The U.S. Postal Service’s decision to drop Saturday mail delivery sparked a reminder that West Virginia has played an important role in the post office’s history. A 1999 story detailing one significant role is pasted below.
Publication: ChasDMail
Category: News
Published: 06/18/99
Page: P13A
By GEORGE HOHMANN
Rural Free Delivery – still relied upon by thousands of West
Virginians today – began in Jefferson County in 1896.
R.F.D. for the first time brought postal service to the residents of
America’s rural areas. Until R.F.D. began, only residents of urban
areas had mail delivered to their homes. People who lived in the
country had to go to a nearby town to post and pick up mail.
Jefferson County was picked for the first R.F.D. route because it was
the home county of William Wilson, the postmaster general at the time,
according to “The Birth of R.F.D. Mail Service,” an article by Dr.
Millard Bushong, published in the winter 1967 issue of “Valleys of
History.”
“The idea of delivering the mail to farms free was not endorsed
unanimously by either elected officials or the farmers,” Bushong
wrote. “One member of the House said, ‘The delivery of mail by this
government to the doors of the farms will destroy the rural life of
which America is so proud.’ ”
Rural Free Delivery began as an experiment on Oct. 1, 1896, when five
routes were established. Three men were to deliver the mail to rural
areas from Charles Town and one each from Halltown and Uvilla. Each
carrier averaged about 20 miles a day on horseback.
Postmaster General Wilson appealed to the farmers to place boxes for
mail so the carriers “would not lose time in reaching residences some
distance off the main roads,” Bushong wrote.
Harry Gibson, one of the carriers from Charles Town, “reported that at
one time he had to open and shut 63 farm gates in delivering the mail
on his route.”
“Patrons receiving service were loud in its praise and were eager for
its continuance,” Bushong wrote. “Prior to this, it was no unusual
thing for them to lose a full half-day from their work to drive to
town for expected mail or to send a letter or package.”
A total of 15 experimental routes were established in various states
in 1896. By June 1897, the service had grown to 82 routes operated fr
om 43 post offices in 29 states.
In 1899, there was a Rural Free Delivery trial operating throughout
Carroll County, Md.
“Rural delivery has now been sufficiently tried to measure its
effects,” reported Postmaster General Charles Emory Smith. “The
immediate results are clearly apparent. It stimulates social and
business correspondence, and so swells the post receipts.
“Its introduction is invariably followed by a large increase in the
circulation of the press and of periodical literature,” Smith
continued.
“The farm is thus brought into direct daily contact with the currents
and movements of the business world. A more accurate knowledge of
ruling markets and varying prices is diffused and the producer, with
his quicker communication and larger information, is placed on a surer
footing.
“The value of farms, as has been shown in many cases, is enhanced,”
Smith reported. “Good roads become indispensable, and their
improvement is the essential condition of the service. The material
and measurable benefits are signal and unmistakable.”
Bushong quoted one farmer as saying at the time, “After a trial of
nearly a year we would feel as though it would take away part of life
to give it up.”
Writer George Hohmann can be reached at
348-4836.
