Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Three months ago I came across the USPS bulletin site and by searching the town name, started to piece together a virtually complete postal history of this P.O. It includes almost every notice ever sent out in regards to changes to the local system. With the exception of the first postmaster, it does include the names of all the ones after that. Many of which are familiar names of some of the older families still living in the area. Other info available, are the route changes showing from where the mail was being sorted before coming here, as well as the stops made along the way. At certain times that included this being a sorting facility for other, even smaller, towns and settlements scattered throughout the hills and valleys of the Ozarks. A few of the earlier notices even make note of the mail going by horse and buggy. (allowances for livery costs during overnight stays) This info has to be sorted from a thousand or more other notices included in the same bulletins. It's amazing how many things changed from one year to the next. I've started putting it all down in outline form and it's taken 6 pages just to get from 1895 to 1907, but hopefully, in the end, I'll be able to do a full write-up on our own postal history.
There's still a lot of the older families around that could have received mail as far back as the inception of the federal postal system. I guess it would've been mail by pack mule back then. This morning I put up a notice on the P.O. bulletin board, asking folks to furnish and allow me to scan pre-1960 covers, sent to, or from here. With a little luck, I'll be able to include a few scans with the write-up.
I still have a ways to go, but it's been a lot of fun so far and something anyone living in the area of a smaller P.O. could do. It's sort of a "hometown/small town" approach to collecting.
WB
P.S. If you want to get an idea of what life in this area was like in the earlier days, check out the John Wayne movie, Shepherd of the Hills. It's not far off.
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W.B. i have been searching for the past 45 minutes or so for a book written by one of our past stamp club members on the "Post Offices of Columbia County" (New York) When i was growing up the county had 27,000 souls..plus cows, the cows have been replaced by New York City after 9-11. Roy Ahlquist a retired school teacher and part time stamp dealer was a true believer..he was very ill at the end..but he was printing album pages on his computer right to the end. Back to Columbia County....its amazing if you go back to Revolutionary times how many post offices existed over the years. I will have to confirm when i find the book but i think there were in the neighborhood of a thousand different post offices ! phil
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Hi Phil,
I figured there had likely been others that had taken this approach and Mr. Alquist must have been a tenacious individual to have tackled a project that large! My endeavor will be nowhere near that intense.
I can only hope to trace anything postal related prior to around 1890, but there are certainly folks here that could have received mail from a family member during, or even before the civil war. Even though a nice scan of a cover from that era is highly unlikely, folks in this are do tend to keep things like that, so anything is possible. My best hope, I think, will be the time between WWI and WWII. I'm also trying to take the approach as to how the P.O. might have had a direct effect on the town itself. I have no formal education or training in doing this, so I'm not sure what my end result will be.
At any rate, it's all for fun. I don't imagine that I'm going to shakeup the world with anything I find. Although...it is a tiny little P.O., in a tiny little town, that has made it's way through two world wars, the great depression and the results of a hydroelectric dam and reservoir flooding the area in the 1940's and 50's. That in itself left part of Arkansas on the Missouri side of the lake and this tiny little P.O. now delivers mail in two states.
WB
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I was off by about 900 post offices..i am convinced the reason
no one has ever killed me is that i admit my mistakes and do not hold a grudge. Looks like Roy documented about 98 post offices from 1786 to 199?
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That's excellent! It sounds very close to what I had in mind, except on a much larger scale.
Thanks for sharing that,
WB
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I hope this map shows up..this was my world from age 10 to 19..a most magical world..i grew up with direct descendants of the Palatines who landed there in 1710 !
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Steeped in history, is the phrase that comes to mind. Great place to hail from Phil!
WB
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04:58:43pm
"C.O.E. lake"
Corps of Engineers ???, an artificial lake ?
Sorry, I just had to ask.
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Yes sir, a man made lake, built by the Corp of Engineers for the purpose of flood control and generating electricity. Bull Shoals Lake (where I live) is the lower most in a series that includes Beaver Lake, Table Rock Lake and Lake Taneycomo, all of which are part of the White River drainage system.
WB
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I live in an unincorporated town of about 150 full-time residents. It's P.O. is, and always has been located in what would be considered a "General Store". Even though there have been people living in this area since the 1700's, the town wasn't established until 1890 and the first P.O. in 1895. During prohibition, this was bootlegging country and as a result, a thriving metropolis. The town is located within 5 miles of 2 counties in AR and 2 counties in MO. It's fabled (by local lore) that it was somewhat of a "hole in the wall" for many of the gangsters and mobs of the time. An easy escape during a time when law enforcement couldn't cross county or state lines in pursuit of criminals. The town survives now, mostly from farming/ranching and resorts established after the C.O.E. lake went in around 1950.
Three months ago I came across the USPS bulletin site and by searching the town name, started to piece together a virtually complete postal history of this P.O. It includes almost every notice ever sent out in regards to changes to the local system. With the exception of the first postmaster, it does include the names of all the ones after that. Many of which are familiar names of some of the older families still living in the area. Other info available, are the route changes showing from where the mail was being sorted before coming here, as well as the stops made along the way. At certain times that included this being a sorting facility for other, even smaller, towns and settlements scattered throughout the hills and valleys of the Ozarks. A few of the earlier notices even make note of the mail going by horse and buggy. (allowances for livery costs during overnight stays) This info has to be sorted from a thousand or more other notices included in the same bulletins. It's amazing how many things changed from one year to the next. I've started putting it all down in outline form and it's taken 6 pages just to get from 1895 to 1907, but hopefully, in the end, I'll be able to do a full write-up on our own postal history.
There's still a lot of the older families around that could have received mail as far back as the inception of the federal postal system. I guess it would've been mail by pack mule back then. This morning I put up a notice on the P.O. bulletin board, asking folks to furnish and allow me to scan pre-1960 covers, sent to, or from here. With a little luck, I'll be able to include a few scans with the write-up.
I still have a ways to go, but it's been a lot of fun so far and something anyone living in the area of a smaller P.O. could do. It's sort of a "hometown/small town" approach to collecting.
WB
P.S. If you want to get an idea of what life in this area was like in the earlier days, check out the John Wayne movie, Shepherd of the Hills. It's not far off.
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Auctions
re: Tracing the history of my local P.O.
W.B. i have been searching for the past 45 minutes or so for a book written by one of our past stamp club members on the "Post Offices of Columbia County" (New York) When i was growing up the county had 27,000 souls..plus cows, the cows have been replaced by New York City after 9-11. Roy Ahlquist a retired school teacher and part time stamp dealer was a true believer..he was very ill at the end..but he was printing album pages on his computer right to the end. Back to Columbia County....its amazing if you go back to Revolutionary times how many post offices existed over the years. I will have to confirm when i find the book but i think there were in the neighborhood of a thousand different post offices ! phil
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re: Tracing the history of my local P.O.
Hi Phil,
I figured there had likely been others that had taken this approach and Mr. Alquist must have been a tenacious individual to have tackled a project that large! My endeavor will be nowhere near that intense.
I can only hope to trace anything postal related prior to around 1890, but there are certainly folks here that could have received mail from a family member during, or even before the civil war. Even though a nice scan of a cover from that era is highly unlikely, folks in this are do tend to keep things like that, so anything is possible. My best hope, I think, will be the time between WWI and WWII. I'm also trying to take the approach as to how the P.O. might have had a direct effect on the town itself. I have no formal education or training in doing this, so I'm not sure what my end result will be.
At any rate, it's all for fun. I don't imagine that I'm going to shakeup the world with anything I find. Although...it is a tiny little P.O., in a tiny little town, that has made it's way through two world wars, the great depression and the results of a hydroelectric dam and reservoir flooding the area in the 1940's and 50's. That in itself left part of Arkansas on the Missouri side of the lake and this tiny little P.O. now delivers mail in two states.
WB
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Auctions
re: Tracing the history of my local P.O.
I was off by about 900 post offices..i am convinced the reason no one has ever killed me is that i admit my mistakes and do not hold a grudge. Looks like Roy documented about 98 post offices from 1786 to 199?
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this post
re: Tracing the history of my local P.O.
That's excellent! It sounds very close to what I had in mind, except on a much larger scale.
Thanks for sharing that,
WB
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this post
Auctions
re: Tracing the history of my local P.O.
I hope this map shows up..this was my world from age 10 to 19..a most magical world..i grew up with direct descendants of the Palatines who landed there in 1710 !
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re: Tracing the history of my local P.O.
Steeped in history, is the phrase that comes to mind. Great place to hail from Phil!
WB
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Silence in the face of adversity is the father of complicity and collusion, the first cousins of conspiracy..
02 Feb 2016
04:58:43pm
re: Tracing the history of my local P.O.
"C.O.E. lake"
Corps of Engineers ???, an artificial lake ?
Sorry, I just had to ask.
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re: Tracing the history of my local P.O.
Yes sir, a man made lake, built by the Corp of Engineers for the purpose of flood control and generating electricity. Bull Shoals Lake (where I live) is the lower most in a series that includes Beaver Lake, Table Rock Lake and Lake Taneycomo, all of which are part of the White River drainage system.
WB
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