In 1673 the Massachusetts General Court provided for certain payments to post messengers, although the first successful postal system established in any of the Colonies was that of William Penn, who, in 1683, appointed Henry Waldy to keep a post, supply passengers with horses, etc. In the following year Governor Dungan of New York revived the route that had been established by Governor Lovelace, and, in addition, he proposed post-offices along the Atlantic coast. In 1687 a post was started between certain points in Connecticut. The real beginning of postal service in America seems to date from February 17, 1691, when William and Mary granted to Thomas Neale authority to conduct offices for the receipt and despatch of letters. From that time until 1721 the postal system seems to have been under the direction of Andrew Hamilton and his associates. In the latter year John Lloyd was appointed postmaster-general, to be succeeded in 1730 by Alexander Spotsward. Head Lynch was postmaster-general from 1739 to 1743, and Elliott Berger from 1743 to 1753.
In July, 1775, the Continental Congress established its post-office with Benjamin Franklin as its first postmaster-general. Mr. Franklin had been appointed postmaster of Philadelphia in 1737. Samuel Osgood, of Massachusetts, however, was the first postmaster-general under the Constitution and Washington's administration. From Samuel Osgood to Hubert Work there have been forty-five postmasters-general, that official becoming a member of the President's cabinet in 1829.
Fast Mails of Pioneer Days
Post-riders and stage-coaches were the earliest means of transporting the mails, to be followed by steamboats, railway trains, and, in time, by airplanes.
In considering our modern mailing methods, no feature of the development of our postal system is more striking than the improvement that has been made in methods of mail transportation.
Up to a few decades ago, pony express riders sped across the western part of our country, and back, carrying the "fast mail" of the days when Indians and road-agents constituted a continual source of annoyance and danger to stage-coach passengers and drivers, and made the transportation of valuables extremely hazardous. The coaches carried baggage, express, and "slow mail," as well as passengers, while the "fast mail" was handled exclusively by pony riders.
The inimitable Mark Twain has given us a great word-picture of these pony express riders, from which we quote the following:
In a little while all interest was taken up in stretching our necks and watching for the "pony rider"—the fleet messenger who sped across the continent from St. Joe to Sacramento, carrying letters nineteen hundred miles in eight days! Think of that for perishable horse and human flesh and blood to do! The pony rider was usually a little bit of a man, brimful of spirit and endurance. No matter what time of the day or night his watch came on, and no matter whether it was winter or summer, raining, snowing, hailing, or sleeting, or whether his "beat" was a level straight road or a crazy trail over mountain crags and precipices, or whether it led through peaceful regions or regions that swarmed with hostile Indians, he must be always ready to leap into the saddle and be off like the wind! There was no idling time for a pony rider on duty. He rode fifty miles without stopping, by daylight, moonlight, starlight, or through the blackness of darkness—just as it happened. He rode a splendid horse that was born for a racer and fed and lodged like a gentleman; kept him at his utmost speed for ten miles, and then, as he came crashing up to the station where stood two men holding fast a fresh, impatient steed, the transfer of rider and mail-bag was made in the twinkling of an eye, and away flew the eager pair and they were out of sight before the spectator could get hardly the ghost of a look. The postage on his literary freight was worth five dollars a letter. He got but little frivolous correspondence to carry—his bag had business letters in it, mostly. His horse was stripped of all unnecessary weight, too. He wore a little wafer of a racing-saddle, and no visible blanket. He wore light shoes, or none at all. The little flat mail-pockets strapped under the rider's thighs would each hold about the bulk of a child's primer. They held many and many an important business chapter and newspaper letter, but these were written on paper as airy and thin as gold-leaf, nearly, and thus bulk and weight were economized. The stage-coach travelled about a hundred to a hundred and twenty-five miles a day (twenty-four hours), and the pony rider about two hundred and fifty. There were about eighty pony riders in the saddle all the time, night and day, stretching in a long scattering procession from Missouri to California, forty flying eastward, and forty toward the west, and among them making four hundred gallant horses earn a stirring livelihood and see a deal of scenery every single day in the year.
The Pony Express Rider.