Volume 13 , Issue 42

History of the Post Office

According to the "Chester (Oklahoma) Centennial 1895-1995" compiled in April 1995, the beginning of the current postal system started on the East Coast in the late 1600's. It was another fifty (50) years before postal service reached the South.

The communication service in those times was poor and very costly. In the early 1800's a letter from Maine to Georgia took 20 days in transit. Postal rates were graded according to distance.

From what I am reading, it cost 8-cents to send a letter of one sheet within a distance of 30 miles. As the roads improved, so did the postal service. By 1845 the postal rates were cut to 5-cents per half-ounce to send a letter 3,000 miles. This was also when the 3-cent postage stamp was authorized.

Back then the mail was being carried by stagecoach, railroads, boats or personal carriers. The Pony Express was organized to speed deliveries, but about this same time, the telegraph system was rapidly growing. The Pony Express did make its fastest run in 1861, when it carried Lincoln's first Inaugural Address from Nebraska to the end of the western telegraph line in Nevada in 7 days-17 hours. The telegraph grew so fast that it put the Pony Express into bankruptcy.

In 1896, the Rural Free Deliver (RFD) was made available on an experimental basis as the postal service kept pace with the growing needs of the country and new transportations were developed.

The post office began to handle the delivery of packages through Parcel Post in 1913. By 1918 airmail service was started.   |  View or Add Comments (1 Comments)   |   Receive updates ( subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

---