Turn, Turn, Turn - Postal History Sunday

Welcome to this week's edition of Postal History Sunday on the GFF Postal History Blog!

Take those troubles and worries and put them in the middle of a book you know has a dull spot around page 212 that you normally skip over.  Don't we all have one of those that we read the introduction and get about half-way and we find we just want to skip to the end?  Really, there is no reason to feel guilty as we have read that section once and we can be forgiven if we skipped a few words even the first time because they were not really speaking to us.  And, if you are the sort to re-read books, you know the rules are different - read what you want and skip the pages around 212.  You have more motivation to do so because you know your worries are tucked safely between those pages!

Two Addresses, Two Stamps, Two Postmarks?

So, we'll start this week's Postal History Sunday with a circular that was sent in 1865 from Etna, New York to Dryden, New York and to Edward Welsh.  If you look on the lower half of the folded letter you will see the very light Etna postmark dated April 7, 1865.  There is a 2 cent stamp depicting Andrew Jackson that paid the 2 cent fee for an unsealed circular.

The letter met the requirements for a circular and its cheaper postage rate because it was left open so the postal clerk could check for a personal note.  Also, the content was pre-printed except for a few hand-written things that were allowed by the regulations of the time.*

The curious thing about the item?  Well, there happens to be ANOTHER 2 cent stamp paying the 2 cent circular rate where Mr. Welsh mailed the item from Dryden on April 10 back to the Town Clerk at Etna.  To avoid confusion, he crossed out his name and address.

*for further discussion - see addendum at end of this blog

So, what was Mr. Welsh returning to Etna?  This is a signature confirmation form where Mr. Welsh was accepting the position of "Overseer of Highways for District No. 143."  Postal laws of the time allowed for such signature confirmations to be an unsealed circular, even though there was hand writing in addition to the printed matter.  The handwriting only consisted of signatures, a date and a district number.  There was no personal message included, which would have disqualified it for the special rate.

This certainly makes sense that Welsh would simply use the paper that required his signature and mail it back by re-addressing the letter and adding appropriate postage.  Why waste the paper and put it in an envelope?  Doing so might even require that he pay an extra penny for the 3 cent letter mail rate - something I'm sure he didn't want to do.  After all, what compensation do you think a Overseer of the Highways would receive in 1865?

By the time we reach 1865, the development and upkeep of turnpikes were on the decline.  The principle of a turnpike was that private companies would undertake the building of a road, and by doing so, they would have the right to collect tolls.  This site provides a short and interesting history of the Great Western Turnpike in New York state.  Of interest is the fact that the story mentions an alternate route the locals often used to avoid the toll road - these were often referred to as "shunpikes."  (and now you know)

I mention this because I found some record of a couple of attempts to create turnpikes through Dryden.  One in 1836 (the Norwich and Ithaca Turnpike) and another in 1816 (the Homer and Genoa Turnpike).  It is unclear to me if either were completed or active in Etna in 1865.  That said, overseers of highways, whether they were turnpikes or publicly funded roadways, were often farmers who might contract to oversee the maintenance of a section of road.  There might be several such positions for any given township. 

 An interesting short history of road development and turnpikes in the United States can be found at the link for those who want to learn more.

The Concept of a "Turned" Cover

Each of the items I am showing today are examples of what a postal historian would call a "turned cover."  The concept is pretty simple.  An item was mailed with an initial address and then the same letter or envelope was modified to allow for it to be sent on to a different address.  

What we see next is actually an envelope that was unsealed completely and then refolded and re-glued.  The original postal address and stamp were on the INSIDE of the envelope and the second use was on the outside.  An astute collector noticed this and slit the sides open so a person could easily see each side.

This envelope was clearly another unsealed circular (2 cent rate) mailed from Trenton, New Jersey on May 22, 1868 and received, apparently, the next day at Brandon, Vermont.  The printed corner card (that's the red ink printing at the upper right) is for John A. Roebling in Trenton.  It turns out that this was a company (John A Roebling & Sons) that made wire rope which later went on to building suspension bridges.  They made the cables for the George Washington Bridge connecting New York and New Jersey and the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.

The docketing may pertain to some sort of business dealing by the addressee E.D. Selden of Brandon, but I cannot be certain.

Selden must not have been a wasteful sort, because when they needed an envelope, they deconstructed this one and essentially folded it inside out, re-gluing it and remailing it with a 3 cent stamp for the letter rate.  It was sent on to M.F. Blake Esq. of South Barton, Vermont.  The "Esq." typically indicates that the addressee advertised as a lawyer.

According to the History of Rutland County, Vermont, Vol 1, E.D. Selden had been the owner of the Selden Quarry (1849-1864).  But, we cannot be sure if this E.D. Selden after he had sold the quarry or if this is one of Selden's offspring with the same initials.

Turned Covers Aren't Always Neatly Opened

As you can imagine, not every piece of postal history comes out of the process of doing its job (carrying the mail) unscathed!  How often have you opened mail, only to tear it into a an unsightly mess?  After all, you aren't thinking that someone might like to collect that useless envelope in the future, right?

Now, imagine that the envelope served its duty by carrying mail once, was deconstructed, folded inside out, reconstructed and mailed again - only to have someone violently open it that second time around!  That envelope might look a bit like this one does:

Here we have another unsealed circular mailed from an unknown location to Front Royal, Virginia.  The year is likely after the Civil War and I would place it between 1866 and 1869.  The envelope was repurposed and mailed by Thomas W Ashby, Esq at the 3 cent letter rate, being sent from Front Royal to Pattonsburg (VA).  There is likely enough information here to learn more about the correspondents, but that may be for another day.

Paper Scarcity and Paper in Transition

One of the themes you might notice here is that the first mailing of a re-used (or turned) item was typically a printed matter item (an unsealed circular).  A printed matter item was typically mass-produced and several were sent out at one time, accounting for the discounted postage rates enjoyed by such items.  

So, suppose you are Mrs. Eleanor Boles of Mooreland, Ohio and you receive this nice, big envelope from some company mailing a circular to you advertising their wares.  You might not be interested in what they have to offer, but you can certainly use that nice, big envelope!  

In fact, you could mail something that was a bit heavier!  Something that weighed over a half ounce and no more than one ounce, and put six cents of postage on there to send it to Mr. Andrew Daig in Rochester, Pennsylvania. 

The shortage of paper in the Southern states during the Civil War is well-known and often written about.  In fact, there are numerous examples of envelopes being made out of wall paper in the South at that time.  These, and turned covers, are often referred to as "adversity covers" in that context.  

But, there was even more at play here.  Up until this point, most paper was made of ragstock (rags), which was a bit more expensive and becoming harder to come by.  On the other hand, the mid 1800s shows the rapid growth of the paper industry that used wood pulp as the basis for paper (the first machine credited to be able to do this was developed in 1844).

At the same time, postage rates were being decreased by many nations to support the use of postal services by the general public.  In the United States, the event of the Civil War found more people desperate to communicate with loved ones separated by conflict.  The demand for paper and envelopes for mail was increasing.

Then, you add the normal shortages that happen when there is a conflict and you either have people unwilling to pay the price for paper products or people unable to easily get said paper products.  Whether it was for the purpose of scrimping and saving or lack of access, we will never know - but we still get two stories for the price of one when we find a turned cover!

---------------------------

Thank you for joining me for this week's Postal History Sunday!  I hope you learned something new and that you were entertained while I shared something I enjoy.  

If you would like to read a bit more about the history of paper in the United States, I found this article:

The Press, Paper Shortages, and Revolution in Early America by Roger Mellen

Roger Mellen (2015) The Press, Paper Shortages, and Revolution in EarlyAmerica, Media History, 21:1, 23-41, DOI: 10.1080/13688804.2014.983058

Have a good remainder of the weekend and a great week to come!

Addendum

The United States Postal Act of 1863 (March 3 - effective April 1), set several new regulations for the carriage of mail in the United States.  Among those things was the new definition of mailable matter and third-class mail.  One sub-class of third-class mail was the "transient circular."  These were pre-printed mailings that were not regularly scheduled as a newspaper or other subscribed material might be.  The rate was 2 cents for up to three circulars to the same address.

Section 24 of this act reads:

Mailable matter, wholly or partly in writing, or so marked as to convey further information than is conveyed in the original print, in case of printed matter, or sent in violation of the law ... shall be subject to letter postage.

In other words, an item would qualify for the reduced postage rates for printed matter UNLESS additional writing was included that extended the original message.

So, a penciled note in the margin that said, "Doing well at the farm, Martha fell into a well yesterday though," would result in the requirement for letter-rate postage.  On the other hand, the pre-printed form shown with the first turned cover was allowed because only specific filled in details (date, district number and signatures) were included.  All writing was to fulfill the function of the form and no additional messaging was applied.

On the other hand, I am pretty certain that if someone returned an order form with their order filled in, it would require letter postage.  All in all, it was part of the evolving interpretation of postmasters for what met requirements and what did not.