Ohio History Journal

EARLY OHIO POSTAL ROUTES BY WILLIAM D. OVERMAN Regular United States mail service followed closely upon the heels of organized government in the Northwest Territory. The

statesmen of that day were aware of the value of a contact with the new settlers in the West and the postmasters-general1 urged 1 Samuel Osgood, 1789-91 and Timothy Pickering, 1791-94. 21

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22    OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

the extension of cheaper postal rates and better facilities for "our

fellow citizens in the remote parts of the Union."

Pittsburgh received regular mail service first by carrier on

horseback in 1788² and in 1794 mail was carried overland to

Wheeling and by river to Marietta and Limestone,³ Kentucky,

thence overland again, on the south side of the Ohio River, to

Cincinnati. Postal service to the Ohio Valley antedated that to

western New York state; for the first post that ventured west

of Albany was a foot carrier who began his trips to Utica in

1793, and mail was being carried only at intervals to Niagara on

horseback by 1797.⁴

Packet boats ran every two weeks from Cincinnati to Pitts-

burgh but no United States mail was carried on them.⁵ Before

the establishment of the route in 1794, alluded to above, the mail

had been-carried into the West from towns in Virginia to Dan-

ville, Kentucky.  The military expeditions of Generals Arthur

St. Clair and "Mad Anthony" Wayne had necessitated the carry-

ing of a large number of letters and messages by courier.

The 1794 schedule estimated the time from    Pittsburgh to

Cincinnati at seven days, while it required 13 days for the return

up the river.⁶  The first postmaster in Marietta was Return J.

Meigs, Jr., who later became Postmaster-General (1814-1823)

under Presidents James Madison and James Monroe. The post-

master at Cincinnati was Abner Dunn. Although there was not

a great volume of mail and deliveries were slow at first, there

were as many as 35 dead letters listed in the November 1, 1794,

issue of the Centinel. This list was published in accordance with

a law requiring that the addresses of such letters as were uncalled

for in three months, be published for three successive weeks.

The plan to use othe river did not work satisfactorily because

of the ice, high water and many petty difficulties that were likely to

cause delay. The mail to settlements in Kentucky was not going

 

2 American State Papers, Post Office, 1789-1833, 13.

3 Now Maysville.

4 Alvin F. Harlow, Old Post Bags (New York, 1928), 283.

5 Centinel of the North-western Territory, Nov. 16, 1793.

6 Beverley W. Bond, Jr., The Foundations of Ohio, Carl Wittke, ed., The History

of the State of Ohio (Columbus, 1941), I, 392.

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EARLY OHIO POSTAL ROUTES                       23

 

through properly and many Washington officials clung to the belief

that the route from     Staunton, Virginia, through Abingdon to

Danville, Lexington and Louisville, with a connection to Cin-

cincinnati, would be speedier and more regular. The opening, how-

ever, of Zane's Trace in 1796 from Wheeling west to Zanesville

and southward through New Lancaster (Lancaster, Ohio), Chilli-

cothe and Manchester, connecting with Limestone, Kentucky,

solved the problem. For in 1797 and 1798 mail was carried over

this route in less time and more regularly than it had been on

the river, in spite of the elaborate preparations that had been made

for the river service. The mail from Pittsburgh, through Can-

nonsburgh, Pennsylvania, to Wheeling and westward over the

Trace, was carried by a system      of post-riders.   One was sta-

tioned at Wheeling and one at Zanesville, and mail was carried

between Zanesville and Pittsburgh once a week.

There is a dearth of information as to what compensation

post-riders received, some statistics of the Post Office Department

indicate that riders got all the proceeds between certain offices

on certain routes, and in one instance the Postmaster-General of-

fered a carrier $2.50 per mile for carrying the mail.7    In another

place it is recorded that carriers received 2?? for each piece of

franked mail that they carried.⁸

The extension of the postal service in the West was one

of the evidences of the great increase in population. Although

the Census of 1790 did not list the few inhabitants in Marietta

and Cincinnati, or the squatters up along the river,⁹ by 1800 the

picture changed. The Census in this year showed a population

of 45,365 in seven counties and by 1810 Ohio's population had

jumped to 227,843.

In 1800, a post was running from Louisville to Vincennes,

 

7  The policy of colonial times had been to make a profit out of the postal service

but by 1796 this was given up. Rich cites a letter from Postmaster-General Joseph

Habersham to the Chairman of the House Committee on Post Offices and Post Roads

wherein he says: "It has been a very wise policy to open this useful source of

information to the settlers of a new country and the expense will not be considered

when the object is so important." Wesley E. Rich, The History of the United States

Post Office to the Year 1829. Harvard Economic Studies (Cambridge), XXVII, 71-3.

8 Annals of Congress, 1793-4, 1435.

9 Bond, Foundations of Ohio, 392-3.

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24    OHIO ARCHEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY Indiana, once a week and to Cahokia, Illinois, every two weeks. This was an extension of more than 1,500 miles in six years.10 The Ohio country business had increased to the place where it was necessary for the rider to lead an extra horse as early as

1796, for, as the Postmaster-General wrote, "The western mail weighs 120 lbs. and is too heavy for one horse."11 Detroit needed 10 Harlow, Old Post Bags, 285. 11 Ibid.

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EARLY OHIO POSTAL ROUTES                     25

 

service. It was proposed that a route be established in 180212

from Cincinnati to Detroit, but it was a long distance and there

was little in the way of accommodations for the riders. Although

some mail went through to Detroit, for they had a postoffice

established in 1803, regular service did not begin until 1805 when

a route was established via Pittsburgh, Warren (Ohio), Cleveland,

and thence to Sandusky and Detroit. It was in 1805 that the

Cleveland office was established and the Postmaster-General wrote

to Jefferson that he had engaged "two faithful, enterprising,

hardy young woodsmen" to carry the mail.13

An act of Congress, April 23, 1800, provided for the estab-

lishment of postal routes from Washington in Kentucky to Man-

chester (Ohio), and thence to Chillicothe, over the lower end of

Zane's Trace and from Marietta to Zanesville on the Muskingum.¹⁴

In 1804, the year after Ohio became a State, other routes were

provided.¹⁵ These were: Pittsburgh to Warren by Cleveland to

Detroit; Chillicothe to Alexandria (at the mouth of the Scioto

River, now west of the city of Portsmouth); from Chillicothe to

Franklinton (later to be incorporated in the city of Columbus);

Cincinnati through Franklin and Dayton to Stanton, thence

through Wainsville (Waynesville) and Deerfield to Charleston;

and from Zanesville to Gnadenhutten. The act permitted the

Postmaster to make contracts and this does not mean that service

between these towns was immediately forthcoming.

The Postmaster-General in 1803 was Gideon Granger who

had the longest term of any in American history, 13 years. Return

J. Meigs, who followed him     served nine years.¹⁶ Granger and

other national leaders of the period were interested in the de-

velopment of the West.     The rapid extension of postal routes

and facilities during the next quarter of a century, operated at a

loss to the government, is evidence of this desire. Granger wrote

 

12 Annals of Congress, 1801, 1575-6.

13 Postmaster General Letterbook N, 95, 305, in Rich, History of Post Office,

77-8, 85.

14 Annals of Congress, 1799-1801, 1479.

15 Ibid., 1803-5, 1283-4.

16 Benjamin Franklin had served 21 years as Colonial Postmaster and for one year

after the Declaration. But after Granger and Meigs, the average until 1861 was less

than two and one-half years each. See Ross A. McReynolds, United States Postal De-

velopment, 1607-1931 (Summary of a Ph. D. Thesis, Univ. of Chicago, 1931), 17.

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26    OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

to Senator James Jackson, November 22, 1803, in reply to the

Senator's inquiry as to the feasibility of extending the carriage

of mail by the use of stages or covered wagons. The Postmaster

said that the use of such means would be a great public utility

but recited the many difficulties that would present themselves

in crossing mountains and streams in the western states. With

reasonable encouragement, he believed the nesessary arrangements

might be affected in a short time. He further recommended the

extension of mail contracts from four to seven years and a 50%

increase in the expenditure for conveyance.17

The State capital of Ohio was at Chillicothe from 1803 to

1809, when it was moved to Zanesville. It was returned to Chilli-

cothe in 1812 only to move permanently to Columbus in 1816. A

study of a map of postal routes for this period would show lines

radiating from  Chillicothe as spokes from   the hub of a wheel.

Later the center was to shift northward as settlement progressed

and Columbus became the hub of activity. In 1810, all existing

post routes were discontinued and a whole new system was pro-

vided.¹⁸ The routes established in 1810 were:

1. Pt. Pleasant, Virginia, by Gallipolis, Scioto Salt Works, Chillicothe,

Franklinton, Worthington, Delaware, Mt. Vernon, Mansfield, Ripley,

Bronson to Huron, on Lake Erie.

2. Marietta to Belpre.

3. Marietta by Athens, Chillicothe, New Market (Highland County),

Williamsburg (Clermont County), Milford, Columbia, Cincinnati to

North Bend.

4. Wheeling, Virginia, by St. Clairsville, Morristown, Frankford,

Cambridge, Zanesville, Springfield (Now South Zanesville), New

Lancaster (now Lancaster), Chillicothe, and Brown's Cross Roads

to Maysville, Kentucky.

5. Cincinnati by Crossby, Hamilton, Franklin, Dayton, Stanton, Troy,

Piqua Town, Springfield, Ludlow, Xenia, Waynesville, Lebanon,

and Montgomery to Cincinnati.

6. Chillicothe, by Pee Pee (now Piketon) to Alexandria (now on the

west side of the Scioto River from Portsmouth).

7. Zanesville by Gnadenhutten and New Philadelphia to Canton.

8. Marietta by Waterford, Zanesville, Newark (Granville) to Wor-

thington and Urbana.

 

17 American State Papers, Post Office, 1789-1833, 29.

18 Annals of Congress, 1810, 2550.

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EARLY OHIO POSTAL ROUTES                      27

 

9. Troy to Greenville.

10. Brook Court House in Virginia to Steubenville, and Faucettstown

(now to E. Liverpool?) to New Lisbon.

11. Greersburg or Beavertown, Pennsylvania, by N. Lisbon, Deerfield,

Ravenna, Hudson, Cleveland, Huron, Perkins, Paterson, and San-

dusky to Ft. Miami (near present city of Toledo).

12. Greersburg, Pennsylvania, by Poland, Youngstown, Warren to Jef-

ferson and return by Williamsfield, Smithfield, and Brookfield to

Warren.

13. Litchfield by Canfield, Jefferson, and Austinville to Cleveland.

14. Youngstown to Canfield.

In tracing these routes it is necessary to refer to contem-

porary maps. An original manuscript map of Ohio19 by John F.

Mansfield compiled in 1806 from     "returns in the Office of the

Surveyor General," and other early maps dated 1818 and 1825,

have been most useful. Many of these towns have either gone out

of existence or have changed names to make it impossible to trace

them on any more recent map. There were many instances of

two towns having the same name and it became necessary for one

of them to change to avoid confusion. This duplication occurred

in the names Springfield, Charleston, Lexington, Deerfield, Jef-

ferson, among others. By laws in 1812, 1814, 1815, 1817, 1818,

1819, 1820, 1823,20 etc., these routes were altered or supplemented

so that as the new counties were added, service could be extended

to the county seat and intervening towns.

The New York post office had collected $5,537.18 in 1791,

Philadelphia $9,674.40 and Pittsburgh $140. The earliest statistics

on Ohio indicates a total for 1801 of $1,515.67, with an increase

to $2,495.85 in 1802.21 From    these humble beginnings the busi-

ness in Ohio increased to where by 1816 there were 134 post offices

with 2,778 miles of post roads. The cost of carrying this mail was

$12,476 with a net revenue of $7,950.63 leaving the Post Office "in

the red" to the extent of $4,525.37.

 

 

19 In Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society Library.

2O Annals of Congress, 1811-12, 2295; 1812-13, 1318; 1813-14, 2841; 1814-15, 1930-

31; 1816-17, 1302; 1817-18, 2574; 1819, 2519; 1820, 2595; 1820-21, 1827; 1822-

23, 1393.

21 American State Papers, Post Office, 1331-3.

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28    OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

In 1822, the number of miles of post roads in Ohio had in-

creased to 6,428 and the cost of running the mails was placed at

$41,170.1822 with a balance against the State of $19,778.79. In

1827, there were 490 post offices in Ohio and at this time the

revenue at Cincinnati was $6,542.18; at Chillicothe $1,509.59; at

Zanesville $992.31; at Columbus $949.64 and at Cleveland

$671.05.23 In 1828, there were 539 post offices and by 1830 the

number had increased to 661.24

On March 9, 1830, W. T. Barry, Postmaster-General wrote

to Andrew Stevenson, Speaker of the House of Representatives,

recommending an improvement of the post road from Zanesville,

Ohio, to Florence, Alabama. This road ran through Maysville,

Kentucky, and Nashville, Tennessee. He indicated that the mail

was transported over the whole of the route in stages, except

during a great part of the winter season when the miry state of

the road was such as "to render it impracticable, especially between

Maysville and Lexington, Kentucky, where the stage can seldom

be used during 3 months of the year."25 From Zanesville to

Lexington, he continued, the mail is carried daily; thence to

Florence three times a week. The running time for the whole

distance was ten days in winter and nine in other seasons. He

concluded with the recommendation that the road be macadamized.

If this were done he thought the mail could be carried in six days.

John McLean of Ohio was Postmaster-General from 1823 to

1828 and brought great efficiency into the system, making it show

a profit for the year 1827.26 Improvements in the system, how-

ever, caused the office to run a small deficit for 1828. In the five

years of his incumbency the number of post offices increased from

4,498 to 7,651 in the United States and he estimated that 26,956

persons were employed in the service. This was a larger number

than in any other branch of the executive department, including

the Army and the Navy.²⁷

 

²² Ibid, 117.

23 Ibid., 174-6.

24 Ibid., 287-90.

25 Ibid., 241.

26 Francis P. Weisenburger, Life of John McLean (Columbus, 1937), 45.

27 Ibid., 46.

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EARLY OHIO POSTAL ROUTES                 29

 

The problem of making use of the mail stages for carrying

passengers is interesting and was productive of much trouble and

discussion in these early days. In some cases there were so many

passengers that the mail was crowded off the stage, and in other

cases public officials and others criticized the Post Office De-

partment for their schedules and routes, forgetting that they were

primarily established for mail service. Professor Francis P. Weis-

enburger cites a case where Governor Allen Trimble of Ohio wrote

McLean complaining that the principal route between Cincinnati

and Washington was changed to go through Columbus (which was

the State capital) and that inferior service through Hillsboro

(his home town) resulted. McLean was quick to point out the

necessity for a principal route between important points and the

necessary subordinate position of parallel routes.²⁸

From all this region there was much complaint of late mails

and irregular service. In bad weather stage wagons or coaches

had to be abandoned on account of deep snow or mud, and heavy

mail bags were left with the vehicle or dragged behind horses in

canvas-covered crates or sledges. With the growth of the country

and the increase in the volume of the mail, bags became heavier

and more bulky and sometimes were left behind for want of room

and a town like Cincinnati would be without mail for a consider-

able time. But the desire for prompt service and for the estab-

lishment of good post roads was one of the best reasons put forth

for internal improvements. Calhoun said, in 1817, that Congress

ought to "bind the public together with a perfect system of roads

and canals"29 and Henry Clay also held this view in his ardent

advocacy of internal improvements at government expense.

 

 

28 Ibid., 42.

29 Cited in Rich, History of the Post Office, 88.

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