, the item above shows lots and LOTS of docketing.  

The writing that runs sideways on the left side of the envelope would be filing notes by the recipient.  George Atkinson, Esq, a lawyer by trade, probably did what many at the time did - they filed documents and stored them in the envelope they came in.  To provide for easy reference, they recorded the date and origin of the contents, a brief summary AND the date the letter was received in their office (May 9, 1866).  It just so happens this date matches the London marking showing in red towards the top.

This method of filing is part of the reason postal historians have as much material to collect as they do.  It also explains why many of the same addressees keep showing up on these pieces of mail.

The other handwriting on the front of this letter includes the address AND some directional docketing at the lower left.  This docket reads:

"per Cunard Steamer Asia from Boston April 25"

At least - that's what the writer was hoping when they mailed the letter.  It turns out - if you read the New York marking in red at the right side - that it left New York on April 28 on a steamer that was NOT the Asia.  We'll get back to that in a bit!

Success and Failure in Directional Dockets

If you look long enough, you can find all kinds of docketing on the mail that clearly were meant to try to direct the post office with varying degrees of success.  Take the item below for example.

The docket "per Steamer" at the top left could have meant one of three things. 

1. There was more than one option for mail to go from Worcester to Boston
2. The writer thought there was some other option than a steamship to cross the Atlantic
3. The writer just wanted to write "per Steamer" on the envelope

I can tell you that Worcester, Mass is just west of Boston and there are no streams that would have had steamers plying between the two locations.  I am pretty certain a train or a coach carried the letter to the Boston foreign mail office.  I am ALSO quite certain that the letter rode on a steamship (a Cunard Line ship) to cross the Atlantic.  In fact, there really wasn't another way that mail would do so at the time.  So, you could argue that the person who wrote this wasted ink on the docket.

In their defense, it had not been that many years that steamships were the primary mode of transportation across the seas.  The person writing could very well still remember the days that most ships went by sail, not steam engine.  They might even have experienced a time when you would WANT to indicate that you wanted it to go by a steamship rather than one that went under sail and you had to say so on your letter.

The item below, shows some successful direction given by a docket:

The words "via Panama" very clearly directed the post office in San Francisco to put it on a steamer that would go down the coast to Panama.  The letter then would go overland at the isthmus and then board another steamer to New York on the eastern shore of the isthmus.  There was, in fact, another alternative since overland routes were now in use from California.  By 1863, most letter mail went overland by default.  So, if a letter writer preferred the steamship via Panama, they had to indicate that preference as this person did here.

The question is, of course, "why did this person want this to go on the slower route?"  We may never know this answer for certain.  But, perhaps the sender had heard enough about mail coach robberies that they did not want to risk that with this mail item?  Maybe there was a known weather issue that was going to delay overland mail?  Whatever the case, this is a time when the directive was followed - even if it was going to result in slower transit of the mail item.

And here is another successful routing docket.  This one reads "by the Persia Aug 24 in New York."  Unfortunately for the postal historian (me), there are no contents in the letter and there is no originating postmark, so I cannot tell for certain where this item was mailed from in the United States.  Clearly, it DID go through New York and it DID leave on a ship from New York on August 24 (yes, it was the Persia).  So, you could say that the docket worked - it went where the writer wanted it to go based on that agreement.

Did They Need Dockets by the 1860s?

By the time we get to letters in the 1860s, the need for writers to include directional docketing had been greatly reduced - though there were times when it was still necessary.  As far as mail from the United States to England, the postal service had a pretty good system for getting letters to the earliest departing steamship - there was very little a directional docket would do that would improve that.

As long as the letter above was mailed on time for that New York departure, it was going to take the earliest departing ship even without the docket.

But, the letter below actually has a somewhat useful docket!

The docket "via Liverpool" at top left could be construed as a directive to put the letter on one of the shipping lines that went through Liverpool - but it actually did more than that.  You see, the Cunard Line would stop at Cork, Ireland and offload mail for England there.  It would then go by rail, cross the water from Kingston to Holyhead, and then on to London by rail.  

Because this item was headed to Scotland, the writer indicated that it should stay on the ship until it got to Liverpool the next day.  From there it would go to Glasgow.

But, again, there is a question as to exactly how useful the docket might be because the mail volume to the United Kingdom was sufficient that mail to Scotland could have been placed into its own mailbag.  If that were the case, it would take the most efficient route to Scotland without needing the docket.  Once more, this is a case where we see mail handling in the process of change.  Dockets were once fairly critical in directing the mail and they are becoming less important as the amount of mail increases and the procedures become more refined.

Back to the Original Cover

Here we are - back at the original item with the docket claiming the letter should go to Boston and leave on the Cunard Steamer Asia on April 25 (Wednesday).  But, clearly, it left New York on a steamer that Saturday (April 28).

The reason for the delay is simple.  The writer did not make it to the post office in time to get the mail to Boston and the departure of the Asia.  The post office simply sent the item to New York, where the next ship was scheduled to sail across the Atlantic.

But, here is the problem for the post office.  The writer makes a claim by saying the letter was to leave Boston on April 25.  The post office provides themselves evidence that it is not THEIR problem by putting the "Too Late" marking on the envelope.  "Hey, George Atkinson.  I don't care what the guy who wrote this says - he didn't get it to us in time for that ship.  Take it up with him!"

This illustrates a bit more about why dockets were still routinely placed on letters.  It could often serve as attempt to provide evidence of timeliness during an era when it took ten to twelve days to cross the Atlantic - and a missed ship could add three more days to the wait!

And there you are!  The first Postal History Sunday of 2021.  I hope you have a great remainder of the weekend and the coming week treats you and yours well.

And here's a docket for this post:  I wrote this on January 2, 2021 and you get to read it on January 3 (or later)!