Today, I’m here sharing a few facts about mail delivery! My stepdad was a mail carrier until we retired. I remember he used to talk a lot about the post office. I always found it interesting.
Back in the 1800s, sending a letter was vastly different from today. Not only do we have the luxury of instant email and text messages, if we want to, we can send something in the mail and have it get from one side of the country to the other, in only a few days.
Back then, the mail delivery system was far slower. Originally it was delivered on foot, by a rider on a horse, or by stagecoach. You’ll be familiar with the name of the Pony Express as one way mail was delivered. However, what you might not know is that the Pony Express only delivered mail from 1860 to 1861.
Envelope sent through the Pony Express from postalmuseum.si.edu
What’s another interesting fact?
When it comes to prices, I think we all wince each time postal rates go up. Just like now, a postage rate was determined by distance and weight. However, there was something different in the early days of mail delivery, than there is now. When a letter arrived, the recipient of the letter would pay the postage. That’s right! It cost the sender nothing at all to write a letter and mail it until 1855.
With a high volume of people unable to pay for the letters that had been sent to them, prepayment of the letters, via stamps, became the method we were familiar with.
Years ago, I read the story of a woman who could still remember her mother getting a letter from back east, a thick one, but they didn’t have the money to pay for it. So, it got left behind and they always wondered what it said. I can’t imagine how heartbreaking that would be for someone to get a letter but not have a way to claim it.
Of course, for the post office, it wasn’t sustainable for them. They had to pay for the delivery of those items, and more often than not, they’d followed through on their end, only to have all those expenses when the letter wasn’t claimed.
1890s post office usps.com
The last fact is when the mail delivery service was started, and for a while after, there were not many post office buildings. Places such as general stores would serve as mail locations, but not every town had a place where mail was delivered, and there was no delivery to those in rural areas like there is now. Simply put, if you wanted to see if you had mail, snow, sun, or rain, you had to walk to the post office. They wouldn’t bring it to you.
Fortunately, for my fictional little town in Deepwater, Missouri, they not only have a post office, but a postmaster who is kind and caring, and is going to help Alyssa learn that she’s far more than she believes herself to be, even with her secret, and that rejection from someone doesn’t mean she has no value.
Here’s the blurb!
“Yer too small on the top. I want a bigger woman.”
Alyssa Moore never expected that to be the reason her prospective groom turned her away after one look. Now, with almost no money and no family to turn to for help, she’s stuck waiting in a small town until the mail-order bride agency that sent her finds another match. She’s embarrassed to seek help because that isn’t her only mortifying situation, but it’s all she can do.
When an upset woman finds him to ask for help posting a letter, Peter West is more than curious about her. As he learns more, he wonders…what would happen if her letter didn’t post? At least for a few days. Would she consider staying there, with someone like him? He knows it’s pointless. A beautiful woman like that wouldn’t want a man like him.
As Alyssa becomes desperate and Peter tries to summon his courage, they’ll each discover there’s far more to a person than meets the eye—and that friendship and love can blossom in the most unexpected of ways.
If you’d like to read Alyssa’s Desperate Plan, you can find it on Amazon in ebook, Kindle Unlimited, paperback and large print by clicking right here.
I’ve shared some tidbits about the post office with you. Now, I’m curious…when you get your mail (which you didn’t have to pay to get!), do you sort it right away or set it aside for later?
Sarah is wife to an amazing teacher and mom to two boys who are growing up just a little too fast. She spends her days working and writing in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia.
Most of the mail we get is either bills or junk mail, so I sort it usually right away. Although now, even the Bills are mostly paid on line.
I try and sort it right away too. I think we get more junk mail than anything else over here!
I sort it right away.
Love the blurb for your book.
Thank you!! I’m a sort right away (usually!) too!
I leave the mail on the counter & everyone grabs their own when they come home.
I bet that works well! And a little less for you to do!
Unless it’s a personal letter or package, our mail usually piles up on the counter. When someone’s coming for a visit, the piles get shuffled into a bigger heap and shoved onto a desk (or in a box) in the basement. Then, after a decade or five, while buried under a mountain of mostly junk mail, we sort, recycle, sometimes file, and shred. We having been working to change this inefficient method since we married, but we’re still sorting through mail from the 1900s. We also now have a son who likes to save junk mail.
I laughed reading this because it sounds exactly like our house.
Flat surfaces in my house collect things like mad, so I totally get it!
I go through the mail to see if there is anything that needs immediate attention, then put it on the counter for the rest of the family to go through. Eventually it will be shredded or trashed or maybe shoved in a box to be found at some later date.
Hah! I love that! It’s like a time capsule if it’s in a box! Look kids! In 1999, do you see how much bread cost?!
I usually go through my mail right away, but my husband will put it aside so I usually pull out bills and make sure he sees them. Perhaps he not interested as he is a retired postman (lol).
Yes! When my husband grabs it, he sets it wherever, so a few times bills have been late as I just stumble across it by accident.
I have informed delivery so I pretty much know what’s coming. Depending on the mood I’m in I might sort it right away or leave it for later
Not a thing wrong with that!
We sort it immediately… sometimes into piles, sometimes the junk gets tossed right away.
My husband’s family is Choctaw and his great-grandfather was granted land in Oklahoma in the late 1800s. A post office was built on the land, with the family name. There was no town.
In the late 1980s, my mother-in-law’s cousin visited the abandoned building and had his photo taken in front of the sign. That was probably when their grandmother died and they sold off her properties.
Oh wow! That’s some really interesting family history!
hubs get the mail at home and he sorts it – I do so here at work!
A fair sounding distribution!
My dad was a rural mail carrier for years, back when “neither hail, nor rain, nor sleet, nor snow” prevented the mail from being delivered. He had numerous roads on his route that were dirt and would be almost impassable after heavy rains or snow, but he always managed to get through. He had chains for his tires. You have to remember this was before cellphones, so the only way he could get help if he broke down was to walk to the nearest house, or pray someone came by. He passed away in 1974, so that was quite awhile back. I remember us getting letters sometimes with postage due on them, and packages COD, cash on delivery. Things have really changed through the years. Most for the better, but not all.
It really has changed, hasn’t it? I agree, not all for the better. I bet your dad had a lot of stories!
Thanks for sharing these informative pieces of information about the mail. When I get personal mail through the post office I love to open it up right away and cherish it. Example end of last week my nine year old great niece sent me a letter with lots of drawings. I love it so much. I had to call her up that evening and thank her and tell her how much I loved it. I know what it feels like to get a hand made card/letter, so many years ago I started making my own greeting cards. I have a ministry at church where I make birthday greeting cards for the volunteers at church. I also have greeting cards made up so when I get from our pastor a name with someone who needs a card, example: new baby, sympathy, etc.
Aww! That was so sweet that she send you the letter and drawings!!
Right away!
Smart! Then it doesn’t pile up!
I sort it right away, pay the bills and trash everything else.
Good idea! Efficient!
I sort it right away. Thanks for sharing.
That’s a good idea, then it doesn’t collect!
Most of the time I look at it right away, as I have Informed Delivery and know what I’m getting before it’s delivered. If it’s junk mail, it usually goes straight to my recycle bin!
That’s a good idea!!
Fascinating article. Ours gets sorted quickly
That’s the best way, then it doesn’t collect!
I look at the mail right and deal with right away but not much most is on auto pay now.
With the price of postage, I’m starting to pay a few over the phone, myself!
Always sort it right away!
I need to be that decicated!
I have to sort right away, as my son gets his business mail here.
Ohh, then yes! Have to pull that out for him!
Most days I try to sort it right away. However, there are times, like now (I am working all night at a Red Cross shelter due to the flooding in our area) when there just isn’t time. I might end up with several days worth to go through. Right now I have about a week’s worth.
What you are doing is just wonderful though. I’m so glad you can help those who need it!
It depends on what I’m doing and how my time is planned. When there’s time, I sort mail immediately. If I’m running behind, it gets set aside to sort later (which can be days). This morning I sorted a week’s worth of mail that my husband had set aside; he pulls bills or what he considers important and sets the rest aside (he retired in 2018 and I still work as a school substitute).