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Title: The Postal Service of the United States in Connection with the Local History of Buffalo
Author: Hall, Nathan Kelsey, Blossom, Thomas
Language: English
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THE POSTAL SERVICE
OF THE UNITED STATES IN CONNECTION WITH THE LOCAL
HISTORY OF BUFFALO.
* * * * *
READ BEFORE THE SOCIETY, JANUARY 6, 1865.
* * * * *
BY HON. N. K. HALL[A] AND THOMAS BLOSSOM.[B]
No very satisfactory account of the origin and progress of the Postal
Service of the country, in its more immediate connection with the local
history of Buffalo, can now be compiled. The early records of the
transportation service of the Post-Office Department, were originally
meager and imperfect; and many of the books and papers of the
Department, prior to 1837, were destroyed or lost when the public
edifices at Washington were burned in 1814, and also when the building
in which the Department was kept was destroyed by fire, in December,
1836. For these reasons the Hon. A. N. Zevely, Third Assistant
Postmaster-General--who has kindly furnished extracts from the records
and papers of the Department--has been able to afford but little
information in respect to the early transportation of the mails in the
western part of this State. Indeed, no information in respect to that
service, prior to 1814, could be given; no route-books of older date
than 1820 are now in the Department, and those from 1820 to 1835 are not
so arranged as to show the running time on the several routes.
The records of the Appointment Office, and those of the Auditor's Office
of the Department, are more full and perfect; and from these, and from
various other sources of information, much that is deemed entirely
reliable and not wholly uninteresting has been obtained.
Erastus Granger was the first Postmaster of Buffalo--or rather of
"Buffalo Creek," the original name of the office. He was appointed on
the first establishment of the office, September 30, 1804. At that time
the nearest post-offices were at Batavia on the east, Erie on the west,
and Niagara on the north. Mr. Granger was a second cousin of Hon. Gideon
Granger, the fourth Postmaster-General of the United States, who held
that office from 1801 to 1814.
The successors of our first Postmaster, and the dates of their
respective appointments, appear in the following statement:
Julius Guiteau, May 6, 1818.
Samuel Russel, April 25, 1831.
Henry P. Russell, July 26, 1834.
Orange H. Dibble, August 28, 1834.
Philip Dorsheimer, June 8, 1838.
Charles C. Haddock, October 12, 1841.
Philip Dorsheimer, April 1, 1845.
Henry K. Smith, August 14, 1846.
Isaac R. Harrington, May 17, 1849.
James O. Putnam, September 1, 1851.
James G. Dickie, May 4, 1853.
Israel T. Hatch, November 11, 1859.
Almon M. Clapp, (the present incumbent[C]) March 27, 1861.
The Buffalo Post-office was the only post-office within the present
limits of the city until January, 1817, when a post-office was
established at Black Rock. The appointments of Postmasters at Black Rock
have been as follows:
James L. Barton, January 29, 1817.
Elisha H. Burnham, July 11, 1828.
Morgan G. Lewis, June 29, 1841.
George Johnson, July 7, 1853.
Daniel Hibbard, (the present incumbent) June 1, 1861.
In July, 1854, the Post-office of Black Rock Dam, now called North
Buffalo, was established. The name of the office was changed to North
Buffalo, February 10, 1857. The appointments to that office have been as
follows:
Henry A. Bennett, July 12, 1854.
Charles Manly, March 17, 1856.
George Argus, May 20, 1859.
William D. Davis, July 29, 1861.
George Argus, (the present incumbent) 1864.
The Buffalo Post-office was kept, during Mr. Granger's term of office,
first on Main Street, near where the Metropolitan Theater[D] now stands,
and afterwards in the brick house on the west side of Pearl Street, a
few doors south of Swan Street, now No. 58 Pearl Street. Mr. Guiteau
first kept the office on Main Street, opposite Stevenson's livery
stable; then on the west side of Main Street about the middle of the
block next south of Erie Street; and afterwards on the northwest corner
of Ellicott Square. It was kept in the same place for a short period at
the commencement of Judge Russel's term of office, but was soon removed
to the northwest corner of the next block above, where it remained until
after the appointment of Mr. Dibble. It was removed by Mr. Dibble about
1836, to the old Baptist Church then standing on the corner where the
post-office is now kept, and it was kept in that building until after
Mr. Haddock took the office. He removed the office to the northwest
corner of Main and Seneca Streets, where it remained until it was
removed, in August, 1858, into the Government building in which it is
now.
The gross receipts of the post-office at Buffalo, for the years given in
the following table, have been as follows:
1805 $ 90.83 1825 $ 2,840.60
1806 120.13 1830 6,695.34
1807 122.82 1835 19,219.34
1808 173.63 1840 25,501.49
1809 217.49 1845 22,681.26
1810 291.46 1850 39,644.01
1812 963.61 1855 47,458.67
1813 Imperfect returns. 1860 44,800.94
1814 488.37[E] 1862 55,265.57[F]
1815 1,932.98 1863 48,238.53
1820 1,463.21
The gross receipts at the offices of Black Rock, Black Rock Dam and
North Buffalo, for the years named have been as follows:
_At Black Rock:_
1817 $ 56.88 1845 $ 467.32
1818 134.34 1850 776.62
1819 237.96 1855 420.24
1820 239.38 1860 317.74
1825 737.41 1862 389.50
1830 493.08 1863 461.52
1835 617.49 1864} 234.52
1840 712.77 to July 1.}
_At Black Rock Dam (North Buffalo):_
1854 $ 108.47 1862 $ 463.27
1855 419.82 1863 650.73
1860 303.15 1864} 319.75
1861 307.20 to July 1.}
The aggregate amount of the postage received at the different
post-offices must always depend, in a greater or less degree, upon the
extent and frequency of the mail transportation by which such offices
are supplied, and the rates of postage charged, as well as upon the
number, education, character and occupation of the population within the
delivery of such offices. Other causes, some of them local or temporary,
may at times affect the revenue of an office, but only the population of
the neighborhood, the frequency and extent of the transportation
service, and the general rates of letter postage, will be here
considered.
The first census under the authority of the United States was taken in
1790; probably in July and August of that year. In that portion of New
York lying west of the old Massachusetts preëmption line it was taken by
General Amos Hall, as Deputy Marshal, and an abstract of his list or
census-roll is given in Turner's "History of Phelps and Gorham's
Purchase." The number of heads of families then residing west of Genesee
River, and named in that list, was 24; but it is probable that the
deputy marshal did not visit this locality, as neither Winney the Indian
trader, nor Johnston the Indian agent and interpreter, is named;
although it is probable that both of them resided here. Winney, it is
quite certain, was here in 1791, and it is supposed came about 1784.
The whole population west of the Massachusetts preëmption line, which
was a line drawn due north and south across the State, passing through
Seneca Lake and about two miles east of Geneva, as given by Turner from
General Hall's census-roll, was 1,084, as follows: males, 728; females,
340; free blacks, 7; slaves, 9. In the State census report of 1853, the
population of Ontario County in 1790 (which county then embraced all
that territory) is stated at 1,075. The difference between the two
statements is caused by the omission of the slaves from the latter
statement. In 1800 the population of the same territory (then the
Counties of Ontario and Steuben) was 15,359 free persons and 79 slaves.
In 1808 the County of Niagara (embracing the present counties of Niagara
and Erie) was organized, and its population in 1810 was 6,132. Of these
1,465 were inhabitants of the present County of Niagara, and 4,667 of
the present County of Erie. There were then in the county 8 slaves,
which number should probably be added to the aggregate above stated.
In 1820 the population of Niagara County was 18,156, of which 10,834
were inhabitants of the present County of Erie. There were then 15
slaves in the whole County of Niagara.
In 1821, the County of Erie was organized with its present boundaries.
Its population at each census since has been as follows, viz: 1825,
24,316; 1830, 35,719; 1835, 57,594; 1840, 62,465; 1845, 78,635; 1850,
100,993; 1855, 132,331; and 1860, 141,791.
It is probable that in 1790, Winney and Johnston were the only white
residents upon the territory now embraced within our city limits. In
1796, there were but four buildings in all that territory--as stated by
the late Joseph Landon. In 1807, there were about a dozen houses. This
number, it is said, had increased to more than 200 houses, when, on the
31st of December, 1813, the village was burned by the British and
Indians;--only the house of Mrs. St. John, Reese's blacksmith shop, the
gaol, and the uncovered frame of a barn escaping the general
conflagration.
The white population of the territory now comprised in our city limits
did not, in 1800, probably exceed 25. The earliest census report which
gives any information in regard to its population is that of 1810 when
the population was 1,508. It was 1,060 in 1814; 2,095 in 1820; 5,141 in
1825; 8,668 in 1830; 21,838 in 1840; 34,606 in 1845; 49,769 in 1850;
74,214 in 1855; and 81,129 in 1860. It is believed that it is now about
100,000.
But little reliable information in regard to the transportation of the
mails west of Albany from 1800 to 1824, can now be obtained; and as the
transportation service and the origin and progress of the system of
posts, by which, even now, much of this transportation service is
performed, are believed to be the most interesting of the topics of the
present paper (as that service itself is the most essential of those
connected with the Post-office establishment), it has been deemed proper
to refer to the probable origin of that system;--a system which in its
continued extension and constant improvement, has grown into the
Post-office establishment of the present day. These are now, almost
universally under the control of the State or sovereign power, and they
are certainly among the most important and beneficent of the
institutions of civil government.
It is said that the Assyrian and Persian monarchs had their posts, at a
day's journey from each other, with horses saddled, ready to carry with
the utmost dispatch, the decrees of these despotic rulers. In the Roman
Empire, couriers on swift horses carried the imperial edicts to every
province. Charlemagne, it is said, established stations for carriers who
delivered the letters and decrees of the court in the different and
distant parts of his dominions. As early as the XIth Century the
University of Paris had a body of pedestrian messengers, to carry
letters and packets from its thousands of students to various parts of
Europe, and to tiring money, letters and packets in return. Posts for
the transmission of Government messages were established in England in
the XIIIth Century, and in 1464 Louis XI. established a system of
mounted posts, stationed four French miles apart, to carry the
dispatches of the Government.
Government posts, as the convenience and interest of the people at large
began to receive some attention from their rulers, were at times allowed
to carry private letters, and private posts for the transmission of
general correspondence were sometimes established. This was at first but
an irregular and uncertain service, without fixed compensation; but
considerable regularity, order and system were the results of the public
appreciation of their convenience, and of the gradual improvements which
followed their more general employment.
In 1524 the French posts--which had previously carried only the letters
of the King and nobles--were first permitted to carry other letters; and
in 1543 Charles V., Emperor of Germany, established a riding post
throughout his dominions. It was not until the reign of James I. that a
system of postal communication was established in England, although
Edward IV., in 1481, had established posts twenty miles apart, with
riders, to bring the earliest intelligence of the events of the war with
the Scots. It was not until about 1644 that a weekly conveyance of
letters, by post, was established throughout that kingdom. Mail coaches
were first used at Bristol, in England, in 1784. They were placed on the
post routes in 1785, and their use became general throughout England.
The mail service of North America, which in its magnitude and
regularity, and in the extension of its benefits to every settlement and
fireside, has, it is believed, no superior, probably had its beginning
in private enterprise; although perhaps sanctioned at the very outset,
by local authority.
As early as 1677 Mr. John Hayward, scrivener, of Boston, Mass., was
appointed by the General Court to take in and convey letters according
to their direction. This was probably the first post-office and mail
service authorized in America. Other local arrangements, necessarily
very imperfect in their character, were made in different colonies soon
after; some of them having the sanction of Colonial Governors or
Legislatures.
Thomas Dongan, the Governor of New York under the Duke of York, in a
letter to the Duke's secretary, dated February 18, 1684, says:
You are pleased to say I may set up a post-house, but send me noe
power to do it. I never intended it should be expensive to His Royal
Highness. It was desired by the neighboring colonies, and is at
present practiced in some places by foot messengers.
In the same letter Gov. Dongan says he will endeavor to establish a
post-office in Connecticut and at Boston. Under date of August 27, 1684,
Sir John Werden, the Duke's secretary, wrote to Gov. Dongan:
As for setting up post-houses along the coast from Carolina to Nova
Scotia it seems a very reasonable thing, and you may offer the
privilege thereof to any undertakers for ye space of 3 or 5 years,
by way of farm; reserving wt part of ye profit you think fit to the
Duke.
At least as early as January, 1690, there was what was called a public
post between Boston and New York, and in 1691 there was a post of some
kind from New York to Virginia, and from New York to Albany. This was
during the war with the French, and these posts were probably
established by the military authorities.
On the 4th of April, 1692, Thomas Neele, having obtained a patent to
establish post-offices throughout the American colonies, appointed
Andrew Hamilton (afterwards Governor of New Jersey), his deputy for all
the plantations. Mr. Deputy Hamilton brought the subject before Gov.
Fletcher and the New York Colonial Assembly in October following, and an
Act was immediately passed "for encouraging a post-office."
In 1705 Lord Cornbury, the Governor of New York, informed the Lords of
Trade of the passage by the New York Assembly of "an Act for enforcing
and continuing a post-office," which he recommended His Majesty to
confirm "as an act of necessity," without which the post to Boston and
Philadelphia would be lost.
In 1710 the British Parliament passed an Act authorizing the British
Postmaster-General "to keep one chief letter-office in New York and
other chief letter-offices in each of His Majesty's Provinces or
Colonies in America." Deputy Postmasters-General for North America were
afterwards, and from time to time, appointed by the British
Postmaster-General in England. Dr. Franklin was appointed to that office
in 1755, and it is said that in 1760 he startled the people of the
colonies by proposing to run a "stage waggon" from Boston to
Philadelphia once a week, starting for each city on Monday morning and
reaching the other by Saturday. In 1763 he spent five months in
traveling through the Northern Colonies for the purpose of inspecting
and improving the post-offices and the mail service. He went as far east
as New Hampshire, and the whole extent of his five months' tour, in
going and returning, was about sixteen hundred miles. He made such
improvements in the service as to enable the citizens of Philadelphia to
write to Boston and get replies in three weeks instead of six weeks, the
time previously required.
In 1774 Dr. Franklin was removed from office; and on the 25th of
December, 1775, the Secretary of the General Post-Office gave notice
that, in consequence of the Provincial Congress of Maryland having
passed a resolution that the Parliamentary post should not be permitted
to travel on a pass through that province, and of the seizure of the
mails at Baltimore and Philadelphia, the Deputy Postmaster-General was
"obliged, for the present, to stop all the posts." It is supposed that
this terminated the regular mail service in the old Thirteen Colonies,
and that it was never resumed under British management.
Before this suspension of the Parliamentary posts, Mr. William Godard of
Baltimore had proposed to establish "an American Post-office"; and in
July, 1774, he announced that his proposals had been warmly and
generously patronized by the friends of freedom, and that postmasters
and riders were engaged. During the preceding six months he had visited
several of the colonies in order to extend and perfect his arrangements,
and there appears to have been a very general disposition to abandon the
use of the British post and sustain that established by Mr. Godard. In
May, 1775, Mr. Godard had thirty postmasters, but Mr. John Holt of New
York City was the only one in this State. In that year partial
arrangements for mail service in Rhode Island, Connecticut, New
Hampshire and Massachusetts were made by the Provincial Congress of each
of those Colonies.
The old Continental Congress first assembled in September, 1774; and on
the 26th of July, 1775, it resolved "that a Postmaster-General should be
appointed for the United Colonies who should hold his office at
Philadelphia and be allowed a salary of $1,000 for himself and $340 for
his secretary and comptroller; and that a line of posts should be
appointed, under the direction of the Postmaster-General, from
Falmouth, in New England, to Savannah, in Georgia." Dr. Franklin was
then unanimously chosen Postmaster-General. The ledger in which he kept
the accounts of his office is now in the Post-office Department. It is a
half-bound book of rather more than foolscap size, and about
three-fourths of an inch thick, and many of the entries are in Dr.
Franklin's own handwriting. Richard Bache succeeded Dr. Franklin
November 7, 1776, and Mr. Bache was succeeded by Ebenezer Hazard.
The Articles of Confederation, adopted in 1778, gave to the United
States, in Congress assembled, "the sole and extensive right and power
of establishing and regulating post-offices from one State to another";
but the increase of mail service was comparatively trifling until after
the organization of the Post-office Department by the first Congress
which assembled under the Constitution of the United States. This gave
it efficiency and value, and provided for the early extension of its
benefits to the inhabitants of the several States.
The National Congress, organized under the Constitution, commenced its
first session on the 4th of March, 1789, but it was not until September
22, 1790, that an Act was passed for establishing, or rather continuing,
the postal service. The Act then passed provided that a
Postmaster-General should be appointed, and that the regulations of the
Post-office should be the same as they last were under the resolutions
and ordinances of the Congress of the Confederation.
In 1790 there were but seventy-five post-offices and 1,875 miles of
post-roads in the United States, and the whole amount of postages
received for that year was $37,935. The population of the United States,
as shown by the census of that year, was only 3,929,827; and the whole
mail service was performed upon our seaboard line, passing through the
principal towns from Wiscassett in Maine, to Savannah in Georgia, and
upon a few cross or intersecting lines, on many portions of which the
mail was carried only once a fortnight.
On the 3d of March, 1791, the Postmaster-General was authorized to
extend the carrying of the mail from Albany to Bennington, Vermont. It
is probable that the post-office at Albany was a special office until
late in that year, as in an official list of post-offices, with their
receipts for the year ending October 5, 1791, New York is the only
office in this State; and by an official statement dated April 24, 1790,
it appears that the contractor from Albany to New York received the
postages for carrying the mail, and that that was the only mail service
in this State north or west of New York City.
It is stated in a "History of Oneida County" that the first mail to
Utica was brought by Simeon Post in 1793, under an arrangement with the
Post-office Department authorizing its transportation from Canajoharie
to Whitestown at the expense of the inhabitants on the route; and that
in 1793 or 1794, the remarkable fact that the Great Western Mail, on one
arrival at Fort Schuyler (Utica), contained six letters for that place,
was heralded from one end of the settlement to the other. It is added
that some were incredulous, but the solemn and repeated assurances of
the veracious Dutch postmaster at last obtained general credence.
On the 8th of May, 1794, sundry post-routes were established, among
which is one "from Albany by Schenectady, Johnstown, Canajoharie and
Whitestown, to Canandaigua"; and in July, 1794, four-horse "stages" were
run from Albany to Schenectady daily. The passenger fare by these stages
was only three cents per mile.
On the 31st of July, 1794, the Postmaster-General, Timothy Pickering,
advertised in the Albany _Gazette_ for proposals for carrying the mails
in this State, as follows: (1.) "From New York by Peekskill, Fishkill,
Poughkeepsie, Rhinebeck, Redhook, Clermont, Hudson and Kinderhook to
Albany," to leave New York every Monday and Thursday at 4 p. m., and
arrive at Albany on Wednesday and Saturday by 7 in the evening. (2.)
"From Albany by Schenectady, Johnstown and Canajoharie to Whitestown,"
to leave Albany every Thursday at 10 a. m., and arrive at Whitestown on
Saturday by 6 p. m. (3.) "From Canajoharie through Cherry Valley to the
Court House in Cooperstown," to leave every Friday at 4 p. m., and
arrive on Saturday by 1 p. m. (4.) "From Whitestown to Canandaigua once
in two weeks"; to leave Whitestown every other Monday at 8 a. m., and
arrive at Canandaigua the next Thursday by 2 p. m. This advertisement
bears date July 8, 1794. It does not state the mode of conveyance
required.
On the 3d of March, 1797, Congress established a post-road "from
Kanandaigua in the State of New York, to Niagara." This route was run
through Avon and LeRoy, and probably through Batavia, and thence on the
north side of the Tonawanda Creek, and through the present town of
Lockport to Niagara.
In the "History of Onondaga County" it is stated that a Mr. Langdon
first carried the mail through that county on horseback from Whitestown
to Genesee in 1797 or 1798[G]; that he distributed papers and unsealed
letters by the way before intermediate offices were established; that a
Mr. Lucas succeeded Mr. Langdon in transporting the mail, which, in
1800, had become so heavy as to require a wagon to transport it that the
first four-horse mail-coach was sent through in 1803; and that in 1804
Jason Parker ran a four-horse mail-coach twice a week from Utica to
Canandaigua. From an advertisement at Canandaigua, copied by Turner, it
appears that a mail-coach was that year run twice a week between Albany
and Canandaigua.
It is stated in Turner's "History of Phelps and Gorham's Purchase" (p.
174), that Luther Cole was the first to carry the mail from Whitestown
to Canandaigua--on horseback when the roads would allow, but often on
foot. The same history states that the mail-route from Canandaigua to
Niagara was established "about 1798" (1797) and that the mail was
carried through by Jasper Marvin--who sometimes dispensed with mail-bags
and carried the mail in his pocket-book--and that he was six days in
going and returning. The route, it is stated, was the usual one from
Canandaigua to Buffalo and then down the river on the Canada side, to
Fort Niagara; but other, and it is believed more reliable authority
states, that the mail at this time was carried through Cold Springs, in
the present town of Lockport, and did not pass through Buffalo Creek.
The surveys upon the Holland Land Company's Purchase were commenced in
the spring of 1798, and the first wagon track on the Purchase was opened
that year. Before that time parties came through from Canandaigua on the
old Indian Trail. In 1802, Mr. Ellicott, the Holland Land Company's
agent, procured the establishment of a post-office at Batavia, and the
appointment of James Brisbane as postmaster.[H]
In 1804 the Holland Land Company's survey of the inner lots of the
present City of Buffalo was made, and on the 26th of March in that year
Congress passed an Act in relation to post-routes which provides that
the post-route from Canandaigua to Niagara shall pass by Buffalo Creek.
From this it is clearly to be inferred that the mail to Niagara had been
previously carried upon a different route, as above stated.
In the Buffalo Directory of 1828 is the following statement:
The first mail received here was in March, 1803, on horseback. It
was conveyed from the East once in two weeks, in this manner, until
1805. A weekly route was then established and continued until 1809.
In 1810 the mode of conveyance was changed and a stage-wagon was
used.
This statement is substantially repeated in several subsequent
directories and is probably _nearly_ correct; although it will be
recollected that the post-office at Buffalo was not established until
September, 1804, and it appears by extracts from a Canandaigua paper
that a "stage road to Niagara" was advertised, in 1808, to leave
Canandaigua every Monday, at 6 o'clock a. m., and arrive at Niagara
_via_ Buffalo every Thursday at 3 a. m. These stages were run by John
Metcalf, who, in April, 1807, had obtained from the Legislature of this
State a law giving him the exclusive right, for some years, of running
stages from Canandaigua to Buffalo, and imposing a fine of $500 on any
other person running wagons on said route as a stage line. He was
required to provide at least three wagons and three stage sleighs with
sufficient coverings and a sufficient number of horses. The fare was
not to exceed six cents a mile for a passenger and fourteen pounds of
baggage; and for every one hundred and fifty pounds additional baggage
he was to be entitled to charge six cents a mile or in that proportion.
He was to start on regular days, and between the first day of July and
first day of October he was to accomplish said route between Canandaigua
and Buffalo at least once in a week, unavoidable accidents excepted.
In a report made to Congress by the Hon. Gideon Granger,
Postmaster-General, on the 21st of February, 1810, it is stated that in
March, 1799, it required to write from Portland to Savannah and receive
an answer forty days, and that it then required but twenty-seven; that
in 1799 it required between New York and Canandaigua twenty days, and
then required but twelve; and that most if not all the other mails have
been expedited proportionably according to their relative importance.
On the 18th of April, 1814, Congress established a post-route "from
Sheldon, by Willink and Hamburg, to Buffalo," and it appears from the
books of the Post-office Department that mail service, once in two
weeks, leaving Sheldon every other Friday at 6 a. m. and arriving at
Buffalo the next day at 10 a. m., and leaving Buffalo the same day at 12
m. and arriving at Sheldon the next day by 8 p. m., was the same year
put upon the route.
In 1815, the mail was carried from Buffalo to Erie once a week, leaving
Buffalo on Saturday at 12 m. and arriving at Erie on Monday at 6 p. m.,
and leaving Erie Tuesday at 6 a. m. and arriving at Buffalo on Thursday
by 10 a. m.
In 1816, the mail between Buffalo and Youngstown was carried twice a
week, twelve hours being allowed for a trip either way.
On the 3rd of March, 1817, a post-route "from Moscow by the State road
to Buffalo," and one "from Canandaigua, by Bristol, Richmond, Livonia
and Genesee to Sheldon" were established.
About the first of the year 1819 the post-office at Buffalo was made a
distributing office, and it has continued to be a distributing office
ever since.
From 1820 to 1824, the arrangements of the Department for mail service
from New York City to Buffalo, thence to Niagara, and from Buffalo to
Erie, Pa., were as follows:--Leave New York daily at 9 a. m., and
arrive at Albany next day by 8.30 p. m.; leave Albany at 2 a. m. and
arrive at Utica the same day by 9 p. m. (10 p. m. in winter); leave
Utica the next day at 6 a. m. and arrive at Canandaigua the next day at
8 p. m.; leave Canandaigua at 6 a. m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays
and arrive at Buffalo the next day at 6 p. m.; leave Buffalo Mondays,
Wednesdays and Fridays at 6 a. m. and arrive at Niagara the same day at
6 p. m.; and also to leave Buffalo Tuesdays at 2 p. m. and arrive at
Erie the next day by 6 p. m. It will thus be seen that a letter which
left New York on Monday morning at 9 o'clock would reach this city at 6
o'clock the next Sunday evening, and Erie three days later, if the mails
were not behind time. This frequently happened in bad weather, and it is
possible that the interest of contractors, as connected with the
transportation of passengers, sometimes induced them to reach Buffalo in
advance of their schedule time.
On the 3rd of March, 1823, a post-route was established "from Buffalo in
Erie to Olean in the County of Cattaraugus, passing through the towns of
Boston, Concord and Ellicottville."
On the 14th of July, 1824, the mail routes by which the Buffalo office
was supplied, and the service thereon, were as follows: Canandaigua to
Buffalo, three times a week; Niagara to Buffalo, three times a week;
Erie to Buffalo, twice a week; and Moscow to Buffalo, once a week.
From 1824 to 1828, the mail was generally carried from New York to
Albany by steamboats, six times a week, during the season of navigation,
and probably three times a week, by land, in winter; and the mail from
Buffalo to Albany was carried twice a week, by one line in three days
and four hours, and by the other in four days. The mails from Buffalo to
Youngstown and from Buffalo to Erie were carried each way three times a
week.
It is stated in the Buffalo Directory of 1828, that the number of mails
then arriving and departing weekly from the Buffalo post-office was
thirty-five. An advertisement by the late Bela D. Coe, Esq., states that
the Pilot mail-coach left Buffalo every evening, arrived at Geneva the
first day, Utica the second, and Albany the third; and that the
Diligence coach left Buffalo every morning at 8 o'clock, arrived at
Avon the first night, Auburn the second, Utica the third, and Albany the
fourth.
On the 15th of June, 1832, a post-route was established "from Buffalo,
Erie County, by Aurora, Wales, Holland, Sardinia, China, Fredonia,
Caneadea and Belfast to Angelica in Allegany County"; after which no
other post-routes, commencing or terminating at Buffalo, were
established prior to 1845, except that by the Act of July 7, 1838, all
the railroads then existing (in which the Buffalo & Niagara Falls
Railroad must be included), or thereafter to be completed in the United
States, were declared post-roads, and the Postmaster-General was thereby
authorized, under certain restrictions, to contract for carrying the
mails thereon.
As the last link in the chain of railroads from Albany to Buffalo was
completed early in 1843, there was then, or soon after, continuous mail
transportation by railroad from Boston, through Worcester, Springfield
and Albany to Buffalo. The completion of the Hudson River Railroad, and
of the New York and Erie Railroad in 1851, gave us direct railroad
communication with New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, and
the completion of the Buffalo & State Line Railroad and other roads in
or before 1852, gave us further railroad service for the supply of the
Buffalo office.
As the receipts of our post-office are, to a large extent, determined by
the rates of postage charged, especially of letter postage, which
probably constitutes nine-tenths of those receipts, a very brief
statement in regard to the rates of letter postage since the post-office
of Buffalo Creek was established, will form the concluding portion of
this paper.
From 1792 until 1845 the single rate of letter postage was charged on
each single letter, and an additional single rate on each additional
piece of paper; and if a single or other letter weighed an ounce or more
it was charged four single rates for each ounce. During this period of
fifty-three years--from 1792 to 1845--the changes in the rates of inland
letter postage were very slight. There were generally from five to eight
different single rates, according to the distance the letter was
carried, the lowest being, at different times, six or eight cents, and
the highest uniformly twenty-five cents, except for a short period,
near the close of the War of 1812, when, in consequence of the expenses
of the war, the rates were temporarily increased fifty per cent.
From 1816 to 1845 the rate for a single letter carried not over thirty
miles was 6-1/4 cents; over thirty and under eighty miles, 10 cents;
over eighty and under one hundred and fifty miles, 12-1/2 cents; over
one hundred and fifty and under four hundred miles, 18-3/4 cents; and
over four hundred miles, 25 cents.
By an Act of Congress passed in 1845, the rate of inland letter postage
(after the 1st of July in that year), was fixed, irrespective of the
number of pieces of paper contained in a letter, as follows: For a
letter not exceeding half an ounce in weight, carried under three
hundred miles, 5 cents; over three hundred miles, 10 cents, and an
additional rate for every additional half ounce or fraction of half an
ounce. Drop letters and printed circulars were by the same Act, to be
charged 2 cents each. This was considered by the Post-office Department
as an average deduction of 53 per cent. from the previously existing
rates.
In 1851 an Act was passed which reduced the single rate of inland letter
postage (from and after the 30th of June in that year), for any distance
not exceeding three thousand miles, to 3 cents, when prepaid, and 5
cents when not prepaid; and for any distance over three thousand miles
to 6 cents when prepaid and 10 cents when not prepaid. Drop letters and
also unsealed printed circulars for any distance not exceeding five
hundred miles were, by the same Act, to be charged 1 cent each. This, it
is believed, was an average reduction of about fifty per cent. on the
reduced rates of inland letter postage established by the Act of 1845.
These rates did not apply to foreign letters, for which different
provision was made.
The Postal Treaty with Great Britain made in 1848, the postal
arrangements made in 1851 for direct and frequent postal communication
with the Canadas and other British Provinces, and the postal
arrangements soon after made with Prussia and other foreign countries,
increased to a considerable extent the amount of postages received at
the Buffalo offices on letters sent to and received from foreign
countries.
In 1855 an Act was passed under which all inland postage was required to
be prepaid and which fixed the single rate of inland letter postage for
any distance not exceeding three thousand miles at 3 cents, and for any
distance exceeding three thousand miles at 10 cents.
In 1863 the single uniform rate of inland letter postage was fixed at 3
cents, without regard to distance, and was required to be prepaid by
stamps; the postage on drop letters was increased to 2 cents the half
ounce; and all letters reaching their destination without prepayment of
postage were to be charged with double the rate of prepaid postage
chargeable thereon, thus allowing letters to be sent without prepayment
and leaving the general rate of inland letter postage when prepaid as it
was fixed for distances under three thousand miles by the Act of 1851,
but increasing it 1 cent beyond the rate of 1851 when sent unpaid; also
increasing the rate of 1851 on unsealed printed circulars from 1 to 2
cents, and on drop letters from 1 cent the letter to 2 cents the half
ounce; and reducing the rates of postage to and from California and
Oregon from 6 to 3 cents when prepaid and from 10 to 6 cents when not
prepaid.
That the revenues of the Department have been perennially diminished by
these reductions cannot be denied; but it is believed that this
diminution has been slight in comparison with the public benefits which
have followed the adoption of rates of postage, which (the cost of
transportation consequent upon the vast extent over which our more
remote settlements are scattered, the general sparseness of our
population and the high prices of clerical and other labor being
considered) are believed to be the cheapest which have ever been adopted
by any Government of ancient or modern times.
FOOTNOTES:
[A] [B] Respectively Postmaster-General and Postmaster of Buffalo.--ED.
[C] Succeeded in 1866 by Joseph Candee (died Nov. 20, 1884); succeeding
Postmasters of Buffalo have been: Isaac M. Schermerhorn; Thomas M.
Blossom (appointed in 1869, died Feb. 10, 1882); Isaac M. Schermerhorn
(second appointment, April, 1871); John M. Bedford (appointed April 1,
1879); John B. Sackett (appointed March 7, 1887); Bernard F. Gentsch
(appointed May 28, 1890, died Aug. 3, 1894); Howard H. Baker (appointed
June 7, 1894), present incumbent.--ED.
[D] Predecessor of the Academy of Music, east side of Main, between
Seneca and Swan Streets.--ED.
[E] Last quarter only.
[F] Stamps sold for currency $18,000 more, furnished from Buffalo P. O.
[G] AUTHOR'S NOTE--This is probably erroneous as it will be seen that
the post-road from Whitestown to Canandaigua was established and service
thereon advertised for in 1794. It is quite certain that there was mail
service on this route as early as 1795.
[H] AUTHOR'S NOTE.--This was stated on the authority of Turner's
"History of the Holland Purchase" and it was supposed there could be no
doubt of its accuracy. But in Vol. 1., _Miscellaneous_, of the American
State Papers, published by Gales & Seaton, is a list of post-offices in
1800 (p. 289), and of those established in 1801 (p. 298), and in the
latter is "Batavia, N. Y., Sanford Hunt, Postmaster." It may be that Mr.
Hunt did not accept the appointment and that Mr. Brisbane was appointed
in 1802.
Transcriber's Note:
Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note.
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