Warren County
Local History by Dallas Bogan |
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Dallas Bogan on 4 September 2004 |
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original article by Dallas Bogan |
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Carrier of news and knowledge, instrument of trade and
Commerce, promoter of mutual acquaintance among men and
Nations and hence of peace and goodwill.
Carrier of love and sympathy, messenger of friendship,
Consoler of the lonely, servant of the scattered family,
Enlarger of the public life.
Charles William Eliot
The postal system of today and yesterday differ as much as day and night.
Our original postal network, east of the Alleghenies, had become a part of the
British format before the opening of the 18th century.
Efforts made by the Crown were stimulated to influence communication between
English speaking colonies in America. A somewhat unusual postal system had grown
from these efforts.
A young Philadelphia printer, Benjamin Franklin, was appointed postmaster of
that city in 1737. So efficiently did he run the system that he was named a
joint Postmaster General of the Colonies, serving with William Hunter of Virginia.
One of the first acts of the Continental Congress assembling in 1775, was the
organization of a line of posts from Maine to Georgia, connecting with cross
lines running into the interior. This method was under the supervision of Benjamin
Franklin, who had since been named Postmaster General in this year.
Evolving out of the old British plan, the new system gradually became more efficiently
run. During and after the Revolution, the whole procedure was directed toward
promoting settlements.
The British system, still partially intact, set up the custom of farming out
contracts for carrying the mail, first to individuals, and later to stagecoach
companies. Certainly this way was more practical because of the regulation of
business at great distances.
A requirement by law was given to ferry owners to give special consideration
to carriers of the United States mail. The ferry was to be made available, day
or night, to transport the mail without pay.
Also in the year 1794, a post office was opened in a little white frame building
in the old French town of Gallipolis, with Francois D'Hebecourt as postmaster.
Being French born, he attended a military school in Paris where he became acquainted
with a lad from Corsica named Napoleon Bonaparte.
After graduation they planned to go to America and found a colony, but Bonaparte's
family convinced him to remain in Paris.
Prior to 1794, the mail had been carried into the West from towns in Virginia
to Danville, Ky. Letters and the armies of Generals Arthur St. Clair and Anthony
Wayne sent messages in large numbers during this period. Long distance mail
service on horseback was first established westward as far as Pittsburgh in
1788. On May 24, 1794, Postmaster General Pickering wrote General Rufus Putnam
at Marietta that a mail service would be provided between Pittsburgh and Wheeling
by land, thence to Limestone (Maysville), Kentucky, by water. From this location
the mails would be sent to interior Kentucky offices and other locations along
the river, including Cincinnati.
At this announcement boats were being built and already preparing for future
business. A month later the Cincinnati newspaper, the "Centinel of the
Northwest Territory," announced that a post had been established from Pittsburgh
to Cincinnati, and that Albert M. Dunn had been named Deputy Postmaster General.
Jonathan Meigs, Jr., had been named to a similar post in Marietta.
Because of the river conditions, such as ice, high water, and a number of trivial
incidents, plans to use the river for mail delivery did not work properly.
Estimated time in 1794, by way of the Ohio River from Pittsburgh to Cincinnati,
was given as seven days, while It required thirteen days for the return up the
river.
In 1795, M.T. Green of Marietta contracted to carry the mails between Cincinnati
and Pittsburgh in a canoe furnished with paddles and poles. While going down
stream he would sometimes carry freight or an occasional passenger.
Green's canoe soon became very flimsy and, consequently, sometime later a line
of row boats were established with relays at different stations between these
junctures.
One old account stated that a boat was to leave Marietta "every Monday
morning at five o'clock, or the evening before, if She chuses. She will make
her passage up the river so as to Deliver the Mail at the Post Office at Wheeling
the next Wednesday Evening unless a very extreordinary Fresh in the river shall
render it empracticable which will very seldom if ever happen."
Mail exchange between the boats was made at Marietta, Gallipolis and Limestone.
Rowing the boat in midstream was a precaution against the precarious Indians.
Each boat was manned with four oarsmen and a coxswain armed. Passengers were
always taken downstream, never up.
An order sent from Washington City concerning the qualifications of the post-rider
stated that "in the selection of riders you must always take persons of
integrity, sound health, firmness, perseverance and high ambition, and pride
of character. Among these a preference is due to young men, the less the size
the better."
The Postmaster General provided portmanteaus (a stiff leather suitcase that
opens into two compartments) and bags. The rider was committed to carry the
mail under cover and keep it securely locked at night. Bond in the sum of $1,000
was secured for the "faithful performance of duty."
We can hardly envision the trials and tribulations these post-riders had to
experience. They had to make their way through mazes of underbrush and dense
forests, or traverse along the edge of swiftly flowing rivers searching for
a shallow place to ford, or lumber their enduring horse through a marshland,
just to emerge into the dense forests once again.
Compensation for the early post-riders has not been satisfactorily established,
as some statistics of the Post Office Department indicate that riders got all
the proceeds between certain offices on certain routes.
In one instance the Postmaster General offered a courier $2.50 per mile for
carrying the mail. In another location it was recorded that carriers received
two cents for "each piece of franked mail that they carried." (To
be continued.)
Chillicothe was the state capital of Ohio from 1803 to 1809. It was then moved
to Zanesville and later returned to Chillicothe in 1812, it being moved permanently
to Columbus in 1816. Chillicothe was, according to old postal maps, the nucleus
of all the old routes until 1810 when all existing post routes were terminated
and replaced by a whole new system.
Ohio at this time was growing by leaps and bounds. With a great increase in
the volume of mail, bags became heavier and more bulky, and sometimes were left
behind for want of room. As a consequence, Cincinnati would be left without
mail for a substantial time.
The history of Allen County gives a short sketch of one of the first mail carriers
in the Northwest Territory. It tells that Tutaw, a Shawnee Indian, was employed
by Anthony Wayne to carry letters and dispatches between Piqua and Defiance.
A story told concerning the Indian is as follows:
"Old Tutaw was one day, in 1830, passing down the Auglaize in his canoe
loaded with bark, which grounded near Sam Baxter's cabin. In an effort to float
the canoe he got into the water and made such a splash and dash therein that
young Baxter ventured to have a laugh at his expense. In 1846 he met Tutaw,
who looked at him for an instant and said, 'You bad boy, you laugh at old Tut
when he got his canoe fast.'"
Late in the fall of 1798 a contract was given to Daniel Convers "to carry
the mail or cause it to be carried from Marietta in the Northwest Territory
to Zanestown on the Muskingum River and from Zanestown to Marietta once a week
at the rate of $90.00 for every quarter of a year during the continuance of
the contract."
If Convers was late for the scheduled stop, he was deducted a penalty of one
dollar for each hour's delay. This penalty would stand firm unless substantial
proof was offered and the delay was confirmed unavoidable.
This contract began November 1, 1798, and continued until September 13, 1800.
This is said to have been the first regular mail between Marietta and Zanesville,
as well as the first regular mail route in the lands of the Ohio country.
Found in Scott's History of Highland County was a segment containing information
on the first post office in "Chelicotha." It says:
"In the spring of 1799, Henry Massie, deeming it important both for milling
and other purposes, made a pack-horse trace from New Market to the settlement
at the falls from which there was already a trace down to Chillicothe, since
he deemed it important to connect with the settlement at the falls of Paint
Creek and Chillicothe. A log hotel kept by Wishart became the post office with
Wishart as post master and a weekly packmail line established between Chillicothe
and Cincinnati."
Land service of the mails was likewise progressing. The first mail delivered
between Chillicothe and Franklinton (now a part of Columbus) was by Andrew (Andy)
McElvaine. He, as a boy, emigrated with his father from Kentucky in the year
1797. He was only thirteen years of age when Adam Hosack, who was the contractor
and postmaster, employed him as a mail messenger. The year was 1805.
The route operated weekly on the west side of the Scioto. McElvaine left Franklinton
on Friday, stayed overnight at Markley's mill on Darby Creek, reached Chillicothe
the next day, and thence returned to Darby Creek. Sunday night he again reached
Franklinton.
At the beginning there was no post office route established between the two
towns, but during the first winter, there was one established at Westfall, and
another at Markley's Mill.
Such a trip for a young man of thirteen, through a wilderness filled with wild
beasts, a constant threat from the Indians, all this in the name of "carrying
the mail."
An article appeared in the Lebanon Western Star depicting the area mail carriers.
It read:
"Until stage lines were established mails were carried overland by post-riders,
boys being preferred to men, on account of their lighter weight on the horse.
In 1817, Abner L. Ross, Sr., who was born in Lebanon in 1804, as a boy of thirteen,
began carrying the U.S. mail from Oxford via Hamilton, Blue Ball, Red Lion,
Green Tree, Lebanon, Hopkinsville, Goshen and Batavia to Georgetown, near the
Ohio River.
"Before he was twenty he became a contractor in mail carrying himself,
and soon his contracts extended over several hundred miles of mail and stage
lines.
"In 1835, James S. Totten, who afterward became prominent in Warren County
politics, was a poor boy living with his grandfather, Gen. David Sutton at Deerfield
[now South Lebanon]. His grandfather died in that year and left him in destitute
circumstances. Young Totten, then fourteen, became a mail carrier in the employ
of Mr. Ross, and made weekly trips on horseback from Lebanon to Eaton, and from
Lebanon to Felicity, receiving $8 per month for his services."
Mail carriers were in great personal danger during the War of 1812. The post-rider
still had a great personal fear of the hostile Indians. The mailbag was always
in danger of being stolen. A military escort was sometimes necessary during
the early stages of the conflict. A man named Munger was possibly the first
known post-rider in Lower Sandusky, his route traversing to Fort Meigs.
One recorded incident while on one of his trips was that a party of Indians
just a mile from the fort attacked him. He escaped with but slight wounds, leaving
the mailbag and his horse to the Indians. After the robbery of Munger, it was
difficult to get anyone to travel the route to the fort.
Another recorded incident found Munger traveling toward Fort Stephenson. The
thick woods and swamp sheltered him while he traveled for four days. Being extremely
late, he was presumed dead or taken captive. But on the fifth day he made his
appearance at Lower Sandusky, having wandered as far north as Port Clinton on
the lake shore.
Isaac Knapp, who had removed to Lower Sandusky in 1814, undertook the hazardous
contract to Fort Meigs. He affiliated himself with his brother, Walter, who
carried it some of the time. Because of his light body weight, Walter was able
to walk on the thin ice or frozen crust, whereas a heavier man with his horse
would break through.
A rather dismal disposition ran through the brothers in their mail route ventures.
One day, as Isaac Knapp was preparing to depart to Fort Meigs, he saw from the
fort two men who had just started out, bludgeoned and murdered by the Indians.
However, with this scene deeply etched in his mind, he showed no fear.
Some hours later, he calmly shouldered the mailbag and, by an indirect route,
set off into the forest and safely completed his journey.
These two brothers were the heroes of a more remote period of time in the Ohio
country. They helped spearhead the yet untamed wilderness, which has since turned
Ohio into the crossroads of America.
John DePue carried the mail between Pittsburgh and New Lisbon, Ohio, in 1809.
He was described as "a small, thin, wiry man." He used two horses,
one to ride and the other for carrying the mail. He rode the second horse and
guided the packhorse tandem fashion.
As he reached the town of New Lisbon "he would commence blowing his horn
and continued with varying notes until he reached the post office. All teams
and vehicles were prompt to give way, the carrier equally prompt to claim it.
The United States mail must not be obstructed or delayed for a moment."
On a weekly trip from Medina to Cleaveland, a mail courier found himself suddenly
surrounded by a large pack of wild hogs, these animals being common in this
time period. He immediately found a fallen tree on which to climb. He fired
at them, now and then killing a precarious boar. As they fell, one by one, the
rest, being attracted by the blood, finally withdrew.
The messenger, with all danger past, proceeded on to Cleaveland somewhat behind
schedule.
The next morning, before turning toward home with his mail, he furnished himself
with fresh ammunition. He also had the lock of his rifle changed by the only
gunsmith in the village. He had a new lock installed in place of the old time
percussion pill- lock, because corrupt dealers too often mixed mustard seed
or turnip seed with the little percussion pills that they greatly resemble.
The War of 1812 produced many positive benefits in Ohio as far as transportation
goes. The post-riders ultimately used roads cut through the forests from the
Ohio River to Detroit for use of transport of troops.
These post-riders, or couriers, were at this time exceptionally cooperative
in every way, and complaints of failure of deliveries of the mail were few and
far between.
However, the opposite could be said for many of those who were entrusted as
postmasters or their assistants; the fault is to be found in them more so than
the courier.
Such a case happened in 1814 to a boy, age 15, by the name of McNeal, while
he was serving as assistant postmaster at Bowling Green, Kentucky.
At that time, when communication between the army of the North, at Detroit,
and that of the South, at Naw Orleans, was crucial, many complaints were registered
as to the failure of the mail delivery.
An investigation was made and the boy had been found guilty of robbing the mails
passing through that office. After three days of thoroughly searching the area,
a great amount of bills of exchange, drafts, checks, postal notes and orders
amounting to $400,000 was found.
The courts found him guilty, but his father, with the support of a friend, bailed
him out. The extent of the fine was only five hundred dollars and, according
to the account, "the boy moved off.
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This page created 4 September 2004 and last updated
28 September, 2008
© 2004 Arne H Trelvik
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