As trade and commerce progressed, the postal department extended its operations, and the Philadelphia post-office was not behind those of other cities in furthering the cause of the great postal institution of the country.
The postal boundaries of our country extend over an area ten times greater than those of England and France combined; three times as large as the whole of France, Britain, Austria, Prussia, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Holland, and Denmark together; one and a half times larger than the Russian Empire, and only one-sixth less than the area covered by sixty states and empires of Europe. The entire area in 1853 was 2,983,153 square miles.
Claiming for Philadelphia, and justly, too, credit for its postal as well as its commercial reputation, we will pass over some years and bring our readers down to a later date. First, however, we annex a list of postmasters of Philadelphia from 1791.
Perhaps no other city in the Union can boast of a list of names in their postal department of men, both as regards character and business qualifications, equal to those we furnish here, and who filled the office with so much honor and credit. We are not, however, so clannish in our notions of locality as to include all the names mentioned here as being entitled to such credit: we make a few exceptions: those exceptions and the reasons are a part of the secret history of post-offices. Several of them have gone to that “bourn from whence no traveller returns,” and those that still live live honored and respected.
LIST OF PHILADELPHIA POSTMASTERS.
Robert Patton, appointed August 25, 1791.
Michael Leib, appointed February 14, 1814.
Richard Bache, appointed Feb. 26, 1819.
Thomas Sargeant, appointed April 16, 1828.
James Page, appointed April 11, 1833.
OFFICE BECAME PRESIDENTIAL, JULY 9, 1836.
James Page, reappointed July 9, 1836.
John C. Montgomery, appointed March 23, 1841.
James Hoy, Jr., appointed June 26, 1844.
George F. Lehman, appointed May 5, 1845.
William J. P. White, appointed May 9, 1849.
John Miller, appointed April 1, 1853.
Gideon F. Westcott, appointed March 19, 1857.
Nathaniel B. Browne, appointed May 30, 1859.
Cornelius A. Walborn, appointed April 20, 1861.
The past history of our city shows that the post-office was but a minor consideration on the part of the historian who attempted to speak of its institutions. Even those whose business it was to furnish statistics and local facts invariably overlooked the post-office. A glance back through the vista of time presents to the eye a panoramic view of the buildings which were used for postal purposes; and a more motley architectural picture scarcely ever presented itself to sight. From the time Benjamin Franklin had his office in a portion of his printing-shop to the present, we cannot find the department ever blessed with even a decent building for postal purposes until the one now occupied for that special service was erected.
True, the Old Coffee-House on Second Street was the centre of trade, and merchants often met there to discuss commercial matters and secure their foreign papers and letters: still, it was not calculated for the general business of the postal service. From 1793, passing along from street to street, we at last come to Dr. Jayne’s gloomy building, where, amid the sound of steam-engines, the fumes from eating-houses, and the dead-rat smell from lager-beer saloons, we find the operations of the great postal business of the city moving on. The very atmosphere was as injurious to the health of the employees as its dark and dingy appearance was painful to those who visited it.