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A YANKEE POST OFFICE Its History and Its Postmasters
FREDERICK CALVIN NORTON
Gc 974.602 G94n 1910123
M. L.
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
1
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 00075 1229
For him. he told to. Stone, the or when wreath the book, in may 2 wir auchta mio stoni, who were afforuled by President Woche for in1752 a the first fortunate 2 quefal Contient.
Fredrick Calvin Verton.
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A YANKEE POST OFFICE
Its History and Its Postmasters
The History of a Typical New England Post Office in Guilford, Connecticut, Covering Nearly a Century and a Half
BY FREDERICK CALVIN NORTON Author of The Governors of Connecticut Reminiscences of Bernard Christian Steiner, Ph.D., Litt.D.
Published by The Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor Company New Haven, Conn. 1935
COPYRIGHT, 1935, BY FREDERICK CALVIN NORTON
1910123
TO THE MEMORY OF HARVEY WALTER SPENCER, GUILFORD'S FIRST DEMOCRATIC POSTMASTER AFTER THE CIVIL WAR (1886 TO 1890), WHO DIED IN 1894, DEEPLY BELOVED BY THE PEOPLE OF GUILFORD, THIS VOLUME IS DEDICATED BY HIS BOYHOOD FRIEND, THE AUTHOR.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
PART ONE
CHAPTER
PAGE
I. Guilford's Earliest Postal System Described, which In- cludes How the Mails Were Handled 160 Years Ago; also the Story of Those Sturdy Post Riders of the Eight- eenth Century
3
II. The "Great New York and Boston Post Road" and Benjamin Franklin's Connection with it. Time Honored Traditions Discussed, and the So-called "Franklin Mile Stone " Episode Clarified
17
III. Postal History Since the Year 1800, and the Great Im- provements During the Past 100 Years. Introduction of the Rural Free Delivery and the Parcel Post Systems
26
IV. A Retrospective Survey of the Previous History 31
V. A List of Guilford's Postmasters from 1792 to 1934. Their Terms of Service Compared. Twenty-one Persons Have Held the Office 34
PART TWO
SKETCHES OF GUILFORD'S TWENTY-ONE POSTMASTERS
VI. Postmaster Medad Stone. Probably 1792 to 1804, and 1806 to 1815 41
VII. Postmaster Roger Averill. 1804 to 1806 46
VIII. Postmaster Reuben Elliott. 1815 to 1829-1833 to 1841. .. 50
IX. Postmaster Amos Seward. 1829 to 1833 54
X. Postmaster Albert B. Wildman. 1841 to 1845-1849 to 1853 58
XI. Postmaster George Hart. January 29 to July 29, 1845 63
XII. Postmaster Elisha Hutchinson. 1845 to 1849 67
XIII. Postmaster Franklin C. Phelps. 1853 to 1861-1867 to 1869 73
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER
PAGE
XIV. Postmaster John Hale. 1861 to 1865 78
XV. Postmaster Samuel H. Seward. June, 1865 to October, 1865 82
XVI. Postmaster Henry E. Norton. 1865 to 1867 85
XVII. Postmaster Charles Griswold. 1869 to 1886. 88
XVIII. Postmaster Harvey W. Spencer. 1886 to 1890 93
XIX. Postmaster George N. Bradley. 1890 to 1894
99
XX. Postmaster George E. Meigs. 1894 to 1897 103
XXI. Postmaster Mary Bishop Griswold. 1897 to 1898. Mary B. G. Bullard, 1898 to 1902 110
XXII. Postmaster Joel T. Wildman. 1902 to 1903. 117
XXIII. Postmaster Levi O. Chittenden. 1903 to 1916 123
XXIV. Postmaster Edward B. Sullivan. 1916 to 1924 128
XXV. Postmaster Robert DeF. Bristol. 1924 to 1931 132
XXVI. Postmaster George A. Sullivan. 1931. 138
INTRODUCTION
This volume deals mainly with a hitherto almost totally unexplored phase of the history of Guilford, Con- necticut, namely, the life of a typical New England Post Office. It is a curious but none the less patent fact that two out of the three thus far published histories of Guilford contain nothing concerning such an important institution as the town's Post Office or its postal history. Dr. Steiner's valued History of Guilford and Madison, published in 1898, devotes only one out of its 520 pages
to this subject. The distinguished historian, Ralph Dunning Smith, and his predecessor, Rev. Dr. David Dudley Field, did not mention the subject. Obviously, only Dr. Steiner considered the institution worthy of any notice whatever. He evidently did not classify it as of any vital importance in the history of the town.
In his celebrated History of Guilford and Madison, this distinguished historian names Reuben Elliott as Guilford's first credited postmaster. In reality two men had served for years previous to his appointment, so that he was the third and not the first postmaster of Guilford.
The three most important institutions in any New England community would, in the author's opinion, consist of the Church, the School and the Post Office. The comparative order may be properly debated, yet it is safe to assume that this trio holds first place. There- fore, with almost a century and a half of history behind it, it is with pleasure that the author contributes this study of the Post Office of his native town to his fellow townsmen.
A YANKEE POST OFFICE
The idea of compiling this book and of studying the life of a typical New England Post Office was decided upon in the summer of 1933 when the author suddenly realized that as yet nobody had developed any historical investigation into the postal history of the town. The actual gathering of the data took place, however, during the summer and the fall of 1934. The result as it appears in this volume is, as the author fully realizes, only fragmentary at its best. Yet he is constrained to believe that the effort and the present appearance of this work will meet with the general approval of his fellow citizens of Guilford. It is without question so far as the author can ascertain the first published history of the Postal Service of Guilford or of any other New England town covering a period of a century and a half. And it is indubitably as true a picture of the rather hazy postal system of the olden days as it is possible to create at this time.
The section dealing with the sketches of the persons who have served as the town's postmasters brings to light several new names hitherto practically unknown except to the student of local historical research. One of them will, so far as the author can estimate, remain in oblivion during all time. But in the main the list includes important citizens of the town such as the first President Dwight of Yale College classified as being unusually typical of the forefathers.
The author extends his sincere thanks for the valued assistance given him by Judge Calvin M. Leete of the Guilford Probate Court. His generous help extended in securing facts from the Land and the Probate Records of Guilford, was of much importance. Valued co-
INTRODUCTION
operation of a vital nature was given by Mr. K. P. Aldrich, Chief Inspector of the Post Office Department at Washington, for which the author is glad to extend his appreciation. Unusual courtesy and extensive help was furnished by the men and the women in charge of the Rare Book as well as the Research Department of that incomparable fine institution, The Sterling Library of Yale University. To this marvelous organization the deepest gratitude of the author is registered.
Much credit is given Miss Abell, for a long time the efficient town clerk of Lebanon, the charming town in New London County that furnished Connecticut with five of its well-known governors, and Guilford with one of its postmasters. Without her investigations at the request of the author that particular postmaster, a native of Lebanon, would have remained in more or less com- plete obscurity for a great many more years.
In conclusion, the author is reluctant to part with the study that afforded him many pleasant hours of research into Guilford's past, as well as his investigations into the Postal History of the Colonies and the later Govern- ment of the United States of America. While the result constitutes work of but meager importance as compared with what will probably be developed in the years to come, the author is none the less happy to realize that some competent historian of the future will be inspired to continue and to materially expand the present subject matter of the text.
FREDERICK CALVIN NORTON.
Guilford, Connecticut,
January 1, 1935.
PART ONE
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CHAPTER I
Guilford's Earliest Postal System Described, which Includes How the Mails Were Handled 160 Years Ago, and also the Story of Those Sturdy Post Riders of the Eighteenth Century.
Contrary to the belief held by many-a belief given authority by the late Dr. Bernard C. Steiner, historian of Guilford, in his well-known book, the Guilford Post Office is practically, or at least almost, as old as the Government itself. In his History of Guilford (1898) Dr. Steiner wrote on page 265, that the first recorded Postmaster of Guilford was Judge Reuben Elliott, but in this the distinguished historian was in error. There were two other men who occupied the office before Judge Elliott. These terms covered a period of twenty-three years before Judge Elliott held the office. I became interested in this matter soon after my return to Guil- ford in the early summer of 1933, after an absence of thirty-six years, when I read a sign posted in front of the Dorothy Whitfield Historical Society, Inc., in Boston Street. This sign informs those who read it that an ancient brown milestone standing beside it was probably placed across the street by Postmaster General Benjamin Franklin in 1755. This statement caused me to make an extended study, not only of the postal service of Guil- ford and its postmasters, but of the nation as well. I soon found that Franklin's actual connection with the lonesome-looking old brown milestone was on the whole purely conjectural. It was at that time that I learned Steiner's assertion concerning Guilford's first Post-
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A YANKEE POST OFFICE
master was erroneous, and that the office here was cre- ated nearly a quarter of a century before the term of Judge Elliott which dated from 1815.
From the archives at Washington I learned that the first postmaster of Guilford was Medad Stone, a well- known citizen, tavern keeper and extensive landowner. His old tavern at the northwest corner of Guilford Green was, up to within the memory of men who are not yet aged, a well-remembered landmark of the town. There is no definite record of the date when he was actually appointed as the first Postmaster of Guilford. The record in the Post Office Department concerning this fact is that the first account of the Guilford Post Office was submitted by Postmaster Medad Stone on July 1, 1793. The date of the time when he first took office must remain more or less conjectural. But it is perfectly within the limits of conservatism to assert that his ap- pointment was probably made late in the year 1792, while Washington was yet filling his first term. His first official communication concerning the finances of the local office would under what evidence we possess, prop- erly confirm the belief held by the author that his en- trance into the history of the town as its premier Post- master was during the final months of 1792. This brings his appointment very close to the birth of the nation in 1789, and it can be said with every semblance of accu- racy that the Guilford Post Office is practically as old as the nation itself. On the whole it has been an exceed- ingly interesting study that furnished me with much enthusiasm in following the very limited recorded his- tory concerning the early postal activities of the Colonies as well as of the nation.
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GUILFORD'S EARLIEST POSTAL SYSTEM
The earliest recorded fact concerning the postal sys- tem that I have found available at the Post Office Depart- ment in Washington is that in 1672 a post was arranged to function monthly from Jan. 1, 1673, between New York and Boston. It is highly interesting to observe in this connection (through the kindness of Judge Epaph- roditus Peck of Bristol, Conn.) that Mead's History of Greenwich, Conn., carries on pages 316 and 317 local confirmation of the statement recorded above concerning the New York and Boston Post Route of 1672. Mead writes : "Postal communications between New York and Boston were first established on the first day of January 1673. The messenger of post made only monthly trips, leaving New York on the first of the month and Boston in the middle of the month. According to instructions dated January 22, 1673, the messenger was to apply to Gov- ernor John Winthrop of New London for the best direc- tion how to form the post road, to establish places in the road where to leave the 'way' letters, to mark some trees that shall direct passengers the best way, and to fix certain houses for your several stages (which proba- bly meant stopping places and not coaches or stages) both to bait and to lodge at." The phrase "to bait" probably meant a place where meals could be obtained. Continuing, Mead writes: "The messenger was to allow persons who desired to travel in his company, and to afford them the best help in his power. He was to pro- vide himself with a spare horse, a horn, and a good portmanteaux."
It is evident that the first method of mail transporta- tion was by stage, but soon afterwards the Post Rider system was probably adopted. The activities of these
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A YANKEE POST OFFICE
sturdy Post Riders which obtained for more than a century will shortly be described. This is, I think, the first "dim" record, regarding the so-called New York and Boston Post Road which passes through New Haven County. It did not receive its name as such until a century or so later. From that date until late in the Eighteenth Century the history of the Colonial Postal Service was of a decidedly crude type and few facts about it are available except through tradition and tales told from one generation to another. In December, 1772, the Right Honourable Francis Baron Le Despencer, and the Right Honourable Henry Fredrick Thynee of England, who were then His Majesty's Postmaster Gen- erals, appointed Hugh Finlay, also of England, to be Surveyor of the Post Roads and Postal Service on the Continent of North America. In April, 1773, Finlay arrived in New York, and it is commonly supposed he was given this newly created job in order that he might carry on a systematic inspection and survey of what was then the postal service of the North American Continent. Finlay was an interesting character, and he left a still more interesting Journal published in 1867 describing his activities. From this journal we secure what we now know of the actual history of the condition of the postal service on the eve of the American Revolution. Finlay first explored the system, or what there was of it, in what is now Canada. He encountered many serious difficulties there and occupied much time in penetrating the outposts of that wild country. He finally landed in what is now the territory of Maine and made a trip on horseback to Boston. On the way he inspected and wrote much of what he saw in relation to the semblance of the post
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GUILFORD'S EARLIEST POSTAL SYSTEM
system then available. The portion of his journey that attracts us the most was in connection with his travels from Boston to New York. This English postal inspec- tor, for that was actually what he was, rode on horse- back from town to town, and he left for us some highly interesting observations concerning what he experienced and what he saw. He wrote these notes in his tavern after a long day's ride on his horse. The section that interests us very much is the extreme lack of post offices along such a great stretch of country as obtains from Boston to New York. In Boston there was of course an office in charge of a Mr. Hubbard about whom the Surveyor received sundry complaints. Most of these had to do with the lateness of the mails over which he had little jurisdiction. The next office was in Provi- dence, forty-five miles distant, and this was in charge of John Carter, a printer, who draws an excellent report from Finlay. In Newport there was also an office con- ducted by Thomas Vernon whose books Finlay found "to be in good order." An office in Bristol in charge of a Mr. Usher, and also one in Westerly, demanded little attention. The trip to New London from that point leads this intrepid inspector to write, "Continued my route to New London where I expected to arrive in the evening, but I found the road past all conception bad so that from daybreak until sunset I made but 33 miles and put up at a little tavern 4 mile east of New London. The road is one continued bed of rocks and very hilly. It is impossible for a post to ride above 4 mile an hour in such road, and to do that he must have a good horse, one used to such a rocky road." So far as I am able to ascertain from Finlay's notes there was
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A YANKEE POST OFFICE
no post office between New London and New Haven. Beyond that town there was one at Norwalk, but there were no others between that point and New York. Finlay never lets an opportunity pass to severely criti- cise three well-known Post Riders, Mumford, Herd and Peat, who apparently rode between Boston and New York. He records the fact that each of these thrifty riders pretended that they were put to great expense for horses which he declares was only a pretence. "An ass," he writes in his journal, "cou'd travel faster, they seldom or never change horses. They have excuses always ready framed when they come in late-they were detained at ferrys-it is their own business alone that detains them. They have sometimes said it was too hot to ride and at other times that it rained too hard and they did not chuse to get wet."
Finlay, in his interesting description of this system of carrying the mail, fails to write where mail was left in towns where there were no post offices. It is presumed that letters were delivered to their owners as the Post Riders rode by their homes, but it is also fairly certain there were unofficial places in various towns where the riders deposited letters for the owners to call for. He described one such case. This was at Tower Hill in Rhode Island where the owner of such a "rendezvous," a Mr. Sands, master of the house, was ill in bed and could not be interviewed by His Majesty's envoy. Fin- lay reports his house was the place where all letters in the vicinity were deposited for the Post Riders. What his compensation was is not stated.
The postmaster in New London was John S. Miller, and he actually had his office in the center of the town.
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GUILFORD'S EARLIEST POSTAL SYSTEM
He was a young man, Finlay writes, and is given credit with having much knowledge of the postal business, which was not the case in most of the offices the "sur- veyor" visited. The gross income of the New London Post Office in 1773 was a little over fifty-five pounds a year. What the postmaster received as a salary is not stated. Finlay tarried quite a period in New Lon- don, and then he journeyed to Saybrook where there was no post office but was a sort of resting place for Post Riders. After crossing the Connecticut River he waited some time for the Post Rider to arrive from Newport, but as the latter did not appear, Finlay con- tinued his way alone towards New Haven. On the 12th of November, 1773, Finlay journeyed west along the shore of Long Island Sound. He passed that day through the territory now known as Westbrook, Clinton, and the other shore towns. This is what he recorded for that November day 160 years ago: "The Post not come up, proceeded alone towards New Haven, passing
through well settled townships. Killingsworth is a pleasant village a mile long; East and West Guilford [now Madison and Guilford] are large villages, as is Bamford [he meant, of course, Branford], likewise ; there must certainly pass many letters to and from these towns, but the riders I believe make them a per- quisite, as there's no offices in these places to check them. The road is very good. The ferry at New Haven, or rather two miles from it, is about 100 yards wide and is pretty well attended; from the ferry to the town the road was good. Many people asked me if I had met the post driving some oxen; it seems he had agreed to bring some along with him." This last sentence is brief but very suggestive of criticism.
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A YANKEE POST OFFICE
The postmaster at New Haven was Christopher Kilby who had an office in the center of the town. Kilby com- plained bitterly to Finlay because of persistently tardy riders who only covered something like thirty-five miles a day, and were sometimes many hours late. They gathered in all sorts of "junk" to carry along the road, and this naturally interfered seriously with the mails. The New Haven Postmaster received twelve pounds sterling a year. From New Haven Finlay pushed on to New York, and his first stop was at Fairfield where the high sheriff of the County told the British inspector that the town very much desired a post office. At Nor- walk he found Mr. Belding, the postmaster, receiving a very small sum for his work. This was the last town visited for inspection in Connecticut, and Finlay next devoted his attention to the situation in New York. This reference to Finlay's tour is discussed here because it shows what form of a postal system the Colonies had just prior to the Revolution. It was very inefficient, and without much order or results. The mail was car- ried by veteran Post Riders who practically spent their lives in the service. Their regular income was so small that they indulged in all sorts of traffic along the road. Finlay describes one carrier whom he called "Old Herd," who in 1773 was seventy-two years old, had two sons, and had been in the service for forty-six years. "Old Herd" was described as extremely hale and hearty. His activities knew no limitations. This rugged Post Rider passed through Guilford, back and forth, on horse- back, for a great many years. He carried not only the mails but anything that could possibly be attached to his horse. Goods of all sorts and conditions were dis-
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GUILFORD'S EARLIEST POSTAL SYSTEM
tributed by the riders along their routes. Great bags hung beside these postal carriers, and what they con- tained astonished even the astute but patient Finlay. These Post Riders, be it remembered, were largely main- tained by this side business which obtained generally in all sections, and for this they received fees which aug- mented their incomes. They were distinctly public mail riders yet they consistently loaded their poor horses with a sad assortment of merchandise so that the beasts be- came burdened beyond their capacity. Riders were entrusted with cash to carry to different places; they frequently carried or transported monies backward and forward; they took care of returned horses; in short, they refused no business that offered them any fee no matter how small.
Finlay's description of the sort of "Business" these Post Riders engaged in on their routes is amusing. Citizens, however, were loth to complain of their laxity because if they did this the riders would have nothing more to do with them. Drivers frequently curled up beside the road, especially on a hot summer's day, and both man and beast enjoyed a nap. One rider in the late eighteenth century stopped over at Saybrook and slept for three hours. This was probably "Old Herd." When he reached New Haven three hours late he ex- plained his horse had lost a shoe and he was compelled to wait for a blacksmith to put a new one on the animal's hoof. The Portmanteaus in which the mail was sup- posedly carried were indeed sights to behold. The New Haven postmaster, Mr. Kilby, told Finlay these mail containers were rarely locked. As a consequence the riders stuffed them with bundles of shoes, stockings,
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A YANKEE POST OFFICE
canisters, money or anything they could get to carry. This practice tore the sides of the Portmanteaus which, observes the New Haven postmaster, "tears the letters to pieces." He suggested that the rider be compelled to lock the bags and not engage in general business as a side line.
One rider was chastised by the New Haven Postmaster because he carried a letter between regular offices and accepted a higher fee for his own profit. The rider stubbornly refused to pay the New Haven office the regular fee for he said all the riders considered that all mail picked up between offices was handled only on a "perquisite" basis. This wholesale pocketing of fees that ought to go to the department and the "shameful tardiness of the riders" as well as "the barefaced cus- tom of making pack beasts of the horses which carry His Majesty's mails," caused the New Haven post- master to beg the English surveyor to see that reforms be instituted. But no reforms were chronicled; and the American Revolution for at least eight years rendered the service still worse-if there was anything like service obtaining at that period.
Finlay asserted that the principal Post Riders between Boston and New York were three men. The first he mentions was a man previously referred to as "Old Herd," who persistently told everybody he made no money out of his work, yet who was said to own an estate; and he covered the distance between Saybrook and Stratford. Peter Mumford rode from Boston to Saybrook, and he lived at Newport. The third men- tioned was Peat, who, with "Old Herd," lived at Strat- ford, and he rode between Stratford and New York.
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