New York Postal History: the Post Offices and First Postmasters from 1775 to 1980
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New York Postal History: The Post Offices and First Postmasters from 1775 to 1980 by John L. Kay and Chester M. Smith, Jr. The APS Handbook Series Published by American Philatelic Society Copyright 1982 American Philatelic Society P.O. Box 800 State College, PA 16801 ISBN No. 0-933580-05-3 Library of Congress No. 81-71859 Table of Contents Preface 5 Introduction 7 Bibliography 17 Post Offices, by County Albany 22 Allegany 28 Bronx 34 Broome 39 Cattaraugus 45 Cayuga 51 Chautauqua 56 Chemung 63 Chenango 67 Clinton 71 Columbia 76 Cortland 81 Delaware 84 Dutchess 92 Erie 103 Essex 114 Franklin 120 Fulton 127 Genesee 130 Greene 135 Hamilton 139 Herkimer 142 Jefferson 148 Kings 155 Lewis 162 Livingston 166 Madison 170 Monroe 173 Montgomery 179 Nassau 184 New York 191 Niagara 201 Oneida 207 Onondaga 215 Ontario 222 Orange 227 Orleans 235 Oswego 238 Otsego 243 Putnam 248 Queens 250 Rensselaer 263 Richmond 268 Rockland 274 Saint Lawrence 277 Saratoga 286 Schenectady 293 3 Schoharie 296 Schuyler 300 Seneca 303 Steuben 306 Suffolk 314 Sullivan 325 Tioga 333 Tompkins 337 Ulster 341 Warren 350 Washington 354 Wayne 359 Westchester 362 Wyoming 372 Yates 376 List of First Postmasters 379 Alphabetical List of Post Offices 463 A Word about the American Philatelic Society 555 Tables Post Offices in Existence by Years 11 Post Offices Established Before 1800 12 Formation of Counties 13 Summary of Parent Offices and Sub-units 14 4 Preface This work was started in late 1976 as a con- provided a source of information not readily tinuation of our books, Pennsylvania Postal available elsewhere. Some records in the Phila- History and New Jersey Postal History. Be- telic History Section of the Smithsonian Institu- cause John Kay worked on the New York and tion and the Library of Congress also were used Washington Railway Post Office, he had the in compiling the data. opportunity to visit the many archives in Wash- The information contained in this work ex- ington, D.C. ists as a data base in machine-readable form. Many people have helped with this work Anyone who desires a copy of it should contact and we wish to thank them. Arthur Hecht and Chester M. Smith, Jr. The data base was devel- Raymond DePue, archivists with the National oped at the Computation Center of The Penn- Archives and Record Service who specialize in sylvania State University. the appraisal and inventory of postal records, The results of further research that may have been most helpful, as has Ms. Jane Ken- make corrections to the data printed here, and nedy of the U.S. Postal Service Library. Ms. all further changes made by the U.S. Postal Emma G. Koberg assisted with proofing some Service, will be published by the Empire State of the versions of the data. Ms. Barbara Kautz Postal History Society (APS Affilate No. 28) of the faculty of The Pennsylvania State Uni- in its monthly bulletin. Send any corrections to versity Computation Center read the manu- John L. Kay, 329 Milne, Philadelphia, PA script and made many useful suggestions. 19144. Anyone who has information that will Thomas Minsker and William H. Verity, also improve the accuracy of this material is asked to of the Computation Center faculty, helped with send the information to the Society. Any ques- some of the final production problems. The tions concerning the information printed herein program SCRIPT, a text formatter from the should be handled in the same manner. University of Waterloo, was used for the final production manuscript. J.L.K. A special note of thanks goes to the staff of Germantown, Pennsylvania the American Philatelic Research Library for C.M.S., Jr. its patience and understanding. The library's Pine Grove Mills, Pennsylvania holdings of Postal Bulletin and Postal Guides September 1, 1981 5 NEW YORK C...11. 000 itt ...... Ca :L . • .% ,.-1* . 1 ti (I I ' r -1 4 I I ,-"I ) I n" i 1 S i I ' so.,..... 0-------/ *7 —to c % L. i -0 - 1-7-Ntit ,4, ".."...r• ( ---- i 1. WITIMffia I --I .'s it ....., I . • — -1-- -- ' 1 °MG' i) :1 e i . ..... ,,... „„a,„ ' -...- L" ,. I ' ! • 1--7 1. 1._ri iki ....-. ..„ ......._ •e/ I , ,s' ' i 1 E I 1-....... 'CALI Pa • 10 1.1.0. nO NSW YORK.. Introduction The two centuries of the postal history of Benjamin Franklin's Journal, July 26, New York that are detailed in this work, 1775, to January 5, 1780 1775-1980, start with July 26, 1775, when the Records of First Returns Received from Continental Congress founded the American Postmasters, October 1789 to July postal system with Benjamin Franklin as Post- 1818 master General. Before 1800 less than 100 of- Records of Appointments of Postmasters, fices were established; now there are more than 1790-1970 1,800. Table 1 shows the number of zffices by List of Post Offices in the United States, years, and Table 2 shows those offices that 1797-1805, 1822, 1857-1863, 1870 were established during the eighteenth century. Table of Post Offices in the United States, The number of offices in Table 1 includes sub- 1808-1851 units such as branches and stations. Therefore, The United States Post Office Directory and the number of offices may not agree with those Postal Guide, 1854, 1856 of the U.S. Postal Service. The history of all Post Office Directory, 1855, 1866, 1868 post offices, named stations, named branches, List of Post Offices and Postmasters in the rural stations, rural branches, and community United States, 1867 post offices is covered. We consider this work a List of Post Offices in the United States and good starting point for studying the rest of New Canada, 1873 York's postal history. United States Official Postal Guide, The following information is given for each 1874-1954 post office or sub-unit: Directory of Post Offices, 1955-1978 National ZIPCODE Directory, 1968-1978 • Name National ZIPCODE Directory and Post Of- • Name of parent office fice Directory, 1979- • Zip code Ledgers of the General Post Office, • County at time of existence 1782-1803 • Establishment date Journal of the General Post Office, • Discontinuation date 1782-1801 • First postmaster's name Letters of the Postmaster General, 1789- • Name changes Daily Journal of the Post Office Depart- • County changes ment, 1835-1905 • Place from which mail service was ob- Miscellaneous Orders of the Postmaster tained on discontinuation General, 1876-1905 Letter Books of the 1st Assistant Postmaster The facts in this work were derived primar- General, 1793-1800 ily from: Post Office Division of Topography, Re- 7 ports of Site Locations, 1837-1946 service on discontinuation. Register of Mail Routes, 1830-1854 In the area of postal markings or cancels, Proposals for Mail Contracts, 1808-1842 there are many works. Sampson (1953, 1971) U.S. Mail and Post Office Assistant, catalogues the stampless and colonial period 1860-1877 markings. Hahn (1938) and Hart and Postal Bulletin, March 4, 1880, to January McDonald (1970) deal with the issue of 1847, 10, 1980 while Ashbrook (1938), Chase (1942), Hill Official Register of the United States, (1955), and Alexander (1979) deal with the 1816-1911 1851-1857 period issues. Boyarsky (1964, 1966) deals with the 1861 issue, as do Lane Wherever possible the information was ver- (1969) and Linn (1955). Willard (1970) treats ified from two or more sources, or by two or in detail the stamp and markings of the 2-cent more people looking at the same data. One 1883 issue. Langford (1955) deals with the sub- must remember that many of the records used ject of flag cancels; Loso and de Windt (1953) were handwritten and errors could occur in and Luff (1950) with aspects of twentieth- reading and transcription. In addition to this century issues and markings. The works of procedure, numerous checks were made after Evans and Reynolds (1932), Konwiser (1933) the data were entered into a data base on an and Norona (1933) contain much other infor- 1BM/370 computer. mation of interest to the New York postal histo- Smith and Patera (1979) pointed out that the rian. "Records of Appointments of Postmasters" do The periodicals of philately related directly not always contain the best available informa- to postal markings and postal history also con- tion. In the case of the discontinuation dates in tain much other information of interest. Notable the period 1887-1899, either the "Daily Jour- among these are Postal Markings (1930), U.S. nals" or the Postal Bulletin should be used. In Cancellation Club Quarterly (1951), and the fact both sources should be used to obtain the U.S. Cancellation Club News (1956). Smith most precise information. and Hahn (1973) produced an index covering Because of the manner of entering and stor- the latter two periodicals. Pat Paragraphs ing the data in a computer, names should be (1931), the Postal History Journal spelled consistently. Indeed, any name is saved (1958-1974), and the Chronicle (1963-1974) only once. Also verified were facts such as that, contain many interesting articles. during the existence of a post office, the county Doane (1973) and Thompson (1949) treat of record did indeed exist. The discontinuation the interesting subject of county and postmaster date of an office and the subsequent reestab- cancels in detail. If your interest is in the rail- lishment under another name or status were road mail service, the works of Harrington checked for consistency. Many other checks (1964), Bernstein (1975), McKee and Lewis were made to ensure that the data are as correct (1972), Remele (1959), Towle and Meyer as possible.