Production Note
Cornell University Library produced this
volume to replace the irreparably deteriorated
original. It was scanned using Xerox software
and equipment at 600 dots per inch resolution
and compressed prior to storage using CCITT
Group 4 compression. The digital data were
used to create Cornell's replacement volume on
paper that meets the ANSI Standard
Z39.48-1984. The production of this volume was
supported in part by the New York State
Program for the Conservation and Preservation
of Library Research Materials and the Xerox
Corporation.	Digital file copyright by
Cornell University Library 1993.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* and THOMAS BLOSSOM.f
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 Depart-
ment, 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, f
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%ime 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,
* f Respectively Postmaster-General and Postmaster of Buffalo.—Ed.
299300
THE POSTAL SEP VICE.
much that is deemed entirely reliable and not wholly
uninteresting has been obtained.
Erastus Granger was the first Postmaster of Buffalo—or rather
of ‘4 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,
Samuel Russel,
Henry P. Russell,
Orange H. Dibble, .
Philip Dorsheimer,
Charles C. Haddock,
Philip Dorsheimer,
Henry K. Smith,
Isaac R. Harrington,
James O. Putnam,
James G. Dickie, .
Israel T. Hatch,
May 6, 1818.
April 25, 1831.
. July 26, 1834.
. August 28, 1834.
June 8, 1838.
October 12, 1841.
. April 1, 1845.
. August 14, 1846.
May 17, 1849.
September 1, 1851.
. May 4, 1853.
November n, 1859.
Almon M. Clapp, (the present incumbent*) 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 Post-
masters at Black Rock have been as follows :
James L. Barton, .	.	.	. January 29, 1817.
Elisha H. Burnham, .	.	.	. July n, 1828.
Morgan G. Lewis, .... June 29, 1841.
George Johnson, .... July 7, 1853.
Danie.l Hibbard, (the present incumbent) June 1, 1861.
♦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.THE POSTAL SERVICE.
301
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 appoint-
ments 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* 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	1 90-83	1825	$ 2,840.60
1806	120.13	1830	6,695.34
1807	122.82	1835	19,219.34
1808	17363	1840	25,501.49
1809	217.49	*845	22,681.26
1810	291.46	1850	39,644.01
1812	963.61	*855	47,458.67
1813	Imperfect returns.	i860	44,800.94
1814	488.37t	1862	55.265.57t
1815	1,932.98	1863	48,238.53
1820	1,463.21		
♦Predecessor of the Academy of Music, east side of Main, between Seneca and
Swan Streets.—Ed.
t Last quarter only,
I Stamps sold for currency $18,000 more, furnished from Buffalo P. O.302
THE POSTAL SEP VICE.
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	*845	#467-32
1818	134-34	1850	776.62
1819	237.96	1855	420.24
1820	239.38	i860	3U-74
1825’	737-41	1862	389.5°
1830	493.08	1863	461.52
1835	617.49	18641	234-52
1840	712.77	to July 1. j	
	At Black Rock Dam (North Buffalo') ■:		
1854	$ 108.47	1862	#463-27
1855	419.82	1863	650-73
i860	30315	1864 \	31975
1861	307.20	to July 1. j	
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 neighbor-
hood, the frequency and extent of the transportation service,
and the general rates of letter postage, will be here considered,
t 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
preemption 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 dep-
uty 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 1784.7HE POSTAL SERVICE.
303
The whole population west of the Massachusetts preemption
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 ^ree 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; *835, 57.594J 1840,
62,465; 1845, 78,635; 1850, 100,993; i855> i32>331 I and
i860, 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 in-
creased to more than 200 houses, when, on the 31st of Decem-
ber, 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 earliest304
THE POSTAL SERVICE.
census report which gives any information in regard to its pop-
ulation is that of 1810 when the population was 1,508. It was
1,060 in 1814; 2,095 *n 1820; 5,141 in 1825 ; 8,668 in 1830;
21,838 in 1840; 34,606 in 1845; 49,769 in 1850; 74,214 m
1855 ; and 81,129 in i860. 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 prob-
able 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 Xlth 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 bring money, letters and packets in return. Posts for
the transmission of Government messages were established in
England in the XUIth Century, and in 1464 Louis XI. estab-
lished 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 postsTHE POSTAL SEP VICE.
305
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 fol-
lowed their more general employment.
In 15 24 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 settle-
ment 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 con-
vey 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 charac-
ter, 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.306
THE POSTAL SEP VICE.
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 JohnWerden, 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 Jer-
sey), 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 imme-
diately passed “ for encouraging a post-office.”
In 1705 Lord Cornbury, the Governor of New York, in-
formed 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 Phila-
delphia 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 t 763 he spent five months in traveling throughTHE POSTAL SEP VICE.
307
the Northern Colonies for the purpose of inspecting and improv-
ing 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 prov-
ince, and of the seizure of the mails at Baltimore and Philadel-
phia, the Deputy Postmaster-General was “obliged, for the
present, to stop all the posts.” It is supposed that this termin-
ated 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 en-
gaged. 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 post-
masters, 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 Massachu-
setts 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 Post-
master-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,, under308
THE POSTAL SEP VICE.
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 fools-
cap 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 estab-
lishing, 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 Con-
gress 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 Wis-
cassett 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 atTHE POSTAL' SER VICE.
309
Albany was a special office until late in that year, as in an offi-
cial list of post-offices, with their receipts for the year ending
October 5, 1791, New York us 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 Schenec-
tady 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,” tojeave 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 Monday310
THE POSTAL SERVICE.
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 Tona-
wanda 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*; that he dis-
tributed papers and unsealed letters by the way before inter-
mediate 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 car-
ried 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.
♦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 tor in
1794. It is quite certain that there was mail service on this route as early as 1795.THE POSTAL SEP VICE.
311
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, pro-
cured the establishment of a post-office at Batavia, and the
appointment of James Brisbane as postmaster.*
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 con-
veyed 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 Canan-
daigua 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 Canan-
daigua 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
* 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 1802.312
THE POSTAL SEP VICE.
fare was not to exceed six cents a mile for a passenger and four-
teen 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/9 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 distribut-
ing 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 JErie, Pa., were as follows:—Leave NewTHE POSTAL SEE PICE.
313
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 Tues-
days 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 fol-
lows : 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 Dilligence coach left Buffalo314
THE POSTAL SERVICE.
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, Sar-
dinia, 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, ^ere 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, deter-
mined 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 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 high-THE POSTAL SEP VICE.
315
est 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 rate f°r a single letter carried not
over thirty miles was 6% cents; over thirty and under eighty
miles, 10 cents; over eighty and under one hundred and fifty
miles, 12^ cents; over one hundred and fifty and under four
hundred miles, 18^ cents; and over four hundred miles, 25
cents.
By an Act of Congress passed in 1845, rate °f inland let-
ter postage (after the 1st of July in that year), was fixed, irre-
spective 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. Prop 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 the316
THE POSTAL SEE VICE.
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 thou-
sand miles at 3 cents, and for any distance exceeding three thou-
sand 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 destina-
tion 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 be-
lieved 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.