Rural mail delivery in Zanesville dates back to 1899
Traveling with my wife these past 16 years, I have learned to endure time spent in thrift stores, auction rings and antique shops. I smile a lot between clenched teeth as I tell her to take her time and then I move onto anything that looks interesting – usually old books. Often, we come out empty handed, but, at times, we discover a hidden treasure.
One such treasure came in the form of a postcard hid in a pile of miscellaneous dirty papers in a Pennsylvania shop. I think it had been put there because it showed the old Ohio State Stadium, not necessarily a favorite spot of Pennsylvania football fans. The card was dated mid-1960s. The stadium dimensions were much different from those of today, especially the capacity which was listed as 80,000 on the card but is more than 102,000 today.
The front of the card with its picture and statistics was interesting, but the flip side was even more so. The card was mailed (with a 3-cent stamp) to a couple in Bowmansville, Pennsylvania. There was no further information than last name, town and state, yet the card reached its destination within a population of several thousand. The postal service and its history of getting cards, letters and packages to the right recipients makes an interesting study.
In 1890, 65% of the American population lived in rural areas. To get your mail you had to travel to your local post office. However, if you lived in a large city, your mail would be delivered directly to your home or local business. Many cities had home delivery as early as 1863.
Postmaster General of the United States John Wanamaker, who served from 1889 to 1893, thought it made more sense to have one person deliver mail to 50 homes than to have 50 families travel to the post office to collect their mail. However, the idea of the free delivery of rural mail became a political football with politicians promising free mail delivery to rural areas as a way to win votes.
Small businesses were generally against the concept of rural free delivery as they believed the big mail order stores like Sears and Montgomery Ward would take away much of their business. The rural population, including National Grange, were proponents of the rural free delivery of mail.
In 1896, 82 test routes were put into operation around the country. According to records I could find, Zanesville started the rural delivery of mail in 1899 and was followed in 1900 by Frazeysburg, Norwich and Dresden. Adamsville, Nashport, Philo, Sonora, South Zanesville, Roseville and White Cottage followed in 1901. They were joined in 1902 by Blue Rock, Gaysport, Freeland, Fultonham, New Concord and Trinway.
These were the early post offices with rural delivery in Muskingum County. The mail carriers would use a horse and buggy, ride horseback and even deliver the mail on bicycles. Motorcycles were used in a few situations.
Parcel post was adopted in 1913. It allowed national newspapers, magazines and mail order items from places like Sears to be delivered. Sears Roebuck sales tripled in the five years after parcel post started. In 1916, the Rural Post Roads Act was passed by Congress authorizing federal funds to improve the rural post roads.
Today, according to the GRIT publication, there are more than 104,718 full- and part-time rural carriers who travel more than 74,000 routes and an excess of 3.5 million miles a day in all 50 states. Most use their own vehicles and travel from 10 to 175 miles, averaging more than 400 stops and 550 boxes.
Chuck Bell is a former 4-H Extension Educator for Muskingum County.
This article originally appeared on Zanesville Times Recorder: Rural mail delivery in Zanesville dates back to 1899
