Pennsylvania Postal Historian
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August 2013 Whole No. 196 Vol. 41, No. 3 PENNSYLVANIA POSTAL HISTORIAN THE BULLETIN OF THE PENNSYLVANIA POSTAL HISTORY SOCIETY Inside this issue: A New Chestnut Hill Marking The Shenks Ferry Doane Cancellation ONE, TWO, THREE STRIKES YER OUT! Pennsylvania Prohibition Covers New EKU for Exton, Pa. Doane Cancel Uwchland P. O., Chester County, Pa. More on the Acahela Post Office Reader Responses PENNSYLVANIA POSTAL HISTORIAN The Bulletin of the Pennsylvania Postal History Society ISSN – 0894 – 0169 Est. 1974 PENNSYLVANIA POSTAL HISTORIAN The bulletin of the Pennsylvania Postal History Society Published quarterly by the PPHS for its members Volume 41 No. 3 (Whole No. 196) August 2013 APS Affiliate No. 50 Member of the Pennsylvania Federation of Museums and Historical Organizations www.PaPHS.org The PPHS is a non-profit, educational organization whose purposes are to cultivate and to promote the study of the postal history of Pennsylvania, to encourage the acquisition and preservation of material relevant and necessary to that study, and to publish and to support the publication of such knowledge for the benefit of the public. The views expressed by contributors are their own and not necessarily those of the PPHS, its Directors, Officers, or Members. Comments and criticisms are invited. Please direct your correspondence to the Editor. OFFICERS and DIRECTORS APPOINTED OFFICERS OFFICERS President Steve Washburne Historian Editor Norman Shachat P. O. Box 43146 382 Tall Meadow Lane Philadelphia, PA 19129 Yardley, Pa 19067 Secretary Norman Shachat Auctioneer Robert McKain 382 Tall Meadow Lane 2337 Giant Oaks Drive Yardley, PA 19067 Pittsburgh, PA 15241 Treasurer Richard Colberg Publicity Steven Kennedy P. O. Box 10082 2000 N. Congress Ave. Lot #254 Lancaster, PA 17605 West Palm Beach, FL 33409 Catalogs Thomas C. Mazza DIRECTORS 302 West 12 th Street, Apt. 12E New York, NY 10014 2013 S. Kennedy, G. Spector, S. Washburne 2014 R. Colberg, R. Leiby, D. Telep 2015 A. Sprankle, R. McKain, C. Woodward 1 HISTORIAN Vol. 41, No.3 (Whole No. 196) August 2013 PRESIDENT’S LETTER For our Society, the first three days of July are an important milestone, being the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg. Reportedly, over 10,000 re-enactors took part in the commemorations. Perhaps it is time to re-consider the postal history connections of the battle. Certainly there was mail from both sides posted in or near the town before, during and after. I don't possess any, but I'm sure some of our members do. That would make a fascinating article, particularly as social philatelic history is a coming trend. Even better would be if a member had access to personal correspondence from his ancestors. I don't, but I sure wish I did. My maternal great-grandfather was too young for the war, but he had four older brothers in the 19th Mississippi, one of whom fell at Gettysburg. Were any of them able to write, or even to read “cursive"? Another question about the war concerns which, if any Adams County post offices were occupied, looted, or burned by Lee's forces. Was mail seized? Does any Confederate correspondence posted in Pennsylvania survive? It all goes to show that state and county postal history is much, much more than just collecting postmarks, which is what we are sometimes accused of. Share what you have of the social philatelic history of your town or county in these pages. On another subject, I just completed my goal of visiting (and finding a “geo-cache” in) each of the 67 Pennsylvania counties. Now I'm working on getting a cover from each. Steve Our New Website is Up and Running The address is the same as our previous site: www.PaPHS.org Please check it out and send any comments or suggestions to our new Webmaster: Steve Kennedy [email protected] HISTORIAN Vol. 41, No. 3 (Whole No. 196) August 2013 2 EDITOR’S COMMENTS Halleluiah! Our new and updated web site is up and running thanks to our new Webmaster Steve Kennedy. Please check it out ( www.paphs.org ) and send Steve any comments or suggestions. I especially enjoyed preparing this issue because it contains a mix of some new discoveries as well as some fun to read articles. The issue begins with two new discoveries; one by our past president and the other by one of our newer members. Rick Leiby describes “A New Chestnut Hill Marking” while David Latzko idetifies “ The Shenks Ferry Doane Cancellation” with the newly found current LKU. Later in the issue (page 23), Bill Schultz illustrates a “ New EKU for Exton, Pa. Doane Cancel”. It’s the middle of the baseball season with the Phillies struggling in 3 rd place in the NL st East, while the Pirates are contending for 1 place in the NL Central. Certainly a nice time for Gus Spector’s entertaining and nostalgic article entitled “ ONE, TWO, THREE STRIKES YER OUT!” The article tells the history of the A. J, Reach Co. of Philadelphia and the impact of the Reach family on baseball in the late 19 th and early 20 th Century. While the PA legislature struggles with the question of state liquor store privatization, the last vestige of the prohibition era, we are fortunate to have an entertaining article by Cliff Woodward entitled “ Pennsylvania Prohibition Covers ”. Using covers and ephemera, Cliff describes the temperance movement in Pennsylvania during the latter half (Continued on page 9) MEMBERSHIP SUMMARY Total Membership as of 4/15/13 --------------------------------------------------------------- 110 New Members -------------------------------------------------------------------- + 4 # 591 John D. Dowd (New York, NY) (Pike and Wayne Co. P. O. Service to NY; Treasure Island and Pipersville P. O.’s) # 592 Edward Knell (Southeastern, PA) # 593 Charles B. Hessler (Laurel, MD) (Vintage postcards; NEPA anthracite mining & Poconos) # 594 Allison Cusick (Pittsburgh, PA) (Machine cancels – Fayette and Franklin Counties) Dropped for Non-Payment of Dues ------------------------------------------- - 2 # 370 Harry Stiess (Danville, PA) # 587 Frank Piazzi, Jr. (Greentown, PA) Total Membership as of 7/15/13 ---------------------------------------------------------------- 112 (includes 4 life members) ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 3 HISTORIAN Vol. 41, No. 3 (Whole No. 196) August 2013 Member E-Mail Addresses Edwin J. Andrews [email protected] (Scott # 65 Pa. Usages) George Ashman [email protected] (Carbon Co.) John Barwis [email protected] (Phila. Exhange Office Mails) Glenn Blauch [email protected] (Lebanon Co.) Mike Burke [email protected] (Braddock, Greencastle, Rankin, Swissvale) Tom Clarke [email protected] (Philadelphia Postal History) Richard Colberg [email protected] (Litiz) Joe Crosby [email protected] (Pa. Fancy Cancels) Gerald Cross [email protected] (Wilkes-Barre) Dave Crossland [email protected] (Reading and Berks Counties) Roger Curran [email protected] (Lewisburg to 1900, Fancy Cancels) George Danyliw [email protected] (Phila. and Schuylkill Co.) William Dixon [email protected] (Wyoming County, Fakes and Forgeries) Barry Elkins [email protected] (Philadelphia Co.) Neal Erkes [email protected] (Philadelphia) Helen Galatan-Stone [email protected] (Phila. Buildings prior to 1900) Ken Hall [email protected] (Pa. Manuscript Postmarks) Suzanne Haney [email protected] (Welsh in Pa., Civil War Phila.) Gerald Hof [email protected] (Philadelphia, Hagerstown, Md.) Steve Kennedy [email protected] (Philadelphia) Van Koppersmith [email protected] (Phila. Maritime Markings) Rick Leiby [email protected] (Pa. Stampless) Tom Mazza [email protected] (Erie, Western Pa.) Bob McKain [email protected] (Pittsburgh, Pa. Machines) Phil Marks [email protected] (Bucks Co., Southern NJ, Eastern Shore) Lloyd Mitchell [email protected] (Southwest Pa.., Washington Co. RFD’s) Letty Moon [email protected] (Southeastern PA Counties) Gordon Morison [email protected] (Bradford County) Vern Morris [email protected] (Philadelphia, Locals) Ed Mosheim [email protected] (Hereford Twp. P. O. and Adjacent Twp’s.) Bud Newman [email protected] (Pa. Stampless) Norm Nicol [email protected] (Luzerne and Wyoming Counties) Clay Olson [email protected] (Tioga County) Al Parsons [email protected] (Chemung, Steuben, Schuyler Counties, NY) Larry Pettinger [email protected] (Susquehanna County) Steven Roth [email protected] (Domestic Maritime, Prexies) Robert G. Rufe [email protected] (Bucks County) Bill Schultz [email protected] (West Chester,West Whiteland & West Town) Norm Shachat [email protected] (Phila. and Bucks Co.) Dave Silcox [email protected] (Schuylkill and Berks Co.) Don W. Smith [email protected] (Johnstown, Cambria County) Gus Spector [email protected] (Phila., Buildings, Civil War ) Anita Sprankle [email protected] (North Central DPO’s, Sewing Machines) (Continued on page 16 ) HISTORIAN Vol. 41, No. 3 (Whole No. 196) August 2013 4 A New Chestnut Hill Marking By Rick Leiby (# 379) I recently acquired the stampless cove in Figure 1 with a previously unrecorded straightline Chestnut Hill, Pa marking. The cover has been examined by the APS expertizing service and was returned with an opinion of genuine in all respects on certificate 201479 dated 11/28/2012. Figure 1 Philadelphia county post offices have long been an area of high collecting interest and it seems unusual that a marking of this type would go unnoticed until now. However, there are extensive archives of paper from the stampless period and still diamonds to be mined. The marking itself is unusual when closely examined. It has characteristics that would lead one to believe it was hand drawn rather than from a typeset device. Figure 2 is a scan of only the marking. The Postmaster or clerk who rated the cover also drew an outline box th around the marking, corrected the date from the 15 to the 14th and overwrote the PA letters in the same ink as the rating. When the marking itself is closely examined, the “H” in HILL doesn’t appear to match the “H” in CHESTNUT. Under the U there is a small “N” of a different style.