USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > Guilford > A yankee post office : its history and its post masters > Part 2
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GUILFORD'S EARLIEST POSTAL SYSTEM
There must have been others but Finlay fails to identify them. Of each he gave a dismal account of their respective activities. They appeared to be extremely tough fellows to handle. Their jobs were very hard, many times extremely hazardous, and the remuneration was so meager that they were obliged to resort to all sorts of trickery and artifice to establish any sort of an income. Finlay frequently writes that these riders car- ried letters secretly between such stretches as, for in- stance, between New Haven and New London where there were no post offices; for this they received secret fees, and never reported them to the postal officials.
Whenever an irate citizen caused a complaint to trickle in to a Postmaster at either end of a route, the informers were only willing to give the facts except through an exacting pledge given by the Postmaster never to reveal the source of his knowledge. Finlay asserts that Post Riders drove herds of cattle along the road for which they naturally received pay, but those who were patiently awaiting letters had to endure this proceeding because they had no other way to obtain their mail. All in all this crude system, graft ridden beyond conception, was about as inefficient as it could be, but it must be borne in mind that no serious reform could successfully be accomplished because of the immi- nence of the American Revolution and the rapidly developing Colonial bitterness towards Great Britain and all local representatives of the Crown. Extreme laxity of law observance was rampant throughout the Colonies and the uncompromising but pardonable Yankee hatred of His Majesty, King George the Third, operated to cause the postal service to suffer much more
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A YANKEE POST OFFICE
than other public agencies. The kind of service offered by these Post Riders, reproductions of which were proba- bly in operation over the entire postal routes of the Colonies, was unconscionably crude, given but passing attention by the operatives, and quite outside the pale of regulatory control. But with all of its faults this system obtained for much more than a century, so far as I can learn, and no section enjoyed any better service than that briefly described in this chapter. The whole business was, however, a sad commentary on the ability of Great Britain to furnish a better system to her Colo- nies. There is no good reason to assume that the Postal Service on the British Isles was one whit better at the same period than that which obtained in the American Colonies. There was but little in it to suggest in the remotest way the tremendous metamorphosis which was awaiting them in the almost immediate future. The pictures we have seen of what the service was in Eng- land at the same period, painted with such deftness as Charles Dickens possessed, does not furnish us much reason to conclude other than that America was as well provided for in that respect as the immediate territory of the sluggish British King.
Long after the beginning of the Nineteenth Century, in 1810, the records at Washington reveal to us that what was then considered a great improvement was inaugurated when it was ordered that a special mail service be extended to Guilford on a route from New Haven to Plainfield, which was described as follows : "From Newhaven, by Branford, Guilford, Killingworth, Saybrook, Lyme, New London, Chelsea and Jeqitt's City [meaning Jewett City]." The mode of transportation
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GUILFORD'S EARLIEST POSTAL SYSTEM
or its schedule on this early route is not made evident, nor is it possible except by pure guesswork to describe or to classify it at all. But we do know that such a service was installed and that eighteen years later, in 1828, a postal service from New Haven to Guilford was scheduled for three times a week in a one-horse "wag- gon." The development was, as we clearly see, pain- fully slow until after the steam engine solved the problem.
It is interesting to note that Hugh Finlay, whose in- spection activities occupied so prominent a place in the history of the late American Postal System previously described, succeeded Benjamin Franklin as one of the two Deputy Postmaster Generals of America. Franklin had long been undesirable to the British Postmaster Generals in Great Britain. His colleague during his incumbency was John Foxcroft who continued serving long after Franklin's dismissal, for a dismissal it was, in 1774.
It is also a curious fact that all through Finlay's Journal no mention whatever is ever made of Benjamin Franklin, but he persistently refers to Foxcroft as his superior to whom he was responsible.
It is much more than a conjecture to assert that Hugh Finlay was sent to the Colonies by the British Postal Ministry in order to "groom" him for appointment after Franklin had been removed. It has never been clear why Franklin incurred the displeasure of the British officials. But this existed for a long period, and Franklin was well aware of the situation. Finlay served to as late as 1782 when he, with Foxcroft, retired from the service as peace was near at hand.
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A YANKEE POST OFFICE
The Congress of the Confederation took over the essen- tial direction of affairs of the Post Office in 1775 and a department was at once organized. Benjamin Franklin was immediately named as Postmaster General and his salary was set at $1,000 a year.
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CHAPTER 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 Stones" Episode Clarified.
What Hugh Finlay, this eighteenth century postal inspector, if such he may be called, did about all of this irregularity as outlined in the preceding chapter, has never been disclosed. The rumblings of the American Revolution were even then being heard, and people had very much more to think about than to snoop around "bootlegging" Post Carriers. But it is eminently cer- tain that things were in a decidedly haphazard, graft ridden, condition before the formation of the American Union of the Colonies.
The so-called postal system of Colonial days was probably the worst of them, or at least the worst that was obviously apparent to the casual citizen.
The American postal system may be said to have actually originated when in 1753 the joint Postmaster Generals of Great Britain, from 1745 to 1758, Thomas, Earl of Leicester, and Sir Edward Fawkener, appointed Benjamin Franklin Deputy Postmaster General of the American Colonies. He has ever since been falsely termed the first "Postmaster General," which office he never held until he was appointed as such by the Con- tinental Congress on July 26, 1775. He served until November 7, 1776, and he had nothing to do with the Post Office Department, so far as I can ascertain, during the remainder of his life, a great part of which was passed in France. Immediately on the creation of the
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A YANKEE POST OFFICE
first cabinet by President Washington in 1789, Samuel Osgood of Boston was appointed as the first Postmaster General of the United States of America. The actual history of the Guilford Post Office starts from near that date, and not from 1815. At about this period what we now know as the "Great Boston Post Road" enters the picture and it has always remained there. There has been an enormous amount written about this Post Road, but much of it is sheer fiction. From my boyhood I was taught that Benjamin Franklin, in addition to his many other diversified duties, actually and in person, planted the great number of brown stones beside the highway. They are still remembered by old people, though they are rapidly becoming scarce, who lived along this route. Franklin may have done all that is so liberally credited to him in this work, but it is ex- tremely doubtful if he ever did much about it other than to start the work by issuing orders to that effect. There are no records available in Washington or elsewhere to show that Franklin even sponsored the setting of the milestones along the well-known route, especially from New Haven to New London. Some years ago Mr. Herbert B. Nichols of White Plains, New York, made a careful investigation in connection with this "Franklin mile stone" episode in our postal history. White Plains is twenty-three miles from New York and in the midst of that then thriving town in the year 1771 an imposing brown stone (of an exalted Franklin type) was erected. The inscription reads as follows: "23 Miles to N York 1771." This milestone, which is now properly preserved and the object of much curiosity, remained in practically its original position, according to Mr. Nichols, until
18
THE GREAT NEW YORK AND BOSTON POST ROAD
about the year 1884 when the land on which it stood was sold. Prior to the sale this interesting stone had been given by the owner of the land to a Mr. Joseph Lambden who had it carted to his residence some dis- tance away. The old relic of the long ago was placed in a shed, soon carelessly covered over with ashes, and its glory vanished in a remarkably quick and thorough manner. However, after remaining in its ashy grave from 1884 to 1914, the shed was taken down and the old "Franklin Stone" as it was then called, was "redis- covered," and replanted adjoining a hedge on the prop- erty where it had been "parked" for so long a time. In the Spring of 1930 the then owner of the famous stone had it replaced on the ancient highway where it had stood as a sentinel for many years, with the excep- tion that this time it was on the opposite side of the road. The writer of this interesting and vivid history of at least one of "Franklin's Stones," if it ever was, gives the opinion in a paper which he read before the Westchester County Historical Society, that this is the only remaining stone of its kind in that famous old county of New York. He further writes that several other milestones were still standing along the so-called Boston Post Road, but that these stones were erected by the Westchester Turnpike Company, which straightened and improved the highway shortly after the year 1800. The receipt, says Mr. Nichols, for the freight on eight of this second series of milestones is dated June 22, 1802. The only reason why these milestones were ever erected was not for the purpose of keeping the travelers in- formed as to the distance between important towns or villages through which they were passing, but for the
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A YANKEE POST OFFICE
means of computing fares and estimating the postage to be charged on the letters carried. This shows that Turnpike Companies, besides these within the borders of New York State, might have found it convenient to erect them elsewhere, in order that correct postage might be estimated and fares charged for. Both fares and postage were, it seems, in those far-away days calculated on the distance traveled. It is pertinent to note that about this period there appeared a highly interesting book written by Christopher Colles, entitled "A Survey of the Roads of the United States," and it was published in 1789.
Christopher Colles, the author of this road guide of the late Eighteenth Century, was a curious sort of a fellow. Born in Ireland about 1738, he drifted to America early in life, and died in New York about 1821. He was educated by the famous Pococke, Oriental trav- eler, who died in 1765. Colles lectured in Philadelphia on "pneumatics"; he also gave lectures in New York on "inland waterways," and in April of 1774 proposed to build a reservoir for the city of New York. The Revo- lutionary War prevented this work, but he later substi- tuted for the reservoir idea a system of pipes leading outside the city. Colles seems to have done all sorts of work, delved into many problems, and one of them was the survey for, and the publication of, this quaint old road map book referred to in this history. Although he participated in many ventures that turned out disas- trously he always held a high reputation, was said to have built the first steam engine, and was a friend of both Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton. His claim to fame, however, rests on the fact that he is said to have been the first projector of the Erie Canal.
20
THE GREAT NEW YORK AND BOSTON POST ROAD
This book is a highly entertaining exhibit of those crude days. Reference is made to this book of Colles because it gives clearly the position and the numbers of the mile- stones located along the main roads described. The book is really a collection of well-made maps prepared by Colles and arranged much like a modern loose leaf ency- clopedia. It was the writer's privilege to recently study a copy of this curious publication in the Rare Book Department of the Yale University Library. The intro- duction, written by Colles, to the contents says that "A traveler will here find so plain and circumstantial a description of the road that whilst he has the draft with him it will be impossible for him to miss his way; he will have the satisfaction of knowing the names of many of the persons who reside on the road; if his horse should want a shoe, or his carriage be broke, he will by the bare inspection of the draft be able to determine whether he must go backward or forward to a blacksmith's shop. Persons who have houses or plantations on the road may in case they want to lease let or sell the same advertise in the public newspaper that the place is marked in such a page of 'Colles Survey of The Roads etc.' " Mr. Colles was certainly an enterprising man but he never extended his book of highway maps to Guilford. He had too many other jobs and projects on hand. The roads illus- trated and appearing in the book are from New York to Stratford, Stamford, Norwalk, Fairfield; from New York to Poughkeepsie, Albany, Newburgh, Elizabeth, N. J., Allentown, Pa., Philadelphia, Pa., and Annapolis and Baltimore, Maryland. There is a so-called "Key" in the front of the book designating such "interesting" sights along the road as, for instance, Episcopal
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A YANKEE POST OFFICE
Churches, Presbyterian Churches, Town Houses, Mills for grist, Taverns, Blacksmith Shops, Bridges, Roads," cutting "the rivers, and gaols." It constituted a bizarre collection of "sights" for travelers to watch for as they rolled along over the dusty road. Carefully indicated on each of the many maps appearing in the book are the milestones which were supposedly placed there by the Colonial, or the later National gov- ernment, or by private interests; but there is no source of information obtainable to definitely prove which agency was responsible for them. If Westchester County stones, or at least some of them, were erected by private Turnpike Companies, there is naturally grave doubt encountered in connecting them with the activities of the great Benjamin Franklin.
Another invaluable guide in the section of White Plains, which was a unit in the so-called Great New York and Boston Post Road, were the maps published after the Revolutionary War and which were prepared by Robert Erskine, geographer connected with General George Washington's staff. These rare maps show quite clearly and definitely the position and the number of the "Franklin Stones" of the section in and around West- chester County. By these maps of General Erskine's it has been made possible for the historians of that section of the Boston Post Road to accurately check the number of government stones placed in that area and also to determine with almost unimpeachable authority the later ones which were, as Mr. Nichols so asserts, paid for and erected by the Westchester Turnpike Company. It is a pity that some such tangible evidence is not available in this section of New England, or especially along the important stretch between New Haven and Boston.
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THE GREAT NEW YORK AND BOSTON POST ROAD
Erskine had a colorful background. Born in Scot- land, 7th September 1735, son of the Ralph Erskine of Dunfermline, he came to America after he had been elected a member of the Royal Society of London. In the Colonies he was soon "taken up" by distinguished sponsors, and he later became geographer and surveyor- general for the Continental Army. He died in Ring- wood, N. J., in 1780. General Washington was his great friend and admirer, it is recorded.
The Guilford stone which has long been a familiar object on Boston Street was possibly erected either by a stage company or by the Colonial government prior to 1789. Nobody knows the answer with any degree of accuracy. There is no evidence obtainable that it was erected even at that period. It might have been placed there after the nineteenth century had begun, as was the case in White Plains. There is certainly no tangible evidence the author has been able to develop after months of investigation and research that the Govern- ment, either Colonial or National, ever set the stone. All "guesses" along that line must remain strictly con- jectural and subject to revision at any time new proof connected with the stone is revealed. The "personal" history of the stone is that it stood in the northeastern corner of the property of John Hanrahan and Mr. Nou- man on the opposite side of Boston Street, diagonally situated about 300 feet west of the famous old Hyland House. It was decided, after some discussion, to present the old stone to the Dorothy Whitfield Society and this was accordingly done. The sign describing its so-called history was erected at that time.
This is all of the actually definite history obtainable regarding the so-called and always famous old Boston
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A YANKEE POST OFFICE
Post Road. Boys used to hear tales of Benjamin Frank- lin's riding through Guilford, and of how this many- sided genius actually erected personally the brown stones that were evidently named for him by enthusiastic citi- zens. Nothing could be more idealistic and more glori- ous, if it were only true. But I have found nothing whatever to confirm even a fragment of this vivid description handed to us without any semblance of in- vestigation, in the good old days. I once asked the late Professor John Fiske of Harvard, if he had any knowl- edge of either George Washington or of Benjamin Franklin ever entering the town of Guilford. This query was presented to him one evening in the rooms of the New Haven Colony Historical Society on Grove Street, New Haven, in the winter of 1896. Professor Fiske, than whom no better historian of New England existed at that time or after, promptly answered that he knew of no such visitation by either Washington or Franklin. Fiske died at Boston in the early summer of 1901.
Whatever else may be said or written about the postal equipment of the Colonial or of the National Govern- ment in their handling of the mails there is no reason to doubt but what it was of the crudest possible character. There is nothing whatever yet available to prove that it was either regular or irregular, or that it was brought to the town in any other manner except by old-time Post Riders or coaches that carried passengers and mail in the most haphazard and undependable manner. The greatest item of the whole mail business of that period which we most admire to-day is the fact that there was any continuity, or safety, or dependability connected
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THE GREAT NEW YORK AND BOSTON POST ROAD
with the postal service of those distant days. But some- how or other Guilford and other towns jogged along in that rather disorganized atmosphere, with correspond- ingly negligible results. The only reasonable way to view the postal service during the early years of Guil- ford and other. towns, say from 1700 to 1800, is that what mail there was to be distributed along the line was left wherever it was most convenient by the more or less buccaneering Post Riders or stage drivers. If the American system compared at all with the kind obtain- ing on the great postal routes of Great Britain or of France at the same period, it was still more a wonder that a letter ever reached its destination at all. It was only after the railroad superseded the stage coach that modern mail was properly handled.
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CHAPTER III
The Postal History Since the Year 1800 and the Great Improvements During the Past 100 Years. Intro- duction of the Rural Free Delivery and the Parcel Post Systems.
A review of the manner in which the mail was handled since the early days of the nineteenth century might very properly be considered at this time. The system obtaining when Medad Stone was Postmaster and for many years after that period could with safety be easily compared with the difference in the mode of transporta- tion during that era of our country's existence and the system operating to-day. From the most crude begin- nings there was not a great deal of improvement noted until well towards the middle of the last century. The rambling stage coaches carrying the mail were no better than the ones that drifted along the sparse highways of New England during the ante-Revolutionary period. Carrying the mail was decidedly a by-product of the stage coach business. For a long time, altogether too long, the mail was handled in a manner so crude and so disorganized that, as has been suggested in an earlier chapter, it is a matter of wonder that mail ever reached its destination with any degree of certainty. It is known that the entire mail for one section, say, for instance, all of the shore towns between New Haven and Saybrook, would be jammed into one bag. The letters were not distributed until the postmasters themselves had done this work for their respective office. They usually took out what was designated for their office and pushed the rest back into the ever-decreasing "mess"
26
POSTAL HISTORY SINCE THE YEAR 1800
of mail. The stage driver waited while this crude sys- tem was being followed. This more or less barbaric practice obtained for such a long period that we of to-day are amazed at the absence of any regulations or proper procedure in those not very distant days. As a matter of fact there were no great developments observ- able in the transportation or the conduct of the postal system until the advent of the steam railroads. This took place during the late 1840's and the early 1850's; and it had a most salutary effect on the general post office business. From that time onward the postal sys- tem improved rapidly. The antiquated procedure of the early nineteenth century was hopelessly tossed over- board, and the advance started with an unusual rapidity on all fronts. Guilford commenced to receive its mail by steam train in the early fifties (1852) and this im- provement and regularity greatly astonished the citizens who had previously looked on the Post Office system as a sort of "merry-go-round," rarely on time, but some- thing that had to be borne with or endured in an atti- tude of patience and of thankfulness.
It was not long before there was a daily mail, and people were very properly astonished when they received two mails each day. The first railroad train to reach Guilford was on July 1, 1852, during the term of Albert B. Wildman, and this train probably brought the first mail to the town by that system of transportation. By the time of the Civil War the mail system was in good working order-so much so in fact that people generally considered that the improvements obtain- able for all time had then been recorded. But vast changes were even then in store for the not distant
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A YANKEE POST OFFICE
future, as there was in almost every other walk of life in this country. The steam train was but the vehicle for other important and vastly stimulating changes in the life of New England or elsewhere.
Guilford did not have village delivery until long after it had been in operation in larger places, but it came at last, and this was a vast improvement on the antiquated Post Riders and stage coach and still more antiquated local system of handling the mail.
It seems strange now to contemplate that further improvement of a more general distribution of the mail did not take place until within the recent past when the so-called Rural Free Delivery was inaugurated. Few institutions in the history of American progress can be credited with a more salutary effect on the communities of the United States than the Rural Delivery System of the United States Post Office. It was stated recently by the Post Office Department that no other single instru- mentality has done more than the Rural Mail Service towards bringing the city to the country and also relieving the prosaic existence of farm life.
A brief review of that development will, it is hoped, be interesting to the readers of this history. It was Postmaster General John Wanamaker who first officially suggested in 1891 the rural delivery mail idea to Con- gress. This plan was sturdily fought in the legislative branch of the Government for five years before it was even given a "try-out."
The first bill authorizing this service was introduced in 1892 by James O'Donnell of Michigan. This carried an appropriation of six million dollars, but it failed to pass. Later on the Congress agreed to a sort of experi-
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