USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > Cincinnati > Cincinnati, the Queen City, 1788-1912, Volume II > Part 15
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Benjamin Franklin was removed by the home department of the government of Great Britain from his office of postmaster-general in America in 1774. On July 26th, 1775, the American Congress assumed direction of the postoffices, re- appointing Franklin to his former post. Shortly afterwards, when Franklin was sent as ambassador to France, his son-in-law, Richard Bache, was made post- master-general in November, 1775.
In 1789 the number of postoffices was seventy-five; in 1800, nine hundred and three; in 1825, five thousand, six hundred and seventy-seven; in 1875, thirty-five thousand, seven hundred and thirty-four; in 1909, sixty thousand, one hundred and forty-four.
In 1789 the gross revenues of the postal service were $30,000 ; in 1800, $280,000. In 1884, the receipts were $43,325,959; the expenditures were $47,224,560, and salaries of postmasters were $11,283,830. In 1909, the receipts were $203,- 562,383 ; expenditures $221,004,102 ; salaries of postmasters, $26,569,892.
At first, and for many years, the postage rates varied with the distance the matter was carried. In 1792, the rates were from six cents for distances of thirty miles or less to twenty-five cents for distances of four hundred and fifty miles or more. One cent was the rate for a newspaper for one hundred miles or less ; one cent and a half for greater distances.
Post riders carried the mails in saddle bags. Long distances and bad roads caused prolonged intervals between mail days and often great delays beyond the appointed times. When the post rider did come the community turned out en masse. The mail carrier was also a dispenser of news by word of mouth and always had an excited and eager group of hearers hanging on his words as to events beyond their boundaries.
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Nearly every post road was at some time the scene of a mail robbery, a cap- ital crime then, and many points are still indicated by traditions where such rob- bers have been shot or hanged.
In September, 1789, Jonathan Dayton, of New Jersey, and a member of Con- gress, wrote John Cleves Symmes, "Do not send your packets by the mail, as the expense is heavy. The letter said to be forwarded by Major Willis was by him, or some other person, thrown into the postoffice, and I was obliged to pay six shillings and eight pence in specie for it."
It was not every one who cared to receive mail in those days if the postage had not been prepaid. Sometimes people declined to take out their letters, not knowing whether or not they were of interest or value enough to justify the pay- ment of the postage.
The Centinel of the Northwestern Territory, of June 28th, 1794, announced : "We learn that there is a post established from Pittsburgh to this place and that Albert M. Dunn, Esq., is appointed deputy postmaster-general in this place." This naturally caused a stir in the frontier village. The same paper announced a fortnight later that the post from Pittsburgh had come, and that the office would be in the home of Dunn.
The first postmaster was Abner M. Dunn. His cabin on the corner of Butler street and Columbia Road, now Second street, beyond Fort Washington and the Artificers' yard, was the first postoffice.
On account of dearth of news and the uncertainty of the mails, the printer Maxwell stated in November that his first page each week would be devoted to printing the laws of the Territory.
In March of 1795 the postmaster Dunn warned "those who have a right to calculate on receiving letters or papers at his office that in future they must come prepared with ready cash in hand or no letters or papers."
In 1795, M. T. Green of Marietta agreed to convey the mails between Cin- cinnati and Pittsburgh in a canoe equipped with paddles and poles. On down stream journeys, on which traveling was easier, Greene carried some freight and an occasional passenger. A line of rowboats was soon established between these points, with relays at different stations to carry the mail.
After certain postoffices were established further up in the Miami region the mails were carried on horseback by William Olim.
Abner Dunn, postmaster, died July 18, 1795. He was succeeded in office by William Maxwell, the editor and the founder of the first newspaper in the North- west Territory. His appointment was followed by the announcement: "Gentle- men and others wishing to send letters by the post may leave them at the print- ing office where the postoffice is now kept."
In the Centinel of October 3, 1795, John G. McDowell announced that he had contracted to carry the mails between Cincinnati and Graham's Station; that he would arrive at Cincinnati on Monday at twelve o'clock noon and remain until the following morning, "which is giving a sufficient time for the inhabitants of Cincinnati to answer their letters."
April 2d, 1796, the postmaster gave notice to such as were indebted to the postoffice to pay at once and that such as were looking for newspapers in the mail should come and pay the postage.
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As throwing some light upon the relations of the Miami region to Cincinnati in the matter of the mails in early days the following facts in regard to Warren county will prove of interest. There were no postoffices within the limits of Warren county for more than eight years after the settlements were commenced. Cincinnati was for several years the postoffice for the whole Miami valley. In the year 1800 letters were advertised as remaining in the postoffice at Cincin- nati addressed to the following persons in Warren county: John Bigger, Fourth Range; Thomas Espy, Little Miami; John Wallace, schoolmaster, Turtle Creek; Moses Crane, Fourth Range; others were addressed "Bailey's Station," "Below the Big Miami," "Duck Creek," "Big Prairie," &c.
Within two years after the organization of the State government, four post- offices were established in Warren county; at Waynesville, Deerfield, Franklin and Lebanon. Ten years elapsed before any others were established. In 1812, Montgomery, in Hamilton county, was made a postoffice, and it accommodated a portion of the people of Warren living in the southwestern part of the county. Thus the people to the northward were gradually but slowly relieved of the ne- cessity of depending upon Cincinnati for their mails.
The first mails to postoffices in Warren county were carried by a postrider. The route was from Cincinnati to Lebanon, Xenia, Urbana, thence across to Piqua, down through Dayton, Franklin and Hamilton to Cincinnati, taking a week to make the trip. The people thought themselves fortunate in having a weekly mail for some years. The mail was carried by postriders until about the year 1825, when stage lines were started with the mails.
There are perhaps people still living who can remember when the postage on a letter, which must be written on a single sheet of paper, was twenty-five cents between Cincinnati and New Orleans, while the freight on a barrel of flour be- tween the same points was sometimes below that figure. Most men at that time would have regarded our present mail facilities an impossibility, and especially would the prediction that letters would one day be carried from Maine to Cali- fornia for two cents have been regarded as a Utopian dream.
Daniel Mayo succeeded Maxwell as postmaster of Cincinnati in July, 1797. On his removal to Newport, Kentucky, he was no longer eligible to the Cincin- nati position but he was soon appointed postmaster at his new home and con- tinued to act in that capacity during the remainder of his life.
William Ruffin became postmaster January Ist, 1799. He removed the post- office to his home, a two-story frame house, on Columbia and Lawrence streets. Major Ruffin held this position until the end of 1814, when he resigned and went into business with his son-in-law Major Oliver.
In Ruffin's time of service, the postage of a letter was twenty-five cents in coin. Four weeks was not an unusual period for the mail to be enroute to or from the east. The amount of mail matter in the Cincinnati office was so small as to be cared for in the corner of one room, where Major Ruffin attended to it behind glass doors. He had no assistant. The mail from the east then came once a week from Maysville, Kentucky, in one pair of saddle bags.
On May 17, 1799, the Western Spy and Hamilton Gazette announced : "Post- office .- Notice is hereby given that a postoffice is established at Chelicotha. The persons, therefore, having business in that part of the country may have speedy
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and safe conveyance by post for letters, packets, &c." That mail was then taken on horseback, following an Indian trail.
The same paper stated March 12, 1800, that a post route had been opened between Louisville and Kaskaskia, also one between Nashville and Natchez. "This will open an easy channel of communication with those remote places, which has heretofore been extremely difficult, particularly from the Atlantic States."
The mail carrier from Louisville was compelled to carry food for himself and horse from Louisville to Cincinnati. His path lay all the way through woods, where he was exposed to perils from animals and Indians as well as to hunger.
The Daily Commercial, Cincinnati, December, 1874, gave some reminiscences of this period in an interview: "In 1808-09 Peter Williams had contracts for carrying the mails between Louisville and Cincinnati, Cincinnati and Lexington, Cincinnati and Chillicothe, and Cincinnati and Greenville in Darke county. All these contracts were performed with pack horses through the dense forests and along the 'blazed' tracks or paths which, in those days, were called roads. The trip from Cincinnati to Louisville was generally performed in about two weeks' time. The provender for the horses had frequently to be carried along, it being impossible to procure any on the way. So of the other routes to the different places named,-everywhere through the grand dense forests, filled with wild game of all kinds. Our informant recollects many rude incidents which occurred on many trips he, as a boy, made with his father, and afterwards by himself, as he became older, to Chillicothe, Greenville, Louisville, &c. Mr. Williams re- tained these mail contracts up to 1821, using pack horses during the whole time, and only releasing them on the advent of the stage coaches, owners of which could afford to carry the mails at about one half the price he was getting. In those early days the pack horse was the only way in which supplies of every kind could be transported any distance; and Mr. Williams distinctly remembers that his father possessed the only wagon in the country around Cincinnati, and that, being of no use, was suffered to rot down in the barn."
Samuel Lewis was one of the youthful carriers of mail employed by Mr. Williams. His son said in an account of his life: "After working a short time upon the farm, he was employed in carrying the United States mail, for which Mr. Williams had a contract at that time. His route was at first from Cincinnati to Williamsburg, and afterward from the latter point to Chillicothe. This work often required seven days and two nights in the week, making the labor very severe. In addition to this, the creeks and small rivers along the route were to be forded, bridges at that period being out of the question. This was all done on horseback. The routes covered most of the country east of Cincinnati to the Scioto river at Chillicothe, and southward of this to the Ohio river, including Maysville, Kentucky.
"Over some of these streams, during high water, it was necessary to swim the horse; while often the attempt was accompanied with much danger. At one time, being compelled to swim his horse, he had secured the mail bag, as he sup- posed, and commenced crossing the stream, swimming himself and leading the horse. When nearly over, the mail bag from some cause became unloosed and
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floated off. His horse was first to be secured, and then the mail. Its recovery and the renewal of his journey would have been speedy, but he was struck by a floating log and severely injured. Making his way with extreme difficulty to the shore, he succeeded in mounting his horse and continuing his journey to the next town, which he reached completely drenched and exhausted, and where he remained for some days before he was able to renew his round. The accident unfitted him for his employment for the time, and when he returned to Cincin- nati he was occupied with other labor."
Mr. Lewis afterward became a distinguished man, was largely influential in the founding of the two greatest high schools of the city, and was the first super- intendent of public schools in this state.
January Ist, 1815, William Burke became postmaster. He was commonly called "Father Burke," was a Methodist itinerent preacher and had been presiding elder. Mr. Mansfield states that Burke was a southerner: "He seemed to have lost his voice and always spoke low and in guttural tones. He was always chew- ing tobacco and, being a postmaster, was always a democrat. He was a strong Methodist and seemed an amiable man." Burke separated himself from his de- nomination, procured a place of worship for his followers, and often preached there. He was inclined to politics, was at first a Jeffersonian and then a Jack- son democrat. He held office until the whigs came into power. Burke had as his assistant for a long time Elam P. Langdon, who also maintained the Cin- cinnati Reading Room, where many newspapers and journals, American and foreign, could be consulted. The postoffice in 1819 was at 157 Main street.
April 13th, 1841, President Tyler appointed as postmaster W. H. H. Taylor, who removed the office to Main street above Columbia or Second street; subse- quently he chose a site on Main street, near Fourth.
The number of mails to and from Cincinnati in 1826 was twenty each week. A portion of these was carried on ten stage coaches, three on the Chillicothe route, three on the Lebanon, three on the Dayton and Columbus route, and one on that to Georgetown, Kentucky. Ten mails were conveyed by postriders.
In 1826 the income of the Cincinnati postoffice from postage was eight thousand, one hundred and odd dollars. There were delivered in that year three thousand, seven hundred and fifty free letters.
Early in 1827 another line of stage coaches was started by way of Xenia, Urbana, Maysville, and Bucyrus to Lower Sandusky. At Sandusky the mail was put on a boat, and by this change letters reached New York in ten days. A daily line was also run to Wheeling, reaching Baltimore in eight or nine days; this route was almost the same as that taken later by the National pike. Stages at this time also were run from Cincinnati to Lexington, eighty miles.
. In 1828-29 the income of the Cincinnati postoffice was twelve thousand, one hundred and fifty dollars, an increase of fifty per cent in three years. Twenty- three mails came and went each week, eighteen by stages and five by horseback.
In 1829-30 the income was sixteen thousand, two hundred and fifty odd dol- lars. In 1833, it was twenty-six thousand, one hundred and odd dollars. In this latter year, sixty-four mails came and went each week. Of these, thirty-six were by stages, eleven on horseback, ten on steamboats, and seven part way by steamboat and partly by land.
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In 1836 there were the eastern mail, the southern mail by steamboat, the northern mail by way of Hamilton, Chillicothe, West Union; southern by way of Georgetown, Brookville, Cynthiana; western by way of Lawrenceburg, Mays- ville, Newport and Covington, Walnut Hills, Mount Healthy and Cumminsville. There was a twice-a-week mail to Guyandotte, Virginia.
For distances less than thirty miles the letter postage was six and a quarter cents. This increased to twenty-five cents for distances more than four hundred miles. This was for single sheet letters ; double sheet letters were charged double, and there was apportionate increase according to the number of sheets.
The postoffice was removed about 1836 to Third street between Vine and Walnut streets. In November, 1841, the office was removed to a new building on East Third street, between Sycamore and Main streets. This had been erected especially for the postoffice by R. L. L'Hommedieu ; the office occupied the first floor.
Dickens in his "American Notes," gives an entertaining account of his ob- servations of the stage coaches. He says: "We rested one day at Cincinnati, and then resumed our journey to Sandusky. As it comprised two varieties of stage coach traveling, which, with those I have already glanced at, comprehend the main characteristics of this mode of transit in America, I will take the reader as our fellow passenger, and pledge myself to perform the distance with all possible dispatch.
"Our place of destination in the first instance is Columbus. It is distant about a hundred and twenty miles from Cincinnati, but there is a macadamized road (rare blessing) the whole way, and the rate of traveling upon it is six miles an hour. We start at eight o'clock in the morning, in a great mailcoach, whose huge cheeks are so very ruddy and plethoric that it appears to be troubled with a tendency of blood to the head. Dropsical it certainly is, for it will hold a dozen passengers inside. But, wonderful to add, it is very clean and bright, being nearly new, and rattles through the streets of Cincinnati gaily.
"Our way lies through a beautiful country, richly cultivated, and luxuriant in its promise of an abundant harvest. Sometimes we pass a field where the strong, bristling stalks of Indian corn look like a crop of walking sticks, and sometimes an enclosure where the green wheat is springing up among a labyrinth of stumps; the primitive worm fence is universal, and an ugly thing it is; but the farms are neatly kept, and, save for these differences, one might be traveling just now in Kent.
"We often stop to water at a roadside inn, which is always dull and silent. The coachman dismounts and fills his bucket, and holds it to the horses' heads. There is scarcely ever any one to help him; there are seldom any loungers stand- ing around, and never any stable-company with jokes to crack. Sometimes, when we have changed our team, there is a difficulty in starting again, arising out of the prevalent mode of breaking a young horse; which is to catch him, harness him against his will, and put him in a stage coach without further notice ; but we get on somehow or other, after a great many kicks and a violent struggle, and jog on as before again.
"Occasionally, when we stop to change, some two or three half-drunken loafers will come loitering out with their hands in their pockets, or will be seen
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kicking their heels in rocking chairs, or sitting on a rail within the colonnade ; they have not often anything to say, though, either to us or to each other, but sit there idly staring at the coach and horses. The landlord of the inn is usually among them, and seems, of all the party, to be the least connected with the business of the house. Indeed, he is with reference to the tavern, what the driver is in relation to the coach and passengers ; whatever happens in his sphere of action, he is quite indifferent, and perfectly easy in his mind.
"There being no stage coach next day upon the road we wished to take, I hired an extra, at a reasonable charge, to carry us to Tiffin; a small town from whence there is a railroad to Sandusky. This extra was an ordinary four-horse stage coach, such as I have described, changing horses and drivers, as the stage coach would, but was exclusively our own for the journey. To insure our having horses at the proper stations, and being incommoded by no stranger, the proprie- tors sent an agent on the box, who was to accompany us the whole way through ; and thus attended, and bearing with us, besides, a hamper full of savory cold meats, and fruit and wine, we started off again, in high spirits, at half past six next morning, very much delighted to be by ourselves and disposed to enjoy even the roughest journey.
"It was well for us that we were in this humor, for the road we went over that day was certainly enough to have shaken tempers that were not set at fair, down to some inches below stormy. At one time we were all flung in a heap in the bottom of the coach, and at another we were crushing our heads against the roof. Now, one side was down deep in the mire, and we were holding on to the other. Now the coach was lying on the tails of the two wheelers; and now it was rearing up in the air in a frantic state, with all four horses standing on the top of an insurmountable eminence, looking coolly back at it, as though . they would say, 'unharness us. It can't be done.' The drivers on these roads, who certainly got over the ground in a manner which is quite miraculous, so twist and turn the team about in forcing a passage, corkscrew fashion, through the bogs and swamps, that it was quite a common circumstance on looking out of the window to see the coachman with the ends of a pair of reins in his hands, apparently driving nothing, or playing at horses, and the leaders staring at one unexpectedly from the back of the coach, as if they had some idea of getting up behind. A great portion of the way was over what is called a corduroy road, which is made by throwing trunks of trees into a marsh and leaving them to settle there. The very slightest of the jolts with which the ponderous carriage fell from log to log was enough, it seemed, to have dislocated all the bones in the human body. It would be impossible to experience a similar set of sensations in any other circumstances unless, perhaps, in attempting to go up to the top of St. Paul's in an omnibus. Never, never once that day was the coach in any position, attitude or kind of motion to which we are accustomed in coaches. Never did it make the smallest approach to one's experience of the proceedings of any sort of vehicle that goes on wheels.
"Still it was a fine day, and the temperature was delicious, and though we had left summer behind us in the west, and were fast leaving spring, we were moving towards Niagara and home. We alighted in a pleasant woods towards the middle of the day, dined on a fallen tree, and leaving our best fragments with
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a cottager and our worst with the pigs that swarm in this part of the country like grains of sand on the seashore, to the great comfort of our commissariat in Canada, we went forward gaily.
"As night came on, the track grew narrower and narrower, until at last it so lost itself among the trees, that the driver seemed to find his way by instinct. We had the comfort of knowing at least that there was no danger of his falling asleep, for every now and then a wheel would strike against an unseen stump with a jerk, that he was fain to hold on pretty quick and pretty tight to keep himself upon the box. Nor was there any reason to dread the least danger from furious driving, inasmuch as over that broken ground the horses had enough to do to walk; as to shying, there was no room for that; and a herd of wild elephants could not have run away in such a wood; with such a coach at their heels. So we stumbled along quite satisfied."
June 24, 1845, William H. Taylor was removed from the postmastership by President Polk, and George Crawford was appointed to the position. At this time the postoffice was taken to the corner of Walnut and Third streets.
Major William Oliver was appointed May 2, 1849, by President Zachary Taylor, and the postoffice was taken to the Art Union building, Sycamore and Fourth streets. As Major Oliver died in office, James C. Hall was appointed February 4, 1852, to serve out his term.
April 29, 1853, Dr. John L. Vattier became postmaster. He was removed by President Buchanan and Janies J. Faran was appointed June 4, 1855.
October 21, 1859, Dr. Vattier was again appointed and served until April, 186I.
In 1851 the government purchased ground at Fourth and Vine streets, paying fifty thousand dollars for the lots. In 1856 the government building on that site was completed and the postoffice was removed to it.
J. C. Baum took office April 15, 1861. He was succeeded May 12, 1864, by F. J. Mayer, and he by William H. H. Taylor, November 6, 1866.
Calvin W. Thomas became postmaster April 20, 1867, and Thomas H. Foulds, April 5, 1869.
January 9, 1874, Gustave R. Wahle became postmaster and John P. Loge succeeded him January 25, 1878.
The position was given S. A. Whitfield January 31, 1882. The next to hold this office was John C. Riley, appointed August 6, 1886.
John Zumstein was appointed February 9, 1891, and Charles E. Brown March 30, 1895.
Captain Elias R. Monfort, who had been a brave soldier in the Civil war, and is a citizen of prominence and usefulness, became the postmaster of Cincin- nati March 2, 1899, and still holds this office. He is highly esteemed by all citizens and under his long administration the postoffice has seen its greatest development until it is now one of the model offices of the world.
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