Forward! and The Mystery of Joseph Cooper - Postal History Sunday

Well, here you are!  Viewing the 158th entry of Postal History Sunday, a weekly blog written by me, Rob Faux, so I can share something I enjoy - postal history.  

It is not required that you know much about postal history to enjoy these articles and you are also quite welcome if you do know a lot about postal history.  My goal is to write in a way that makes the topic accessible and enjoyable for as many people as I possibly can.  I do take feedback and I am willing to answer questions.  I will even try to explain things several different ways if my first choice of words leave you confused or unsatisfied!

This week is actually a continuation of last week's entry titled "Forward!"  While it is not necessary that you read that blog to understand this one, you certainly can if you want to.  Either way, take those troubles and put them in a blender and set it on high.  They won't be recognizable when you're done with that.  Grab a snack and a favorite beverage and let's see if we can learn something new today!

More Forwarded Mail

As I mentioned last week, the problem with people moving around from one location to another is not a new problem for postal services.  And, it is not difficult to find examples of mail that was sent successfully to one location only to find that the recipient had moved on.  If there were instructions for sending the mail to a new location, then that letter could be forwarded through the postal services.

Postal historians use the general term redirected mail for any postal item that had it's routing changed in the process of getting from its origin to the eventual destination (wherever that may be).  This could include mail that was routed around a battle zone or a natural disaster.  Another example of redirected mail would be a letter that was delivered to the wrong address by the postal service and they had to work to remedy that problem by taking it to the correct location.

Forwarded mail is a special case of redirected mail.  To qualify, the item had to be delivered to the correct post office for the address, only to find that the recipient was not there.  At that point, the options are limited by whether a new address is known.   If it is not, that brings us to other topics, like returned mail or dead letter mail.  But when a location is known and the item is forwarded, there are three different ways I classify them:

1. The letter is forwarded and the extra postage is paid once it gets to the recipient
2. The cost of forwarding is already paid and the letter is sent to the new location without postage due.
3. The postal service offers free forwarding services, so no additional postage was needed.

Postage due on delivery

Our first item illustrates a case where the letter was forwarded to a new location and the postage was due upon delivery.  

This cover was mailed in the mid-1860s from France to Austria.  The postage rate was 60 centimes, which is properly paid by the postage stamps.  All of the markings for a typical, paid letter from France to Austria can be found on this letter.  But, this letter was forwarded to a new location and Austria wanted that postage to be paid.  So, they placed a "5" on the envelope which indicated that 5 kreuzers were due from the recipient once the letter caught up with them.

No postage for local forwarding

 

And here is an example where a letter was actually forwarded to a new location but no additional postage was required.  In this case, the original address (Portman Square) is served by the same office as the new address (Cavendish Square) - both in London.

At the time this letter was mailed (1867), the British Post did require additional postage for forwarding if the new address was serviced by a different post office.  The marking just under and to the left of the postage stamp that is shaped like a ring (with an "R" inside) was an indicator that the letter was redirected for free.

If you'd like to see more about this item and see other items that did require postage, you might enjoy the Postal History Sunday titled With This Ring.

Free forwarding of the mail

 
Eventually, mail forwarding became a free service in most postal systems.  Shown above is a 1935 letter that was sent from Brooklyn, New York, to a ship due to land at San Juan, Puerto Rico.  The sender was clearly aware that the recipient might have already departed the ship by the time the letter arrived and provided an address for forwarding.  Sure enough, Mrs. Rosemary Rabus had left the ship.  The original address was crossed out and the letter was sent to the second address provided.

The second address was the General Delivery window in the Juana Diaz post office. Anyone could come to the post office to check if they had mail to be picked up via General Delivery, but there was always a danger that a person would not necessarily know to go there.  In this case, it seems that the sender and the recipient (likely related and probably married) were both aware of the plan.

No mystery for Lionel Sheldon

And now we bring back one of our covers from last week.  This was our example of a simple letter that was forwarded and the cost of forwarding was expected to be paid at the new destination.  Initially mailed on September 4 at the Hamilton, Ohio post office, the Cleveland post office forwarded the letter to Elyria, Ohio.  The Cleveland postal worker put a "Due 3" marking on the envelope to make it clear to the postmaster there that three cents in postage were to be collected on delivery.

I ran out of time last week to share a bit of the social history that surrounds this particular item.  The letter is addressed to a "Mrs. Col. Lionel Sheldon," and it was sent care of "Horace Kelley, Esq."  Pencil markings show that the letter was forwarded to Elyria, care of "I.L. Cole."

The "Mrs. Col." was the spouse of Lionel Sheldon.  Formerly Mary Greene Miles, she had married Sheldon in 1858 at the age of 17.  Her father was a merchant in Elyria, so it is not surprising that she might have gone there to visit.  This might have been especially true if Lionel were away due to his involvement in the Civil War.

Unfortunately, the contents of the letter are no longer with the envelope, so we can't confirm who the letter was from or what it was about.  Similarly, there is not much written about Mary, though there is reference to her "officiating at the White House" because President Garfield's wife was in poor health.  On the other hand, a great deal can be learned about Lionel Sheldon.

image from Library of Congress

Lionel Allen Sheldon (1829 - 1917) was born in New York and raised on a farm in Ohio.  He attended Oberlin College and law-school, being admitted to the bar (becoming a lawyer) in 1851 and settled in Elyria where he most likely met Mary.  In addition to being a judge of probate, he was strongly involved in politics, supporting John C. Fremont at the Republican convention in 1856.  He was also involved in recruiting for the Federal armed forces at the beginning of the Civil War.  He had reached the rank of colonel in 1862, commanding the 42nd Ohio infantry (after serving as Lt. Col. under Garfield).

Sheldon was wounded in the Battle of Port Gibson (May 1863), but he recovered to participate in the Siege at Vicksburg (mid May to early July 1863).  The conflict at Thompson's Hill (Port Gibson) is likely where he took his wound.  A first hand account indicated that "[t]he heaviest loss by any regiment in our brigade was in the 42d Ohio, who had about seventy killed and wounded." (account by Cpl Theodore Wolbach, May 1, 1863) 

Map found in the book The Forty-Second Ohio Infantry - A History of the Organization and Services of That Regiment in the War of the Rebellion, 1876 - F. H. Mason, Cobb, Andrews & Co., Publishers and reproduced here.

By the time we get to 1864, Sheldon was in Louisiana where he was a brevetted brigadier general of volunteers, supervising repairs of levees and fort structures.  He settled in New Orleans and was able to take up his legal practice again starting at the end of 1864.  It is about that time (perhaps earlier) that we can assume Mary might have been able to rejoin him.  So, we can make a guess that this letter to Mary was sent in 1863 or 1864, perhaps as early as 1862.  However, most evidence points to 1863.

Sheldon would serve as a US Representative in Congress from 1869-75 for Louisiana, returning to Ohio in 1879 to help forward James Garfield's cause to become President.  In 1881, President Garfield named Sheldon Governor of New Mexico territory.

And, as far as Horace Kelley is concerned, he too is a name we can track easily.  He was a part of a family with strong ties to early Cleveland history.  He was married to Fanny Miles, who was also from Elyria, Ohio.  This gives us some of the connections we need to understand why Mary Sheldon might have been visiting the Kelleys - and why Horace might have been receiving mail addressed to her.  

So, did you catch the little tricky fact that links these two men?  Lionel's wife was Mary Miles.  Horace's was ... Fanny Miles.  

The Mystery of Joseph Cooper

That brings us to this folded letter that we also showed last week.  This letter was mailed in June of 1866 to Dubuque, Iowa.  It was forwarded to Washington, D.C., where Colonel H.H. Heath was then stationed.  As of July 1, 1866, forwarding of mail no longer required additional postage, so this would have been forwarded for free anyway.  But, because Heath was in the military, this letter would have qualified for free forwarding even before July 1.

But, while the postal history part of this item is interesting, it's the contents of the folded letter that grabbed my attention the most.

The letter is datelined June 27th, 1866 from Box 535 in Madison, Wisconsin.

Sir,

    I take the liberty of addressing you, on behalf of Mrs. Joseph Cooper, a highly respectable lady of this city, who is, with a family of six young children, in great sorrow and distress.

    Her husband, Mr. Joseph Cooper, a medical man by profession, served in the 7th Iowa Cavalry, as Veterinary Surgeon, or Medical Assistant, down to the month of December last, since which time she has not heard from him; and she is ignorant whether he is alive or dead.

    Mr. [Orville] Buck, who states that he served in the same regiment, has informed Mrs. Cooper that her husband, in a somewhat excited state, left Fort Laramie on Christmas night last.  I have therefore to request the favor of your informing me, if in your power, whether Mr. Cooper afterwards returned to the regiment, and whether he was duly mustered out, or is absent without leave, and what has become of him, if you happen to know anything of whereabouts.

    Your early compliance with this application will be an act of real kindness to a worthy woman and very interesting family, and will be a favor to,

Yours most respectfully, Wm Petherick, Justice of the Peace.

Now, imagine you were Mrs. Joseph Cooper.  Your husband is part of the 7th Iowa Cavalry and you haven't heard from him for many months.  Then you hear from an individual who apparently was in the same company that your spouse left Fort Laramie, Wyoming - at night - at a time of year when temperatures were rarely above the freezing mark.

Yes, I think we would all have been worried.

Map from Wyoming history site.

Beginning with the Lakota Uprising in Minnesota (1862), tensions between Native American nations and the United States continued to increase.  The opening of the Bozeman Trail, which traveled through Nebraska and Wyoming - taking people west to Oregon - was seen as an incursion into prime buffalo hunting lands that had been recognized as belonging to the Lakota.  The Lakota, with their allies the Arapaho and Northern Cheyenne stood in opposition to the development of the trail and the establishment of forts, settlements and telegraph lines along that route.

If you take this link to a piece written by Doug Fisk and hosted by the Fort Kearny Historic site, you can get some of the feel for what it might have been like for members of the 7th Iowa Cavalry.  In this work, Fisk quotes Alson Ostrander who was posted to Fort Reno as a clerk in 1866.

     “As we got farther into the Indian country, I found that the enthusiasm for the wilds of the West I had gained from ... dime novels gradually left me.  The zeal to be at the front to help my comrades subdue the savage Indians ... also was greatly reduced.  My courage had largely oozed out while I listened to the blood-curdling tales the old-timers recited.

        “But I was not alone in this feeling.  When we got into the country where the Indian attacks were likely to happen any moment, I found that every other person in the outfit, including our seasoned scouts, was exercising all the wit and caution possible to avoid contact with the noble red man.  Instead of looking for trouble and a chance to punish the ravaging Indians, the whole command was trying to get through without a fight.  Our little force we knew would be at a serious disadvantage should old Red Cloud sweep down on us with his horde of angry warriors.”

The 7th Iowa Cavalry's history is described at the IAGenWeb site and provides opportunities to get an idea of where Joseph Cooper might have been while serving and what he might have had to deal with.  Six companies of the 7th Iowa marched from eastern Iowa to Omaha in July of 1863 under the command of Major H.H. Heath, who is our addressee for the folded letter as Colonel H.H. Heath.  Additional companies left for Omaha in 1864, apparently taking Joseph Cooper with them.  Once at Omaha, companies and detachments were assigned to different posts throughout Nebraska, Kansas, Dakota and Colorado territories, spreading just over one thousand men over a wide area.

We find Joseph Cooper of Madison, Wisconsin, in Company F, enlisting on January 19, 1864 and mustered just under a month later.  Joseph is listed as having been born in England and was aged 45 years at that time.  It is possible that he was conscripted rather than a volunteer.  The Enrollment Act of 1863 required every male citizen and all immigrants who had filed for citizenship between the ages of 20 and 45 to enroll.  Quotas were then assigned to each state and congressional district.  If a district was behind quota, they could fill the quota by conscription (selecting and requiring members in the enrollment lists to join).

Given Joseph's age and the fact that he had six small children, I imagine that he did not volunteer for service.  It is also likely that he was not affluent enough to avail himself of the commutation option (pay $300 and you don't have to join) and he may not have been willing or able to find someone to take his place.

So what did happen to Joseph Cooper?

Sketch of Fort Laramie, 1867 by Anton Schoenborn in Fort Laramie National Monument by David Heib

And so, we find Joseph Cooper in Fort Laramie on Christmas Day after having served nearly two years.  There had likely been a Christmas celebration as there was in 1866.  He had been away from his family for a long time, may not have volunteered for the job in the first place, and dealt with difficult conditions regularly as part of the 7th.  And... he was looking at just over one more year before he could go home.

Orville Buck saw Cooper leave Fort Laramie in an "excited state."  And Orville Buck did not report to Mrs. Cooper that he witnessed Joseph's return.

Did Joseph Cooper desert his post?  This roster listing suggests that he did so.  Dr. Terry Lindell also chimed in with this information:

Regarding Joseph Cooper, Roster and Record of Iowa Soldiers in the War of the Rebellion, Vol. 4, p. 1283, has this entry for him in Company F, Seventh Iowa Cavalry: "Cooper, Joseph. Age 45. Residence, Madison, Wis., nativity England. Enlisted Jan. 19, 1864. Mustered Feb 5, 1864. Transferred to Company F, Seventh Cavalry Reorganized." Page 1415 lists him in Company F, Seventh Cavalry Reorganized and adds this information: "Deserted Dec. 26, 1865, Fort Laramie, Dak."

What is not clear at this point is whether or not Joseph Cooper was captured, returned or died of exposure not long after leaving Fort Laramie.  It is hard to imagine a situation where he could have survived alone in the elements for long.

At Forest Hill Cemetery in Madison

The FindAGrave website shows this entry for Joseph Cooper (1818 - 1865) that seems to match, listing him as a veterinary surgeon.  His wife, Isabella Waite Cooper (1822 - 1909) and six children also seem to line up with the facts provided in the folded letter that started the search for Joseph Cooper's fate.  Isabella's obituary listed on the FindAGrave site may give us a bit more to the story.

In the passing of Mrs. Isabella Cooper, who died at her home at 1025 West Johnson street Wednesday evening, goes one of the early pioneers and staunch women who added so much to the citizenship of Madison in days gone by. Mrs. Cooper was born in Low Green, near Leeds, England, in June 1822. She was married to Joseph Cooper of Skipton, England, in 1843. Mr. Cooper's profession was that of chemist and druggist. He came to this country in 1843 buying a farm in the town of Fitchburg. The family joined him in 1849 and they lived on this farm for several years, then moved into Madison where they family has lived since, with the exception of the years 1857 and 1858, which were spent on a farm in Sauk county. There were ten children born into this home, six of whom grew to manhood and womanhood, and three of whom survive the mother, Mrs. Mary J. Lamont and Miss Annie Cooper who resided with the mother and Mrs. Fernando Knight of Beloit, Kan.

Wisconsin State Journal
Madison, WI
May 19, 1909

The existence of a grave for Joseph Cooper seems to imply that, perhaps, his body was recovered and returned to Madison.  Or, maybe, the grave was a symbolic gesture to recognize what seemed inevitable.  What does seem clear is that Joseph Cooper never did return home.

And there you go, that's my current best effort for solving the mystery of Joseph Cooper.  I hope you enjoyed it!  Have a great remainder of your day and a fine week to come.

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

Postal History Sunday is published each week at both the Genuine Faux Farm blog and the GFF Postal History blog.  If you are interested in prior entries, you can view them, starting with the most recent, at this location.

Forward! - Postal History Sunday

Welcome to Postal History Sunday!  

I feel like I've been saying this a lot lately, but I've had another busy week.  But, here we are with another PHS for everyone to read.  This week, I'm going to go with a shorter entry that is actually going to lead to next week's PHS!  A series!  So, let's get started, shall we?

A week ago, I had the opportunity to attend the Great American Stamp Show in Cleveland.  While I was there, I enjoyed looking through many pieces of postal history and I was able to identify some that I wanted to add to my own collection.  And, of course, I selected many of these items simply because I could already see that they would work well in a Postal History Sunday!

Today, I wanted to work on the theme of mail that is sent to one location, but the recipient has moved on - for whatever reason.  If the new location of the recipient is known, that letter could be forwarded to the next location.  

But, the rules for forwarding changed over time.  During the 1860s, the period I study the most, there were some definite changes with respect to forwarded mail.

Forwarded mail - the recipient pays at delivery

Shown above is a letter that was likely mailed in September of 1863 or 1864, clearly during the US Civil War, from Hamilton, Ohio.  The original destination was in Cleveland, but the letter was forwarded to Elyria, Ohio.  The cost to mail a letter inside the United States was 3 cents per one half ounce and a three cent stamp paid the cost to mail the letter from Hamilton to Cleveland.  However, forwarding was not free - and three more cents were needed to send the letter from Cleveland to Elyria.

That's where the "Due 3" marking comes in.  Applied in Cleveland, this marking let the postmaster in Elyria know that Mrs. Col. Lionel Sheldon would need to pay three cents when she, or her representative (I.L.Cole) received the letter.

The US Postal Regulations in effect at the time gave instructions in Section 55 for forwarding mail stating that "It is proper to forward a letter when duly requested ... If it has been delivered according to its address, and then forwarded, it must be charged with additional postage ... [which] may be paid either at the forwarding office or the office of delivery."

What we cannot be certain of with respect to this letter is whether the "request" to forward this letter came after it was delivered to Horace Kelley, Esq. or if there was a request on record with the Cleveland postmaster that they were honoring.  And, as far as the postal service was concerned, that didn't really matter.  Either way, the letter was sent on its way on September 5, only one day after it was originally posted in Hamilton.  Either Kelley was very efficient with the request to forward after having the letter placed in his hands or there was already forwarding instructions on file.  I tend to believe the latter if I had to choose.

Forwarding pre-paid

Here's an example where the cost of forwarding a letter was already paid.  Reverend Mr. Willard (Samuel G. Willard) must have arranged for his mail to be forwarded to Burlington, Vermont, care of Rev E. Mix.  In doing so, he appears to have either prepaid or arranged for mail forwarding to be placed on his account by his instructions.  The result was that the Willimantic postmaster applied a second three cent stamp on mail to be forwarded to Rev Willard so it would be paid to the new destination.

Rev Samuel Willard served as a Congregationalist Minister in Willimantic, Connecticut, from November 5, 1849, until September 2, 1868 - a fairly long tenure.  The Congregationalist church makes the claim as the first "place of worship"  established in Willimantic, dedicating a church building in 1828.

This letter, sent from Milford, Connecticut, in July of 1865, would have come at a time when Willard was well established in the First Congregationalist Church of Willimantic.  He might have been visiting his fellow minister, Eldridge Mix, who served at the First Congregationalist Church in Burlington. 

While this letter has no contents remaining in the envelope, we can construct a bit more about it based on the dockets written sideways on the left side of the element.  The docket provides notes for Rev. Willard that the letter was from a Dr. Chas Jewett and was received on July 20, 1865.  That lines up nicely with the Milford July 18 and Willimantic July 19 postmarks.  Willard apparently responded to the letter the next day and also sent a letter to a Rev E.H. Pratt that must have dealt with a related matter.

And then, the rules changed

So, we come to this letter that was mailed on Jun 28, 1866 from Madison, Wisconsin, to Dubuque, Iowa.  The letter was forwarded on from Dubuque on July 9 to Washington, D.C. There is no additional stamp and there is no "due" marking to be seen on this folded letter.  However, if you look at the top left, you will see the words "Forwarded" and "Free."

So, let's give the easy part first.  According to an Act of Congress on June 12, 1866, letters were to be forwarded without additional postage cost.  This new regulation was to take effect on July 1 of that same year.  So, while the letter was initially mailed and likely arrived in Dubuque before the first of July, it was not forwarded until after the first.  So, it qualified for free forwarding.

However, if ALL prepaid mail was to be forwarded for free, why did the Dubuque postal clerk find it necessary to include the extra markings that read "Forwarded" and "Free?"  Isn't that a bit redundant?  

I actually have a possible explanation for this, believe it or not.  On July 24, 1861, a change in the postal laws stated that prepaid letters to soldiers in the service of the United States would be forwarded for free - likely recognizing that said soldiers were going to move around at the behest of the government, so it didn't seem right to charge them additional postage to get their letters.  Therefore, post offices were probably used to pulling out handstamps for free forwarding to alert clerks at the destination office that this special rule applied.

In other words, it was no longer necessary to make the special distinction for letters forwarded to soldiers.  But that doesn't mean the postal clerks were going to break procedures that had become habit that easily.   

Hey... how many of you still write the wrong year on things during the month of January?  For me, it's actually more like February or March when I finally get with the program.  So, I can sympathize.

A teaser for next week

This folded letter actually had contents.  And you know what that means - there's potential for more story!

So, next week, we are actually going to explore both the first and the third items from today's article from their social history perspectives.  The letter shown above is written by a Justice of the Peace on behalf of Mrs. Joseph Cooper, who is looking for her husband - part of the 7th Iowa Cavalry.

Thank you for joining me this week, and I hope to see you next week.  Have a great remainder of your day and a fine week to come!

Three Years - Postal History Sunday

Well everyone, we made it.  Welcome to the third anniversary edition of Postal History Sunday - also known as the 156th entry of the weekly series.  Postal History Sunday is published each week at both the Genuine Faux Farm blog and the GFF Postal History blog.  If you are interested in prior entries, you can view them, starting with the most recent, at this location.   

This week's post is a celebration.  I thought I would share things in the "threes" today to symbolically represent three years of posts.  But before I get started, let me remind you that Postal History Sunday is written to be accessible to anyone who has interest.  There are readers who have expertise in various areas of postal history and others who simply appreciate learning something new, but are not otherwise inclined to dig into the subject.   All of you are welcome and I hope you find something to enjoy.

Let's start with the question, "which three Postal History Sunday's come to mind when someone asks you for blogs you most enjoyed writing?"

Three PHS I enjoyed writing

These were posted in bakeries with suggested guidelines for bread prices.

The Price of Bread is an earlier Postal History Sunday (April 2021) that has a great deal going for it.  First of all, the item that started my interest on the topic didn't look terribly special on the outside, but the contents (shown above) really grabbed my attention.  

This paper was posted in bakeries to show that they were following voluntary price guidelines for bread that were established by the government and based on the price of the grains used to bake bread.  Voluntary price controls was a fairly new situation in France and free trade for bakers was established in France in mid-1863.  Prior to that, there were taxe officielle that set prices for bread and these controls were actually a tool that was used to maintain the peace in France.

Discovery of this item led me to search for other examples and I took great delight in exploring the topic of official and unofficial price controls for bread.  This post is an excellent example of starting with the postal history and using it to explore the social history connected to it.

A triple rate letter from the United States to France

The first one is an example of my writing about an area in postal history (and social history) with which I had less familiarity.  The next one is an illustration of a PHS that features materials and a topic area I know extremely well.  Let's Send a Letter to France (Oct 2022) represents an effort where I feel as if I was able to find some of the best words to explain a relatively complex topic - mail from the United States to France in the 1860s.   

This time around, the focus for me was entirely on word choice, topic ordering and illustrations.  I did not have to also manage a research process at the same time I was navigating the writing of the blog.  I can truly say that this blog was a joy to write because it was a celebration of years of learning and accumulated experience that I had an opportunity to share with anyone who felt like reading it.   

My third example of an article I really enjoyed writing is the offering titled Did Garibaldi Delay the Mail? (Nov 2022) that featured an exploration of the cover shown above.  This particular cover has been a long-term puzzle for me as I have sought the best explanation for why it doesn't seem to follow the patterns shown by other covers from the US to Rome during the same time period.

This particular entry afforded me a chance to put into words where my research had taken me.  The effort of trying to explain the problem and present the surrounding information was incredibly valuable to me as I continued to dig into the problems presented by this cover.  The conclusions I share there may not be my absolute final solution, but I feel much better about those conclusions after the effort required to write this Postal History Sunday.

Three tidbits I take ridiculous amounts of pleasure in having discovered them for a Postal History Sunday

There is an island near Bingen where an old tower still stands - and it bears the name Mäuseturm - which is translated as "the Mouse Tower."  This name may actually be a alteration of the name based on a High German word that made reference to this being a watchtower.

In the present day, is known for its connection to a legend that features the Archbishop of Mentz who treated the peasantry cruelly, murdering many of the poor to prevent them from eating too much of the food that was in short supply.  Archbishop Hatto fled to this tower to escape an army of mice, who pursued him there - he was then devoured by the mice as God's judgement for his wicked ways.

This little piece of information in Dominoes (Jan 2022) has become my "go-to" odd fact when someone asks me for an example of strange things I have discovered as I research Postal History Sunday entries, but it's not the only one.

To give you a bit of background, my Bachelor's Degree is in Mathematics and Computer Science.  So, imagine my geeky delight when I discovered that the recipient of the letter featured in Foolish Desire (Feb 2023), Erastus DeForest, is credited with the initial discovery of the chi-square distribution (for those who know some statistics).  Four of his papers (published from 1866 to 1871) are listed in this Catalog of Scientific Papers compiled by the Royal Society of London 1877 (vol VII). 

And finally, one more factoid that I still take delight in learning as I researched Night Flight (Apr 2023).

Postmaster General Harry S New indicated that the US Post Office was aware that night flying was going to be necessary in his 1923 Report of the Postmaster General, signalling a new trans-Continental schedule that included night flying to begin on July 1, 1924.  Beacon lights were installed along the route from Chicago to Cheyenne, Wyoming every three miles to guide the pilots in the section of the route scheduled to be flown at night.  

If you have ever been in the country and well away from towns or cities, you might have an idea how dark it can get.  Now imagine trying to fly a plane at night without any light to guide you.

Three covers I actually acquired because I wanted to write a Postal History Sunday about them

As a rule, I have always had an attraction to items that I think will have an interesting story to tell.  But, I will readily admit that I have added a couple of items to my own collection because I wanted to research and write a Postal History Sunday about it.  The great news about that is, a great story doesn't necessarily require a huge price tag!

Shown above is an example of an item that attracted my attention because of the potential story I could uncover.  The key is the part of the address that reads "Friends Ambulance Unit" (FAU) and I was able to write the PHS entry titled Friends in Need (May 2022).  While I actually acquired this before I was writing Postal History Sunday, I did pick it up because I saw the potential.  

J.R. Little was among those involved in the FAU from its very beginning, and he coordinated acquiring and delivering resources to the FAU across the English Channel providing care for the wounded in World War I.  An old envelope providing a window into a much bigger story is something I really enjoy.

Unlike the first cover, the one shown above was picked up specifically because I wanted to write a Postal History Sunday about it.  And, in fact, it only took me a couple of weeks to accomplish that task.  

Quarantine! (Aug 2022) is an article where I was able to do some detective work to ascertain that the writer was Dr. John Swinburne, who was appointed to the post of Health Officer for the Port of New York in March of 1864 - one month prior to the sending of this particular letter.  The Health Officer was responsible for the Quarantine Station and the processes of quarantining and dealing with persons arriving at the port who were suffering from infectious disease.

Then there is this flashy item that had a connection to my home state and the railroad company that I saw frequently as it maintained a schedule through my home town as I grew up.  It was very inexpensive, but the personal connection motivated me to purchase it and hunt down the story behind it.

Trains of Thought (Dec 2022) was refreshing because it was simply fun.  It's a good example of the balance I am hoping I can manage to maintain over time with Postal History Sunday.  Sometimes it can be enjoyable to really get into the details of postal history (rates, routes, etc) and other times it's better to keep the topic lighter.  Remember, I am hoping people with all levels of interest in postal history can find something to enjoy here.

The three most popular Postal History Sundays

I have had people ask me periodically how much traffic Postal History Sunday gets.  My answer is that online metrics have real limitations when it comes to translating visits to actual readership levels.  But, you can get a sense for overall trends and which articles have gotten the most attention.

According to the metrics supplied by Blogger, here are the three most visited Postal History Sunday entries!

1. Up, Up and Away
2. Business, Madness and Social Betterment
3. Thurn and Taxis

These are all entries from 2021, which does not mean there were more readers at that time than there is now.  Remember, once an article is published, it is available to be read from that point on.  So, it makes sense that older posts have more visits - especially if there are links from newer Postal History Sundays (or other places on the internet) that point to them.

Three items I am looking forward to writing about

Today's Postal History Sunday is not just about what has been, it is also about what we hope will be in the future.  I have several topics I hope to write about in the future - assuming I can find the time and energy to follow through.  I thought I would share three items I hope to write about soon.

Here's an envelope that carried seeds through the mail from the James J.H. Gregory seed company in (probably) 1870.  My personal connection to growing vegetables and farming, combined with my affinity for postal history, makes this an excellent target.  I've combined farming topics with postal history a few times with some success.  So, it feels like it is about time to keep things balanced by going that direction again soon.

Here's another one that is very different from the normal Postal History Sunday.  Anyone who has been a collector from childhood - and it doesn't matter what that collection is - will have some soft spots for items that caught their eye when they were younger.  For example, many kids find it easier to be attracted to stamps featuring animals instead of those that illustrate historical figures or events.

The giraffe in the stamp shown above is part of a series I remember appreciating when I was younger.  So, it's pretty neat to have an envelope that used one of those stamps to pay the postage.

And, of course, there needs to be at least one 24-cent 1861 item in here.  The cover shown above, in combination with a couple of other covers, provides an opportunity for a great story that I have been working on for some time.  But, like so many stories of this sort, it's going to take some time to get it right.  But, we'll get there one day - and hopefully you'll be there to enjoy it, just as I'll enjoy writing it.

Thank you so much for joining me today.  We'll be back to a more "normal" PHS next week.  But, until then I hope you have a fine remainder of your day and an excellent week to come.

Some bonus material

Tammy and I spent the last few days in Cleveland, Ohio to attend the Great American Stamp Show, sponsored by the APS (American Philatelic Society).  This show is held yearly and is the largest conference / bourse style gathering in the United States.  

I had the opportunity to speak with several other people who enjoy philately (stamp collecting) and postal history and was honored to receive several compliments for Postal History Sunday.  One of the most common compliments was that, while I did not write specifically about the parts of the hobby they focus on, they still found PHS to be entertaining, accessible, and even useful.  One person told me that they knew that, even if they knew nothing about the topic going in, I would not abandon them in the process of exploring it.

Thank you all for your kind words and the support it gives me.  Keep the questions, suggestions and corrections coming.  Feel free to tell me if something wasn't clear and I'll certainly try to explain things in another way.

There were many exhibits at the show.  In fact, there were so many that there was no way a person could easily find the time to enjoy them all.  However, I identified a couple that I wanted to explore a bit more deeply, including the fine exhibit about the Grand Trunk Railway by James Allen. This exhibit shows items for a rail line that interests me because some of my postal history from the 1860s relied on it to get from place to place.

I also had the pleasure of talking with Mark Thompson about his Women of the Black Heritage Series exhibit.  Mark received a gold award for the first time with his exhibit and he is to be congratulated for his efforts.  Each woman featured on these postage stamps has the equivalent of a Postal History Sunday article in this exhibit and I applaud him for his careful work in honoring these outstanding people.

And a big thank you to Chip Gliedman for the personalized "tour" of his Postal History Map of the United States.  It's a gleeful approach to collecting and sharing postal history items in a way that could resonate with most anyone.  His idea?  Find a really neat piece of postal history from each state in the nation and put them in their place on a map.  Everything from a cover partially burned in the crash of the Hindenburg to an item with connections to the Choctaw Nation.

And that's all I've got this week.  I hope to see you again next week for Postal History Sunday.

Borderline Benefits, Take Two - Postal History Sunday

Welcome, once again, to Postal History Sunday!  Take a moment and throw those worries into the kitchen scraps bucket and take them out to the chickens.  Chickens don't seem to have many worries, so maybe they can handle them a bit better than we can.

Next week will be the THIRD anniversary of the first Postal History Sunday.  That's got me feeling a little nostalgic, so I thought I would edit and add to one of the earlier entries.  I chose this one because this publication in February of 2021 received responses that led me to realize there actually were a number of people enjoying Postal History Sunday.  It was at that point where this project morphed from "maybe a few people will find some enjoyment here" to "oh my goodness, some people really ARE finding these enjoyable."

And we're still plugging along as we enter the third year.  We'll talk a bit about the future of Postal History Sunday at the end of today's entry - for those who have interest.

An 1855 internal letter between two locations in Belgium

Internal Letter Mail vs Foreign Letter Mail

Let's start with a basic letter from one town in Belgium to another town in Belgium.  As a postal historian I refer to this as either internal letter mail or domestic letter mail.  This particular folded letter was mailed in November of 1855 from Anvers (Antwerp) to a small town named Chokier near Liege.  The price for mailing this item was 20 centimes.

Internal letter mail rates in Belgium at that time were based on both weight and distance, but I don't want to distract from the point I am trying to make here, so I'm not going to talk about the distance factor.  The cost of a letter weighing no more than 10 grams was 20 centimes for this distance - which makes this a simple letter.  We refer to an item as a simple letter when it fulfills the requirements for a single rate of postage.

Foreign letter mail, on the other hand, required the interaction of two postal services in order to get a letter to its destination.  Each postal service was concerned that they receive compensation for their services and the postal agreements in the 1800s (until 1875) were often quite complex.  In fact, there were several countries that failed to have postal agreements with some of their neighbors.

When there was an agreement, you would typically get something like this:

A foreign letter from Belgium to France (1859)

This is a another folded letter that started out in Anvers (Antwerp) in October of 1859.   If you would like to learn more about this particular letter and the addressee M. Evrard, you can take this link to another Postal History Sunday.

You might notice the Anvers postal marking at the top right for Oct 14, which was applied by the post office in that city.  There are two markings in the top center.  One is the P.D. marking we talked about in this October 2020 Postal History Sunday entry*.  We learned there that the box with the "P.D." tells us that this item was "payée à destination," which translates to "paid to destination."  

The other marking reads "Belg. Amb. Calais E" around the outer ring of the circle.    This is an exchange marking that shows where the letter left the custody of the Belgian mail service and entered the purview of the French mail service.  In this case, the transfer occurred on a mail car on the train that went from Calais to Paris in France.

To be perfectly clear, it is possible that the mailbag was opened at some point after this transfer.  The purpose was to document when and where the transfer of ownership or responsibility for this mail item took place.  It is at this point that the item officially entered their ledgers (so to speak).

The cost of this letter was 40 centimes for every 10 grams in letter weight.  So, this was a simple foreign letter from Belgium to France.  The December 1857 postal agreement between these two countries dictated that distance would NOT play a role in the cost of a letter - with one important distinction - which we will discuss in the next section.   

Isn't it a relief to know that we're following some sort of plan today?

*if you happen to take the link for the October 2020 PHS, it is very interesting to note how different it is from this entry and most that follow it.

Neighbors in Different Countries

Could you imagine living just a couple of kilometers from the border between France and Belgium?  Let's say that you have friends who live just down the road, but that is officially in another country.  You do business with people in the next town over, but they also live in another country.  How would you feel if you had to pay 20 centimes for a letter destined to someone 5 kilometers to the North and then pay 40 centimes for a similar letter to someone 1 kilometer to your South just because they were on the other side of the border?

Yeah, me too.

A foreign letter with the reduced border postage rate (Belgium to France)

There were plenty of business interests in southern Belgium and northeastern France and there was likely plenty of pressure to recognize this issue.  The postal agreement provided for a discounted rate if a piece of letter mail crossed the border and the distance (in a straight line) was 30 km or less from origin post office to destination post office.  The distance for the letter above from Courtrai (Belgium) to Lille (France) is right around 30 kilometers, so this letter qualified for the reduced rate.

Actually, the agreement made it even easier for postal clerks to be able to determine what destinations qualified for this reduced rate.  The postal convention listed the locations of post offices that qualified (you can click to see a larger version of the picture).  This excerpt shows the French post offices.

The postal instructions of the time likely provided each of these post offices a list of Belgian destinations that would qualify for the special border rate.  So, all a postal clerk had to do was look at the list.  If it was on there, the special rate applied.  If the destination wasn't listed, they would mark the letter as short paid.

In any event, neighbors who wanted to mail things to someone in another country wound up paying the same rate as the first letter that was internal mail and half the amount the second piece of foreign letter mail required.

The Dutch and the Belgians

A simple foreign letter from Belgium to the Netherlands

The Netherlands and Belgium had similar arrangements for border settlements.  Shown above is an 1868 letter from Bruxelles (Brussels) in Belgium to Vlaardingen in the Netherlands.  The rate for mail from Belgium to the Netherlands was 20 centimes for every 10 grams in weight.  There was no distance component to the mail rate between these two countries at this time other than the special border rate.

An example of the special border rate from Belgium to the Netherlands

If the origin and the destination were close by, this rate was cut in half!  The 1869 folded letter shown above only has a 10 centime stamps for an item mailed from Liege, Belgium (yep, that marking is hard to read!) to Maestricht in Holland.  You will notice that, even though these letters traveled a short distance, they still have a PD marking to indicate that the postage was paid for a letter between nations.  This may have qualified for a reduced rate, but it still had to be processed as a piece of foreign letter mail.

An interesting thing that I have noticed as I look for items like this is that these reduced rate items are far less common than the regular rates between these countries.  And, because they are less common, it is more difficult to find examples that are nicer looking.  

But, why would these be less common?  It's a simple matter of mathematics.  Without doing actual calculations, it would be safe to say that less than 5% of the population for each country lives inside of the area that could qualify for the reduced rate.  On top of that, not all of the mail leaving those areas would go TO a destination that also qualified for the reduced rate.  I think it would be safe to estimate that no more than 1% of all of the letter mail that was sent between Belgium and France or 2-3% for Belgium and the Netherlands would have qualified for these rates.

Huh.  I think that explains it!

Now, if you want a real challenge, try to find examples of an overweight letter that used the border rate!  That's a truly elusive item.

But, sometimes you are lucky enough to find things that others don't.  Here is an example of a border letter rate from the Netherlands to Belgium in 1867.  Each Dutch cent was equal to two Belgian centimes.  So, it cost 5 Dutch cents for a border letter.  You might notice that stamp has a marking that reads "Franco," which happens to be Holland's preferred marking to indicate a letter was paid.  The big difference here is that the Dutch actually used the Franco marking for internal letter mail too, so it is not necessarily a hint that this was a special border rate item.

Know A Good Thing When You See It

The root of these special border rates probably comes from the fact that most postal services included distance as an element for determining postal rates.  The further something had to travel, the more expensive it became.  That certainly makes sense if transportation is your biggest expense.

So, the idea of a special border rate was not really an innovation.  Instead it was a holdover from postal rate systems that required a distance component to determine how much postage was required.  The idea that the rate would stay the same for all distances EXCEPT border mail was the real innovation  that we see much more often in Europe starting in the late 1840s.  Improved transportation methods via rail was resulting in lower transportation costs.  So, the justification for distance-based rates was no longer as pertinent as it had been. 

A simple foreign letter from Switzerland to France

Here is a folded letter mailed in 1862 from Switzerland to France.  The normal rate to mail an item was 40 rappen for every 7.5 grams, regardless of distance.  You will notice the exchange marking in red shows that control of the letter was transferred at Pontarlier (France).  France and Switzerland both used the PD markings to show the receiving nation that the letter was fully paid.

You might notice the red Pontarlier marking has a number "3" in the outer circle.  This is a control marking that tells us the letter was taken out of the bag in Paris and the hand stamp was struck on the letter there.  However, they knew how this letter crossed the border and used a marking that provided the proper tracking.

A special border rate letter from Switzerland to France

And here is an 1860 letter that shows a PD marking and a red exchange marking at Fernex (France).  The letter was mailed in Geneva, which was just across the border from Fernex (Ferney).  Clearly, this is a situation where a border rate should apply, and it does.  Only 20 rappen (1/2 the normal rate) was required.

If Ferney sounds familiar to some of you, you might recognize it better as "Ferney-Voltaire."  The philosopher, Voltaire, purchased the land around the small hamlet of Ferney in 1759.  Once travel is restored, you could go visit his chateau and the community that is part of Voltaire's legacy.  

So, How Do You See It?

That brings me to the last point.  How does a person, such as myself, notice that a letter could qualify for the borderline letter rate - no matter what pair of countries and regardless of the time in history?

The first thing is that I need to know what a normal piece of internal letter mail for the time period looks like.

A simple internal letter for Switzerland in 1864

This internal letter in Switzerland was mailed in Romoos.  It cost 10 rappen (or 10 centimes) to mail and the markings on the cover simply show its travels inside the country.

Most internal letter mail in Switzerland during this time period will have a 10 centime/rappen stamp.  So, if I were to see a letter with that stamp, my first assumption is that it is a piece of domestic letter mail.

A simple foreign letter from Switzerland to Italy in 1867

And here is an 1867 letter from Horgan, Switzerland, to Genoa, Italy.  The rate between nations was 30 centimes/rappen per 10 grams and a PD marking was put on the letter by the Swiss to let the Italians know that they did collect the proper amount of postage.  All in all, this is a pretty normal looking letter between these two countries for that time period.

So, I bring you this one:

A 10 centime stamp, but a P.D. on marking at the top center?

This one was mailed in Splugen in 1865 and has a Swiss 10 centime/rappen stamp applied on it to pay the postage.  The person who offered this item for sale listed it as a piece of "domestic letter mail" because that is what most 10 centime blue stamps in Switzerland were used for.  

What told me to look closer?

You can see it too - it's the PD marking on the cover.  Most post offices during that time did not use a PD marking unless it was a piece of foreign mail.  That is not always true.  Let me remind you that the Netherlands used the "Franco" marking on internal mail as well as foreign mail.  But, it was enough to make me look closer at this item.

Splugen is both a settlement and a mountain pass in the Alps near the Swiss/Italian border.  The hard part was trying to figure out the destination.  The address panel on the front maybe reads "Clafau" or "Clafen," but I couldn't be sure.

 

The back of the folded letter in question - can you read this hand-writing or the postmark?

The reverse shows a receiver postmark for Chiavenna, which is located just South of the border, which clearly makes it a piece of border mail.  After some searching, it turns out Chiavenna is also known as Claven, Kleven and Clavenna depending on the language.  It is just another case where the spelling of a location could be different depending on the person's background writing the address.  We could talk about that more, but I think that could be a Postal History Sunday all its own.

Thank you for joining me this week.  I hope you have a wonderful remainder of the weekend and a positive and fulfilling week to come.  Maybe you had a chance to relax for a few moments today and you learned something new.  If you have questions for this or past blogs or suggestions for future PHS blog posts, feel free to send them my way - you can use the contact form on the ride side of this blog.  

 

And now - if you want to gaze into the crystal ball that holds the future of Postal History Sunday, read on.

 

Looking into the Future

 

Perhaps the most common question or comment I have received during the past year of Postal History Sunday is something along the lines of "how long will you continue with the weekly Postal History Sunday blog?"   Or, maybe it's been more of a "please don't stop with the Postal History Sunday blogs." 

I certainly appreciate the sentiment.  It does help to know that the work is valued by others.  The most difficult part of Postal History Sunday is finding the time - and sometimes the motivation - every week to keep the project going.  The growing season can be extremely difficult because the farm requires a significant amount of my attention and my off-farm job doesn't just go away because the farm needs me too.

So, some of you may have noticed that I sometimes go back to a much older entry and I rework and improve it - just like I did this time around.  There are multiple reasons for this.  First and foremost, I continue to learn new things - which means I can often find better words to more accurately describe what is going on with postal history items I have shown in the past.  Another obvious reason is that this is a way to produce a good Postal History Sunday when the energy or time is particularly low on a given week - this one was an exception because I planned on this particular nostalgic trip anyway!

Another reason that might interest many of you is that I am beginning to explore the possibility of creating a Postal History Sunday book.  Revisiting older posts gives me a chance to explore the material I already have so I can consider options for how that might happen - or if it could happen.

And finally, the only question many of you really wanted me to address is the one I still have not answered.  "How much longer will Postal History Sunday go?"

The honest answer is simply that I don't really know. 

So, here is your short answer.  For the time being, I don't see anything changing.  But, I am considering moving to an "every other week schedule."  Or, perhaps, I'll continue to offer a PHS every week, but one in three will be a reworking of an old PHS entry?  That's actually a bit of what has happened during the most difficult months this year for time management anyway.  In other moments, I've considered building a new site dedicated to PHS - moving to Wordpress so I have more flexibility in creating.  I even dabbled with the idea of doing Patreon or some other such thing.  In other words, I do not foresee PHS going away any time soon.  It just might have to change a bit so I can continue with it.  If you have suggestions, feel free to send them my way.

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

Postal History Sunday is published each week at both the Genuine Faux Farm blog and the GFF Postal History blog.  If you are interested in prior entries, you can view them, starting with the most recent, at this location.