There’s no denying that these are tough times for the U.S. Postal Service. That’s because email and bills are being delivered and paid online, stamp sales are plummeting, and operating costs are soaring, resulting in billions of dollars in debt.
In the early 20th century, the postal service looked for ways to expand its services, and what came out of it—or at least how people used it—may surprise you.
First the background story.
The Continental Congress established the U.S. Post Office in 1775 (with Ben Franklin as the first Postmaster General). It became a cabinet-level post office in 1792. For the next 121 years, it did a reliable job of delivering mail—you know, the whole “neither snow nor rain nor heat nor darkness of night” thing.
At this time, the post office concentrated on delivering letters. Newspapers were also carried (postage within 100 miles cost one penny, and beyond that 1.5 cents). From 1845, local newspapers were sent free of charge. In 1852, magazines received the same low penny rate as newspapers.
That was basically everything: letters, magazines, and newspapers. If you wanted to send a package, you had to send it through a shipping company. Adams Express was the FedEx and UPS of the 19th century. Wells Fargo was another major shipping company.
Americans benefited from reading all the publications they could now receive at home, but the post office did not. The delivery of printed matter at rock-bottom prices cost the post office a lot of money.
In 1913, Postmaster General Frank Hitchcock had an idea to offset these costs. He believed that his department should receive a share of the package delivery revenue.
Hitchcock was an innovative manager. He pioneered the airmail service, made the prosecution of mail fraud a priority, and even launched “Operation Santa Claus,” in which postal workers answered children’s letters to kind old Santa.
The parcel service began on January 1, 1913. Although the idea was forward-looking, Hitchcock intervened prematurely. Although the post office had set the rates for parcel delivery, the bureaucrats immediately had to contend with an unintended consequence.
You did not specify which items could be sent by parcel post and which could not.
Americans embraced the new service with enthusiasm. Farmers sent live bees through the mail. College students mailed their laundry home to their mothers. (Not much has changed in the last century.)
And in several cases, some families even sent their children by mail. No, really, they did.
The first known case was reported in Ohio. Just weeks after Parcel Post became available, Jesse and Mathilda Beagle sent their 8-month-old son, James, to his grandmother, who lived a few miles away. Fortunately for the beagles, James weighed just under the 11-pound weight limit. Postage cost them 15 cents, about $4.76 today. The couple took out $50 insurance just in case.
Baby James was born healthy and happy. This was such a news story that it sparked exciting newspaper articles, which in turn caused other toddlers to “freak out.”
The most famous incident occurred on February 19, 1914, when four-year-old Charlotte Mary Pierstorff was “mailed” nearly 75 miles to her grandparents in Grangeville, Idaho. The trip became so famous that it was included in the children’s book “Mailing Mary” by Michael O. Tunnell.
(This particular case was not as cold-hearted as it may sound. Train tickets were not cheap in those days, and the family apparently saved money by sending the child by parcel post. A relative worked as a railway postal worker and accompanied them on their journey.)
It didn’t take long for postal authorities to realize that this practice could cause serious problems. Major newspapers reported on June 13, 1913, that Hitchcock had put an end to sending children through the mail. (In the case of little Mary the following year, however, and in several other cases, it seemed that mail carriers ignored the decree and sent the little ones through the mail anyway.)
Although the practice didn’t last long, it’s a colorful footnote to the Postal Service’s storied past—the one brief, shining moment when COD could have stood for Child On Delivery.
J. Mark Powell is a novelist, former television journalist, and avid history buff. You can reach him at [email protected].
