History of Detroit and Wayne County and early Michigan: A Chronological Cyclopedia of the Past and Present, Vol. I, Part 137

Author: Farmer, Silas, 1839-1902
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Detroit, Pub. by S. Farmer & co., for Munsell & co., New York
Number of Pages: 1094

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The Commercial Mutual Association was incor- porated April 1, 1880, as a life insurance company, on the assessment plan, with P. E. De Mill as president, Wm. A. Berry as secretary, and J. B. H. Bratshaw as treasurer. In 1882 John M. Gunn became secretary, and S. R. Woolley was appointed actuary. In 1883 Albert Ives succeeded Mr. Bratshaw as treasurer.

The Merchants' Mutual Fire Insurance Company was incorporated September 25, 1880, and com- menced business October 1, with Thomas Berry as

president, and A. T. Wood as manager; it was in existence only about a year.

The Michigan Fire and Marine Insurance Com- pany, with its principal office at Detroit, was incor- porated February 8, 1881, with a capital of $200,- 000. The first officers were: Francis Palms, president ; Thomas McGraw, vice-president ; D. Whitney, Jr., treasurer ; E. C. Preston, secretary. All of them were still serving in 1884.

The Standard Life and Accident Insurance Com- pany was incorporated May 29, 1884. The officers are : I). M. Ferry, president : R. W. Gillett, vice- president ; M. W. O'Brien, treasurer; and J. T. Patton, secretary.

In addition to these distinctively home companies, there are scores of other life and fire companies, represented by various agents, and doing an enor- mous business, and all of them are supervised by a State Commissioner of Insurance, first provided for in 1870. In 1865 a city ordinance was passed providing for a tax on the premiums collected by insurance companies, and in 1870, $8,052 revenue was obtained from this source. The ordinance was repealed in 1872.

PART XI.

COMMUNICATION.

CHAPTER LXXXII.

THE POST-OFFICE AND MAILS .- TELEGRAPHS AND TELEPHONES.

POST-OFFICE AND MAILS.

THE changes and the progress of Detroit can be indicated in no more interesting manner than by noting the development of mail facilities and the increase of postal matter. In the early days of the settlement few letters were written save by the com- mandant and the agents of the trading company, and these were forwarded by special messengers. In Colonel Johnson's diary of events at Detroit, under date of Saturday, August 12, 1761, he says, " At nine o'clock at night a York officer arrived at my quar- ters, express from Niagara in sixteen days, with letters from General Amherst."

On November 21, 1782, Colonel De Peyster wrote to Mr. McLean :

You desire to be informed of my ideas on the method of estab- lishing a correspondence during the winter season. I have to inform you that during my command at the upper posts, I have frequently found it necessary to send expresses, which can be done with ease and with the greatest safety, by employing two Indians, and sometimes adding an interpreter. We generally equip the Indians for the journey and promise them a present of silverworks at the post they are sent to, provided they travel with dispatch, and on their return they receive their payment, which they choose to have mostly in rum.

No postal system worthy of note was in operation until the very last years of English rule. Messen- gers were then sent, with something of regularity, to and from Quebec, but letters written at Detroit early in January, 1791, did not reach Quebec until the last of March. Much the same methods were in use after the surrender. The following letter gives a good idea of the facilities of those days :

DETROIT, 16th Sept., 1796.

SIR,-

I send over by Ogden two horses, which are to remain at Fort Miamis to serve as a relief for expresses ; when expresses are coming to this place, they are to leave the horses they bring, with you, and come on with fresh horses You will take the greatest care of the horses and have them well fed and attended to.

J. WILKINS, JR., Q. M. General.

Maj. John Wilson, A. Q. M., Fort Miamis.

The first post road in Michigan was established on March 3, 1801, It formed part of a line from Cincinnati to Detroit. As early as October 1, 1802, a regular mail, but probably only quarterly, was in operation, between Washington and Detroit. No post-office was established here until January 1, 1803.

In 1804 the Cincinnati route was discontinued, and one from Cleveland to Detroit established. In 1811 it took forty days to bring a letter from Wash- ington, and the mail was carried partly on horseback and in part by men on foot. During the War of 1812 General Cass had occasion to pass over the route running through the black swamp, in the vicinity of the present city of Toledo. Here he met the mail-carrier, and, wishing to get his dispatches, he cut open the mail-bag, took out his letters, and went his way. During the same war the expedition of General McArthur to Burlington Heights, Canada, was planned, and so barren were the results that Postmaster Abbott was accused of having given in- formation which defeated the plans. For this reason an attempt was made to remove him, but it was clearly proven that some of McArthur's own men carelessly gave warning to the enemy.

The general condition of the service during these years is indicated in several letters written by Gov- ernor Cass to the postmaster-general. On Decem- ber 8, 1815, he wrote :

At all times since our arrival at this place in 1813, the mail has been carried with singular irregularity, - an irregularity for which the state of the roads will furnish no excuse. I passed the mail carrier last summer between the mouth of the Raisin and Mansfield. He was on foot, and I should say not fit to be trusted with sixpence.

On December 30, 1815, he wrote:

The post-rider has just arrived without a letter or paper. Our last National Intelligencer is November 7. The last mail brought me a letter from the War Department, of October 30. * * * The misconduct is with the postmaster at Cleveland. Mr. Abbott informs me that this postmaster, if the mail from Pittsburgh arrives five minutes after he has closed the mail for this place, will not forward, but retains it till the next week. * * * I trust you will excuse the solicitude I feel and the trouble I give you upon this subject. Cut off as we are from the world and from other means of information than the mail, we look with eagerness for its arrival, and nine times out of ten we find ourselves disap- pointed. A detailed statement of the arrival of the mail for the last three months and of its contents would be a document, I am certain, which would surprise you.

In a letter of May 23, 1817, he says :

I found on my arrival from Washington that for six weeks not a mail had been received. This was unquestionably owing to culpable negligence in some of the postmasters or mail carriers between Pittsburgh and Fort Meigs. There is no neglect be- tween here and Fort Meigs. * * * The mail is carried as

[879]

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THE POST-OFFICE AND MAILS.

regularly as between New York and Philadelphia. * I * *

wrote a letter to General Macomb and another to Mrs. Cass at Washington on the tenth day of March last. These letters reached this place yesterday.

The representations from General Cass pro- duced some improvement, and soon after the mail from Washington arrived, with tolerable regularity, once in three weeks. Another improvement was made by the introduction at Detroit of the traditional post-boy's horn. Its use was first suggested in a letter which appeared in The Detroit Gazette of October 24, 1817. This communication was as fol- lows :

Messrs. Sheldon and Reed,-

The system and industry exhibited in the Postoffice Depart- ment in this city reflect great credit upon the intelligent officer at its head ; but the necessity of furnishing the post-rider with the means of apprizing the citizens of his arrival has escaped him. Almost every post-boy in the United States is furnished with a horn of some description for that purpose. The writer of this is satisfied, from his personal acquaintance with Judge Abbott, that this hint will induce him promptly to supply this want. A CITIZEN.

The suggestion was heeded, and thereafter, from the time he entered the city, by way of the river road, till he reached the post-office, the sound of the post-boy's horn notified the whole town of the arrival of the mail. The mail was carried in ordi- nary leather saddle-bags ; the carrier was a diminu- tive Frenchman, and his "swift-flying steed," as symbolized by the seal of the Post-office Depart- ment, was a Canadian pony, not greatly larger than his rider.

The second post-road in the Territory was estab- lished May 3, 1820. It ran between Detroit and Mount Clemens via Pontiac. Routes were estab- lished to Saginaw on March 3, 1823, and to Ann Arbor and Fort Gratiot on May 24, 1828. In 1827 stages began to run between Detroit and points in Ohio, and then, for the first time, mails were con- veyed from Detroit on wheels. Late in 1830 pro- vision was made for a daily mail at Detroit from the South and East via Pittsburg ; and on Monday, January 9, 1831, the eastern mail arrived, and there- after mails arrived daily.

On January 11, 1832, the following advertisement appeared :

MAILS.

Agreeably to the new contract with the Department, the great eastern and southern mails are hereafter to arrive at this office daily at 2 o'clock r. M., and close daily at 6 r. M. The Mount Clemens mail arrives every Sunday at 7 P. M., and closes the same hour, the same day. The Ann Arbor mail arrives every Friday at 6 r. M., and closes every Wednesday at 8 P. M. The Oakland and Fort Gratiot mail arrives every Tuesday at 6 P. M., and closes every Friday at 8 P. M. The Tecumseh and St. Joseph mail arrives during the winter, on Monday morning, and closes every Thursday at 8 P. M.

During the winter season this office opens at seven o'clock A. M.

and closes at 8 P. M., except on Sunday. On that day it is open from eight to nine o'clock in the morning.

JOHN NORVELL, P. M.

The provision for a daily mail did not greatly shorten the time of carrying from the East, and as late as January, 1836, it took fourteen days and nights to send a letter to New York City. Upor one occasion H. N. Walker, who had gone to New York, wrote back to Detroit, and it was twenty- eight days before he received a reply, which was sent as soon as his letter was received. This delay was not exceptional.

In 1837 the mail arrangements were as follows:

To and from Ann Arbor and Chicago, every other day. To and from the East, every day during season of navigation. To and from Grand Rapids, once a week. To and from Mt. Clemens, three times a week. To and from Pontiac, twice a week. To and from Lapeer, once a week.

In December of this year sixteen bags of mail- matter were sent from Sandusky overland to Detroit and were twenty-two days on the road.

In 1843 it took letters nine days to come from New York. Prior to November, 1843, mails for the northwest were received at Detroit only during the season of navigation. After that date Detroit be- came a distributing office for the northwest during all the year. `On the completion of the G. W. R. R. in 1854 another important change was made. Up to that time all the eastern mails arriving in winter came around the south shore of Lake Erie. When the new route was opened, the desire was general that the mails be carried over it, and as it was unlawful to carry the mails through a foreign coun- try, a meeting of citizens was held on February 4. 1854, to petition for governmental legislation that would allow the passage of the mails over the new road. The petition was granted, and great gain was made in the time of arrival of the mails.

The postage rates on letters weighing one half ounce or less have been as follows : Under law of February 20, 1792, letters were carried thirty miles or less for six cents; from thirty to sixty miles fo" eight cents; from sixty to one hundred miles fo- ten cents; from one hundred to one hundred and fifty miles for twelve and a half cents; from one hundred and fifty to two hundred miles for fifteen cents; from two hundred to two hundred and fifty miles for seventeen cents; from two hundred and fifty miles to three hundred and fifty for twenty cents; from three hundred and fifty to four hundred and fifty miles for twenty-two cents; and four hun- dred and fifty miles and upwards for twenty-five cents.

By law of March 2, 1799, they were carried forty miles or less for eight cents; from forty to ninety miles for ten cents; from ninety to one hundred and

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THE POST-OFFICE AND MAILS.

fifty miles for twelve and a half cents; from one hundred and fifty to three hundred miles for seven- teen cents; from three hundred to five hundred miles for twenty-five cents.

By law of April 9, 1816, they were carried thirty miles for six cents; from thirty to eighty miles for ten cents; from eighty to one hundred and fifty miles for twelve and a half cents; from one hundred and fifty to four hundred miles for eighteen and three-quarter cents; and four hundred miles and upwards for twenty-five cents.

It will be noticed that there is no material differ- ence in the above rates of postage, and in these days we can hardly imagine how it was possible for sen- sible legislators to devise such clumsy and difficult laws. Apparently they expected every postmaster to be a geographer and mathematician as well, with a better knowledge of distances than one person in ten thousand, even now, possesses. Many letters weighed more than half an ounce, and thus the difficulty was increased. The postage on a single letter frequently reached from sixty to seventy-five cents. Envelopes in those days were unknown and unused. People could not afford to pay postage on the mere covering to a letter; and to fold a letter properly, and so arrange it that the wafer seal and the direction would come in the proper place was almost a test of scholarship and gentility. The high rates of postage made it necessary for those who had much to say to use all possible space on the one sheet, and therefore many old letters had writing even underneath the seal, the loving remembrances from Susan and Margaret, Hezekiah and Jonas, being crowded in at the very wind-up of the epistle. Envelopes were first used in 1839. On March 3, 1845, an Act was passed under which let- ters going a distance of less than three hundred miles were carried for five cents; for over three hundred miles, ten cents was charged. The Act of March 3, 1851, was a still greater boon; and from that date the rate was three cents for any distance under three thousand miles. A law of March 3, 1883, taking effect from October 1, reduced the postage on ordinary letters from three to two cents.

The use of stamps is of more modern date than is often realized. Provision was first made for them by law of March 3, 1847. The date of their first use in Detroit is indicated in a local item in the Free Press of August 16, 1847. It says :

Post office stamps have been received at the office in this city from the Department, for the prepayment of postage. They are of two denominations, five and ten cents, and will be a great ac- commodation to the public. All that has to be done is to prefix one of the little appendages, and the letter goes direct.

During the scarcity of silver in 1861, thousands of dollars worth of these sticky substitutes for money were sold at the Detroit office, and used as change.

Postal cards were first sold in Detroit on May 15. 1873, and there was an immense rush to obtain them. During 1883, 2,843,000 were sold. The total receipts for postage and stamps at Detroit in 1850 were $18,960; in 1860, $30,487; in 1870, $105,769; in 1880, $227,864 ; in 1883, $311,856. The net income from this office in 1883 was $233,- 647.

The registry system went into operation under law of March 3, 1855. The plan includes the giving of a receipt for any package sent by mail. The fee for registering is ten cents, and the pack- ages are separated from all others, and special care taken that they reach the proper person. During 1883 over twenty-three thousand letters and forty- four thousand packages were receipted for at De- troit.

Money orders were first issued here on November I, 1864. The first Swiss order was issued Septem- ber 1, 1869; the first British order, October I, 1871 ; the first German order, October 3, 1872; the first Canadian order, August 1, 1875 ; and the first Italian order July 1, 1877. The charge for money orders prior to the passage of the law of March 3, 1883, was as follows : On orders not exceeding fif- teen dollars, ten cents; over fifteen dollars and not exceeding thirty dollars, fifteen cents; over thirty dollars and not exceeding forty dollars, twenty cents ; over forty dollars and not exceeding fifty dollars, twenty-five cents. The law of 1883 pro- vided that within six months the postmaster-gen- eral should provide an engraved form for a postal note, to be filled out by postmasters with any sum under five dollars, a uniform charge of three cents being made for each note, which is then sent in the same way as a postal order. Under this law the first postal notes were issued at Detroit on Septem- ber 3, 1883. The same law provided that amounts as high as one hundred dollars might be sent in a postal order, and the following rates were estab- lished. For orders not exceeding ten dollars, eight cents ; from ten to fifteen dollars, ten cents ; from fifteen to thirty dollars, fifteen cents; from thirty to forty dollars, twenty cents; from forty to fifty dollars, twenty-five cents; from fifty to sixty dollars, thirty cents; from sixty to seventy dollars, thirty- five cents; from seventy to eighty dollars, forty cents ; from eighty to one hundred dollars, forty- five cents.

During the year 1883 there were issued 19,878 orders on United States offices, 909 on post-offices in Canada, 1,430 payable in Great Britain, 1,574 in Germany, 87 in France, 164 in Switzerland, 163 in Italy, 2 in Jamaica, 2 in New South Wales, 27 in Belgium, and I in New Zealand. A total of nearly $52,000 was sent to Europe from Detroit, $12,905 to Canada, and $288,721 to various parts of

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THE POST-OFFICE AND MAILS.

the United States. In the same year there were received at Detroit 97,586 orders from offices in the United States, 2,159 from Canada, 367 from Great Britain, 583 from Germany, 13 from France, 24 from Switzerland, 7 from Italy, II from New Zea- land, 2 from New South Wales, 3 from India, I from Victoria, and 20 from Belgium. The total amount received from Europe .was $26, 178; from Canada, $31,479; and from offices in the United States about one and one fourth million dollars.

The free delivery system was probably the great- est convenience that has been introduced. Prior to its establishment the post-office at mail time was a general meeting-place, and if the mail was late or unusually large, an hour was often consumed in waiting, and by the time the windows were opened the crowd were always ready to push and struggle, and annoyance and delay resulted.

The delivery by carriers began in October, 186.4. At the same time a large number of iron letter- boxes, placed on lamp-posts and in grocery and drug stores, were first used. In 1879 they were re- moved from the stores. Letters deposited in the street-boxes are collected, and letters and papers delivered from one to five times a day in each dis- trict. There are now 419 boxes in use. Since 1870 the carriers on service in the larger and thinly settled districts have been provided with horses. There are now four, and they are allowed $250 per year extra for the keeping of their horses. The salary of the carriers ranges from $ 600 to $1,000 a year. They are appointed by the postmaster- general on nomination of the postmaster, and are uniformed in gray.

From 1864 to 1869 there were eighteen carriers ; from 1869 to 1871 there were twenty ; from 1871 to 1873 there were twenty-five. In 1879 there were thirty-one employed ; in 1880, thirty-three ; in 1881 thirty-six ; in 1882, thirty-eight ; and in 1887 sixty, two of them acting as collectors. During 1883 they collected 3,048.091 letters, and 8, 188,360 letters were delivered. Of postal cards 986,852 were col- lected, and 2,295,457 delivered. A total of 10,696,- 289 letters and postals were sent from Detroit. The salaries of the clerks range from $300 to $1,500 yearly. The deputy postmaster has a salary of $2,000, and the postmaster $3,700. The whole force connected with the office numbers 128, and the sum of the yearly salaries is about $100,000.

Rotation has been the rule in regard to the loca- tion of the post-office. Where it was kept under the first two postmasters is not known. Under Mr. Abbott it was located on the southwest corner of Woodward Avenue and Woodbridge Street in an old log building. Next to the post-office was Ab- bott's store; then came a storehouse for furs, and the block was completed by a small log house occu-

pied by a washerwoman. On May 10, 1831, the office was moved to a small brick building on the south side of Jefferson Avenue, just below Wayne Street. After a few months, on September 7, 1831, it was moved to the northeast corner of Jefferson Avenue and Shelby Street; on May 17, 1834, to a little wooden building, No. 22, in the same block. and nearer Cass Street. In April, 1836, it was moved to 157 Jefferson Avenue, near Randolph Street. On December 3, 1836, it was about being moved to 83 Jefferson Avenue, on the north- east corner of Shelby Street. Soon after, in 1837. the office was again moved, this time to an old frame building, 105 Jefferson Avenue, where Ives Bank is now located. In May, 1840, it was moved to a brick building farther west, about the middle of the same block. About May 1, 1843, the office was transferred to the basement of the

THE POST-OFFICE.

stone building on the southwest corner of Jefferson Avenue and Griswold Street, now occupied by the First National Bank. On November 28, 1849, it was moved to the first floor of the New Mariners Church, on the northwest corner of Woodward Avenue and Woodbridge Street, thus returning. after the lapse of half a century, very near its origi- nal situation. It remained in the Mariners' Church until the completion of the United States Custom House and Post-Office on the northwest corner of Griswold and Larned Streets. An appropriation of $88,000 towards the erection of this building was made August 4, 1854. The corner-stone was laid with interesting ceremonies on May 18, 1858. The building is one hundred and ten feet on Griswold Street and sixty feet on Larned. The basement is ten feet high, the first story sixteen feet, the second seventeen and a half feet, and the third twenty

883

TELEGRAPHS AND TELEPHONES.

feet; the total height of the building above the street is sixty feet. It was completed and formally opened on January 30, 1860. The total cost was $162,800. The basement and first story are occu- pied exclusively for post-office purposes. The cus- tom-house offices and the offices of the United States marshal, district attorney, and clerks of the courts are in the second story, and the United States court-room and office of the steamboat inspector in the upper part of the building. Larger quarters having become necessary, Congress, on May 25, 1882, appropriated $600,000 for a new site and building, with a proviso that if the old site were retained and additional ground adjoining purchased, only $500,000 should be expended. A government commission, appointed to consider the subject of location, met in the city on August 15, 1882, and soon after reported in favor of the old location. During 1882 the United States purchased a lot fifty feet front on Larned Street, lying next to the gov- ernment property, for $60,000, and an adjoining lot of same size for $26,000. Upon these lots and the old one a new building is to be erected. An Act of August 7, 1882, appropriated $250,000 to commence the work. Dissatisfaction being expressed by many citizens at the selection of the old site, a new com- mission was appointed, and it selected as a site one half of the square between Shelby and Wayne Streets, lying on the north side of Fort Street Subsequently arrangements were made for the pur- chase of the entire square at a total cost of $400,000. An Act of March 3, 1887, increased the appropri- ation for ground and building from $600,000 to $1,100,000.

The names of postmasters and dates of appoint- ment are as follows: Frederick Bates, appointed January 1, 1803 ; George Hoffman, January 1, 1856 : James Abbott, October 1, 1806; John Norvell, April II, 1831; Sheldon Mcknight, June 18, 1836; Thomas Rowland, March 17, 1842 ; John S. Bagg, April 3, 1845 ; Alpheus S. Williams, April 5, 1849; Thornton F. Brodhead, April 4, 1853; Cornelius O'Flynn, March 27, 1857; Henry N. Walker, April 28, 1859; Alexander W. Buel, September 28, 1860; Wm. A. Howard, March 18, 1861 ; Henry Barns, August 20, 1866; F. W. Swift, March 18, 1867; John H. Kaple, March 3, 1875; George C. Codd, March 4, 1879; A. W. Copland, January 1, 1886.

It has long been told, as the joke of that period, that when John Norvell, who came here from Penn- sylvania with his commission as postmaster in his pocket, called on Postmaster Abbott, he announced his name, and asked Mr. Abbott if he knew that he was his successor. The incumbent of many years looked at him, and then said, " Yes, I have heard of you, and I wish you were on the Grampian Hills feeding your father's flock."

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History of Detroit and Wayne County and early Michigan: A Chronological Cyclopedia of the Past and Present, Vol. I, Part 137

Author: Farmer, Silas, 1839-1902 Publication date: 1890 Publisher: Detroit, Pub. by S. Farmer & co., for Munsell & co., New York Number of Pages: 1094

Author: Farmer, Silas, 1839-1902
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Detroit, Pub. by S. Farmer & co., for Munsell & co., New York
Number of Pages: 1094