I read an interesting question the other day — “When did it become illegal to mail children?”
The answer is in June 1920. After that date you could no longer have your children delivered to relatives by the US Postal Service.
The US Parcel Post Service began January 1, 1913, allowing rural communities to receive packages that weighed more than four pounds without relying on the private delivery services. This was a huge boon to both mail order companies and the rural recipients of their goods.
The original regulations for what could or could not be mailed through the Parcel Service were vague, leading to people mailing all kinds of unusual things, like bricks and snakes, just because they could. Regulations during those early years varied from post office to post office depending on how the postmaster interpreted the rules. Just weeks after the parcel service began, an Ohio couple, Jesse and Matilda Beagle, mailed their eight-month-old son to his grandmother who lived a few miles away. The postage cost 15 cents and he was insured for $50.
In February of 1914, four-year-old Charlotte May Pierstorff was mailed from Grangeville, Idaho and traveled by train to her
grandmother who lived 70 miles away. She was accompanied by her mother’s cousin, who worked as a mail clerk. The 53 cents postage was much cheaper than a train ticket and the stamps were affixed to her coat. When the Post Master General heard of this incident, he banned the mailing of human beings.
The ban didn’t slow some people down. In 1915 a woman mailed her six-year-old daughter 720 miles from Florida to Virginia by train for 15 cents. All in all there are seven verified cases of children being mailed. In August of 1915, three-year-old Maud Smith was mailed 40 miles to visit her sick mother in Kentucky. The postmaster got called onto the carpet for that incident and that was the last recorded child mailing.
People still tried to mail their children, however, and in June of 1920, the assistant Postmaster General refused the request to mail two children as “harmless animals” and the practice was officially outlawed. It was still legal to mail bees, bugs, baby chicks and other harmless animals, but not those of the human variety.
Jeannie Watt raises cattle in Montana and loves all things western. When she's not writing, Jeannie enjoys sewing, making mosaic mirrors, riding her horses and buying hay. Lots and lots of hay.
So wild, but this is not the first time I’ve read about it. So glad they stopped it fairly quickly.
I agree, Denise. Things could have gotten even more wild if the practice continued.
That is way beyond weird and the first I’d heard of it. Action/reaction? Now there are age limits and other requirements to send unaccompanied minors on air journeys. I wonder what rules exist for trains and buses…
Good question, Mary. There must be an age limit for buses and trains. (I hope.)
I can’t imagine sending children that young anywhere unattended! But it did cost less than a train ticket!
I had a hard time letting my kids go anywhere without me when they were young. I can’t imagine gluing stamps top their coats and sending them away on a train.
I had never heard of this before this morning. That is so outrageous!
I agree, Bonnie.
I did not know people actually mailed children, I saw a movie where it seemed like the children were mailed and read a book where something similar happened, but they were fictional.
I was amazed when I found out that it was a real occurrence. People did what they had to back then, I guess.
Oh dear heavens! And to think I was Leary sending my 8 and 7 year olds on an airplane in 1992! I wasn’t myself until my sister-in-law called me to tell me they safely landed in Key West! They did call me in Tampa! They left from Jacksonville. I got home before they got to Key west. Cried all the way home!
I can’t even imagine toddlers and babies being mailed! At least on the plane my kids were assigned someone to be with them! You paid more, but worth it. I guess it was the same thing in a way. I was a nervous wreck! My kids loved the adventure though! LOL
Thanks for the background history Jeannie!
I know how you felt, Tracy. I was the same way when my kids traveled and I never had to let them travel alone on a plane. My niece did that, and everything went well, but still, it’s nerve racking.
We so want our grandangels in VA to come to TX
Never would have thought of this, not that our kids would have done it
Perhaps their poor people were at witts end to.find a way to raise them
Keeping that thought, as other is to awful to think of
I’m sure there were economic considerations, Deb. And things were different back then. I think people did things we wouldn’t or couldn’t do today.
I’ve heard about mailing children before. I think people were more trusting than they are now. Now I would be afraid of child trafficking.
Exactly, Karijean! I do think we were more trusting in the past.
So crazy!! The poor children!!! Who was to feed and diaper them?? Not the first time I’ve heard of it, but it really makes me wonder about some people!!!
That feeding and diapering thing is something I hadn’t thought up! (smacks forehead.) It is crazy.
How horrifying to imagine babies and children being sent across country by mail. I had never heard of this before. I can only imagine how many would get lost if that were to happen in this day and age. The US Mail service is in badly needed reform. I sent a birthday card to my grandson in April of last year, from Alabama to Georgia. He never received it and it was returned to my address 6 months later. Thanks for this article, very interesting.
That’s crazy about your grandson’s birthday card! I wonder where it was for six months. Thankfully it wasn’t a child!
Very interesting. It was a different world back then. Great article. I love reading about life in the past.
It was a different world, Debbie. Even in a different world I’d have a hard time giving my kid to the postal service unless I was desperate.
I can’t even imagine mailing a child to someone. Very interesting article.
I found in fascinating, Barbara. How someone came up with this idea is beyond me. Maybe things were safer back then.
I’ve heard about this before. I could never imagine trusting the post office to safely get my boys anywhere but that could be because of the state of the service today. haha
Right you are! I have had some crazy mixups that would have been really bad if a kiddo was involved.
Interesting history never knew any of this never thought it possible to mail those things especially human beings
This isn’t about children being mailed but my dad (born in 1916) said his uncle was constantly mailing wild animals like squirrels, raccoons and I don’t know what all from Wisconsin to them in Chicago. I guess it was common to order chickens etc. that way but my grandpa was po’d about it. Somehow the animals ‘managed to run away’ and my grandpa wasn’t talking. He told my grandma he released them in parks or open areas. To pick something like that up he had to go to the railroad station and I’m pretty sure after he saw what was in the first crate, he never took my dad along with him again haha.
I think there have been times many of us wish we could mail our child off to a grandparent or other relative to give ourselves a break. As small and personalized as the system seemed to be back then Today that wouldn’t work. The postal employees are short staffed and so maxed out with mail and packages (thanks to Amazon) it is hard for them to keep up. They still do a good job of getting live animals delivered, although things do happen. They don’t mind getting the chicks, but the bees do make them a bit nervous. Our daughter is a postal clerk and her husband was a rural carrier. We have discussed mailing children with them. Neither can imagine how to even try to make that work today.
The article was very interesting. With the way the music is today they probably wouldn’t get there for a week or so.