Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
The list started with the book "New Jersey Postal History" by John Kay and Chester Smith. The book cataloged post offices starting with the formation of our postal system in 1776. Most, if not all of the original post offices were major population areas and still exist today. So it's easy enough to collect those postmarks. As I look in the list I see offices that existed for a brief period in the early to mid 1800s and I wonder if I should just delete these from my list since they predate postage stamps, and I figured it was a far fetch that I'd be able to find an example from that office. Now I'm rethinking that strategy!
I recently came across the cover from Oxford Furnace, New Jersey. That office existed from 1813 to 1866, one of those I thought I'd never find. And here it is. An Australian dealer offered it on Hipstamps for $20, so I grabbed it. I have no idea the year because it's nowhere on the cover, but the manuscript cancel cover clearly lists the town and August 9th. It's in remarkable condition. It's a folded letter sheet with two wax seals. The contents are mainly accounting numbers without any dates. I'm tickled pink to have it in my collection.
The Oxford Furnace post office was superseded by Oxford, New Jersey, which is still a current office. And of course I have that cancel in my collection as well.
So I won't be discouraged by early DPOs any more. I'll just search harder for them!
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Good stuff Tom! Just curious about your reasoning for displaying Oxford upside-down. I know it makes reading the postmark easier but...
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That's pretty much the reason Ernie! The postmark is the star here. So I positioned the card so it was readable. Note that it's just wedged into the page, so it can be re positioned at any time!
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Who would have thought that you would have picked up a NJ stampless cover from Australia? Wow
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Time for an update since this rare beauty came in the mail the other day and made it into my album this afternoon!
When we stay at the Jersey Shore, we go to Wildwood Crest. It's south of Wildwood, and is a bit more laid back and less crowded since it doesn't have a boardwalk. So of course I wanted the postmark. My catalog shows this office existing for just about four years. from July 1909 until April 1913.
Neighboring Wildwood is an easy postmark to find, since it was always a tourist destination. And the survival rate on postcards is greater than ordinary mail. The Crest, as locals call it, is a bit rarer and I've only occasionally seen a hand stamp, usually a poor strike. This was the first decent postmark I've found, and the only one I've ever seen in purple. You can actually read "CREST" atop the stamp.
So I am pleased to add this one to my collection. And here's the page it now resides on, along with a classic postcard of the Wildwood Crest arch. Unfortunately that's long gone!
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Very nice!
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Tom,
If you google the addressee of the Oxford Furnace cover, you will find a lot of information on David Thomas. He was famous for the start of the steel industry in Pennsylvania.
As he arrived there in 1839, your cover is probably from the early 1840's. BTW, the date might be Jan(uar)y 9.
Jan
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Great purple strike. Is there any rhyme or reason on the cancels whether they be black, red, purple etc.? I know some are seen more than others.
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"If you google the addressee of the Oxford Furnace cover, you will find a lot of information on David Thomas. He was famous for the start of the steel industry in Pennsylvania."
Thanks Jan! The history we can discover never ceases to amaze me!
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Tom,
This cover is currently on eBay and would make a nice additional to your collection (nice advert cover, nice postmark).
https://www.ebay.com/itm/153377568986
Don
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Thanks Don! Jersey City is an easy city to find, and my birthplace! I do have a lot of covers from there already including some early family correspondence!
In fact here's one with an ad from my Grandfather's store! The postmark stinks, it is the Hudson City branch though. It's a keeper!
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Got two new covers this week for the New Jersey collection....
Beaverrun... that's the town of Beaver Run without the space. The US Geological Commission eliminated the space in names in some sort of 1890s standardization scheme. I don't know what it saved, but it was pretty darn unpopular. And for postmark collectors, it means we need to collect three covers for this town:
Beaver Run 1869-1895
Beaverun 1895-1931
Beaver Run 1931-1933
I say it was unpopular because a lot of towns reversed this back as early as 1905 so I believe there was some reversal of the law. I haven't found record of this yet.
And a BONUS COVER! Beaver Lake, another discontinued post office which was in use from 1906-1960.
There is also a Beavertown that was in use for maybe a year, from 1871-72, rare and I doubt I will find one. And that would complete the New Jersey Beaver postmarks.
And I found a post office dedication cover for Monmouth Beach, in Monmouth County, which is my home! Established in 1872, the post office is still current. The town is on one of my planned postal runs, but I always like to find an older cover when I can, and this one was only $3!
So with these two covers that brings me up to 816 unique postmarks out of 2191 known types. That's a collection completion of 37.24%.
I brought one volume from this collection to my last club meeting, and passed it around. I got a few questions and comments... one being why I didn't bring the entire collection... well, because it's up to TEN binders. The second question was why don't I print the card for every town and be over with it. Again, because at 37% completion that would bring us probably up to 30 binders that would be mostly empty!
Still having fun with this. I may do a postal run in the next week or so!
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I received an interesting cover from one of my regular correspondents. He sent me a scan and asked if I needed it. I nearly flipped! Cramer Hill was one of those towns I thought I'd never see in this lifetime. While the cancel is less than optimal, the corner card provides proof, and I couldn't pass it up, checking off another town in my ever growing New Jersey collection!
Cramer Hill is a section of Camden, NJ and had it's own post office for a short period. It was originally called Cramer's Hill, and the name was later shortened to just Cramer Hill as the area is called today.
Cramer's Hill April 24, 1878 - Dec 12, 1893 (15 years) Postmaster: Joseph Cramer
Cramer Hill Dec 12, 1893 - Sept 30,1899 (6 years) Postmaster: Charles W. Scott
The cover I show above, was from the Cramer Hill era, that was just shy of 6 years of usage. Mail service was then done by Camden.
Cramer Hill was named after Alfred Cramer who bought the original tract of land and subdivided it into individual lots, which he offered for sale on an installment basis, to people of average means. This was a new and profitable trend in that era. The new area was called Cramer's Hill and a post office was established there in 1878 by Joseph Cramer.
Here's two images I found online and combined into one image in Powerpoint. I've incorporated this into my NJ album. Elwood Antrim Hardware had two locations. They were established in 1889 and were bought out by a Philadelphia company in the mid 1980s, so they were around almost 100 years!
All told, this is a very interesting piece of local history. I'm very pleased to have a cover for an office that only was in existence for a short time!
A fellow named Phil created a website of Camden, NJ history:
http://www.dvrbs.com/#CAMDEN-NJ
Within this site, there is a page of Cramer Hill History:
http://www.dvrbs.com/camden/camdennj-cramerhill.htm
And another page on Antrim Hardware:
http://www.dvrbs.com/camden/CamdenNJ-AntrimHardware.htm
I've emailed Phil the scan of my cover, as well as the supporting information I've included here about the post office dates and postmasters. He has a page on the Camden post office, but I didn't see any of this information I present here. And as historians we are always happy to share what we have! That's a big part of the fun of it all.
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It's been a bit crazy here at the Bat Cave! This past month was my club's annual model car show (www.nnleast.com) and I'm the show chair. At the same time, I was at the tail end of a job search, attending an interview a week. And then I started a new job, jumping into the shoes of someone who quit right as a program was to launch. So it's been nutz!
In the meantime, I did manage to acquire a few more New Jersey postmarks! They were received, and put into a pile. I only got to creating the pages and putting them in the proper albums (we are up to 11 albums now) last evening. So here's what Tommy got!
Hasbrouck Heights is up in Northern New Jersey in Bergen County. This particular version was in use from the inception of the post office there in 1889 and only in use until 1901, for less than a 12 year run. That makes it a fairly rare postmark, thus my acceptance of a "messy" cover, with the reversed New York backstamp inked on the cover front.
Note that this town violates the rules established in 1894 by the US Geological Survey. The name should've become Hasbrookheights, according to the rules. We have no clue why it was exempted.
The office became Hasbrouck Heights STATION in 1901 through 1908. I have on my list to keep an eye out for covers between these dates, since we cannot be sure if the postmark was changed to add "Station", creating a new type, or if they just kept using the old devices.
And why not a bonus cover?! Hasbrouck Heights became a branch of the Hackensack post office in 1908. This office is still in service today. Note that the postmark isn't any different than our oldest one. While my sources show three distinct eras, we may only have one distinct postmark. Still, I have collected them.
(Photo by TimSPC at English Wikipedia)
Anyone who has been to New Jersey has been exposed to our Diner culture. The diner was invented here. Many of the original historic units are still in use, while others have been exported around the world. Diners are still built today to the original style. This is the Bendix Diner, a landmark for years on Route 17 in Hasbrouck Heights.
Hamburgh is way up in the top corner of the state in rural Sussex County. The post office was established as Hamburg, after the city in Germany, in 1795 and somehow in 1827 someone got the bright idea of adding an "H" to the name. Thus our cover. It remained that way until that darn Geo Survey in 1894, where it reverted back to plain ole Hamburg! (note- I paid nowhere near the optimistic $18 shown on the cover, more like less than $5)
Bonus Cover! Here's the current Hamburg postmark. Note that this is a postcard that I mailed to myself back in 1973 when I began the postmark collection. Back then, local postmarks were still in use so obtaining one was as simple as mailing something. I believe I mailed this to myself from the Gingerbread Castle theme park.
And here's the other side of the postcard! The famed Gingerbread Castle theme park was built back in the 1920s and reflects that era in it's architecture, materials and simplicity. Unfortunately it fell into disrepair in the late 1970s and remained abandoned for decades. It as been under restoration for the past five years and the new owner vows to restore it to it's original hokey grandeur!
And now moving from the top corner of the state, to down near the bottom! Corbin City post office was in use from 1922 to 1954 in Atlantic County. The town still exists, but has the distinction of being the least-populous city in New Jersey with less than 500 citizens. When the post office was discontinued, service was moved to Woodbine which still serves the area today. This is the general area of Dennis and South Dennis that we covered in one of our summer postal crawls so it's possible I traipsed right through Corbin City and never even knew!
And we're big on bonus covers to show the depth of our collection! Here's Woodbine, the office that now serves Corbin City.
And back up the Garden State Parkway we go, up north to Passaic County! Here we have to town of Great Notch, an unincorporated community in Little Falls. It gets it's name from a gap in the first of the Watchung Mountains. The two prominent things here are the Great Notch Fire Company and that parts of Montclair State University are within the area. Note that both my daughter and my money went to Montclair! The post office was in use from 1914 to 1954, when mail was then serviced by Little Falls, as it is to this day.
And let's finish it with one more Bonus cover! Here's Little Falls, the town that took over service for the Great Notch area. An interesting bit about this cover... you may notice that some of my covers were collector serviced going back many years, proving that people have been collecting postmarks for a very long time. Years ago I bought a huge lot of covers. So big and heavy that it came in an air conditioner box! With that lot were a large amount of covers all addressed to "American Hay & Grain Co". I never did find out this fellow's name, but he was mailing covers to post offices all over the country. He was no doubt tackling the huge task of the entire country!
Last year I was looking at lots of covers on eBay. I saw a lot of RPOs, and noticed this familiar address. So I messaged the seller and he too had a huge collection from this source. We can thank early collectors with documenting and saving postal markings from their eras for future generations!
Well, that's all I have for today. I hope you have enjoyed my rambling.
Todays stats: We have identified 2201 unique towns and postmark types. Of that we currently own 858 of these! That represents 38.98% completion. There is still much to do!
Enjoy the holiday weekend in the USA! Until next time!
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Another great post.....Good luck with your new job!
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Hey Tom,
Do you have Brigantine, New Jersey? I remember dad taking us to Brigantine Castle and is scared the heck out of me!
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Hey Ernie! But of course... here's a card from 1950 and a more recent cover, it's an unofficial FDC.
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Thank you Paul!
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I've been a bit slow with the collection lately, being occupied with other pursuits. But here's two covers I purchased from one of my regular dealers that arrived this week!
Middletown Point is a town cancel I have been hoping to find for a long time. Ones that have been offered had unreadable cancels, so I waited for one that was legible and a decent cover. Middletown Point was in northern Monmouth County and the post office was one of the oldest in the region being established in 1795. It was established in April 1795 making it the third post office in the county.
To establish the importance of this office, it was only one of four post offices in Monmouth County prior to 1800. All of the land in this upper county region was part of Middletown, and was all sectioned off into individual towns in the 1800s. This area became Matawan and the post office name was changed to reflect that in 1865.
Bonus Cover! Matawan, New Jersey. The post office established in 1865 is still active today.
The other three post offices established in Monmouth County prior to 1800 are:
Allentown, surprisingly the oldest at 1794. Suprising since it's still a very small and quaint town in lower west Monmouth County. It's still in use today.
The third post office was called Monmouth, established in January 1795 was the second oldest. It was superseded by Freehold in 1801, giving it a 6 year run in those stampless mail times. Of course I don't have an example of this postal marking, and don't think I ever will. But never say never!
So I'm sharing a modern era card from Freehold. This is the Monmouth County Seat, established in 1776, so it became a natural for the post office name. It's still in use today. The card is one I personally serviced back in 1976 to obtain the slogan cancel. Man, I've been at this a long time! 
The fourth oldest post office was Shrewsbury, established in 1797. It lasted until 1952, when it became a branch of the Red Bank post office. That branch lasted until at least the 1970s but doesn't exist today.
The second cover I acquired this week is Port Colden. This office was in Warren County from 1834 to 1919, making this cover a smart purchase for $10. The post office actually existed in three eras. Established in 1834 the first era only lasted to 1839. The office was reopened in 1841-1843 and finally reopened in 1861 until it's last gasp in 1919. My cover is from that third era.
The area still exists as an unincorporated area within Washington Township and has a tiny population of 121 souls. It was established as a "port" on the now abandoned Morris Canal which opened in 1834 to move goods and people through the county.
Now what's interesting is that 11 post offices in New Jersey were/are called "Port". And you may have noticed that I have all but two of these. And most importantly the two I need, Port Murray and Port Norris are both currently active. Road Trip!
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Here's a few covers I've acquired since our last installment.
I was in New Jersey for 5 days this past week, and I thought I'd be able to take a day to do another postal crawl. For most of the time the temperatures were over 100 degrees F, and that ended on Monday evening, with a huge storm that came through! There was a lot of damage in Monmouth County and many towns were without power. The towns were requesting that people stay off the roads while crews removed trees, and restored power. That ended any chance of a Tuesday run!
On getting prepared for that aborted run, I had set up a list of only 7 postmarks needed for Monmouth County, my home area, and 3 of those are CPOs! In adjacent Ocean County I need 13, and going south one county to Atlantic County, I need 4! Atlantic was the subject of our last run and these are the leftover towns. Note that these stats are for current post offices, I still need a ton of Discontinued Post Offices (DPOs).
So what have I acquired in the last month? Here's Bogota, in Bergen County New Jersey and not Colombia! The Bogota office was established in 1895 and closed in 1901, so this 1896 cover was pretty attractive to me since it represented this 6 year run!
And a bonus cover! The Bogota office reopened in 1916 and is still around today. There is also a "Bogota Rural Branch" on my list that also opened in 1916 and closed in 1923 that I'll have to keep my eye open for!
Next up is Wading River in Burlington County. I love those town names that conjur up nice images! This is a receiving mark on a postcard mailed who knows where! It's not legible due to the embossed greeting card, man I hate those! 
Anyway, Wading River post office existed from 1858 until 1923 when postal service shifted to Lower Bank, NJ.
Chapel Hill is a cover I was very pleased to find. And as with some of the rarer bits I have acquired, this one came from one of the low priced dealers on eBay I frequent for a few dollars. I am pleased because Chapel Hill is in Monmouth County and within Middletown. This is my home base area. In fact, my inlaws are buried in Chapel Hill Cemetery.
You may have noticed that Chapel Hill is one word in the cancel, and that's because this was one of those towns affected by the Geological Survey of 1894, which dictated the removal of spaces in town names. It lays out like this:
Chapel Hill from 1884 to 1894
Chapelhill from 1894 to 1907
and back to Chapel Hill for 1907 to 1909 when the office was discontinued and the mail went to nearby Leonardo. So I do have 2 more fairly elusive postmarks to discover!
Middlesex Borough is in Middlesex County. You would think that would be the county seat, but it's just a small town that came about in 1914 when sections of Piscataway were incorporated into it's own entity. The post office didn't even come about until 1929 but is still in business today. I came across this neat commemorative cover from one of my favorite dealers so I added it to my order. Otherwise, I may have had to drive there! Seriously, Middlesex was on my list for a postal run, but I like variety in the ages of covers in my collection so I grabbed this cover.
Spring Lake Beach was in Monmouth County along the coast. The post office existed twice, the first run was from 1882 to 1889 and the second one represented by this card was from 1905 to 1931 when the mail was forwarded to Spring Lake, which still exists today.
I do own examples of postmarks from both eras and this back stamp represents the earlier one. Funny thing, one of the big postmark guide books that rates the rarity of postmarks states that receiving stamps aren't collectible! Ha! I wouldn't have many of the towns I've collected if it wasn't for them.
Another recent addition is Roselle, in Union County. This represents the era of from when the post office was first established in 1870 until it became a branch of Elizabeth in 1903. Not the greatest strike, but it was not expensive and I can always replace it if I come across a better example.
And we will close with Green Pond Rural Station. Every so often I come across a postmark not listed in my sources. I have no record of this Rural Station! So of course I grabbed it when I saw it. Often on eBay I'll see a town I've never heard of and I get a bit excited, only to find it's not what it seems, mostly dealer error. It's pretty common to find blurred state designations, and recently one that was listed as NJ turned out to be NC with the slightest amount of research. And then there's misread down names... I found "Bahway" which turned out to be "Rahway" a fairly common NJ town cancel. So it happens.
In this case, I got what was advertised and it showed up this week. My files show two listings for Green Pond. The first era is 1910 to 1958 and a second era of 1959 to the present. Note that the research book I use was printed in 1976, and I find the office is not current so it was closed sometime in the past 43 years. There is no notation why the change. Was it because Green Pond became a station of Newfoundland? Or was it also this Rural Station. It goes on the long list of questions to solve! And that's part of the fun with this collection.
And we will close with a view of the Green Pond. The "pond" is actually a lake covering 425 acres, 2 1/2 miles long! It is located in Rockaway township, with mail service provided by the Newfoundland post office.
And that brings us all up to date! Occasionally I wonder if anyone actually reads my ramblings, but I do get some positive reinforcement from the community. Mel Bohannon recently sent me a nice package of NJ covers and memorabilia. So my thanks go to Mel for some interesting items! And recently Scott Mehring dropped me a note with a source I wasn't aware of! That added another 20 towns to my collection and I await their arrival. That would be a whole 'nuther post all in itself and the largest gain in recent memory! Thank you to both of these gentlemen for helping the cause!
Until next time!
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Hi Tom,
I am in-process of scanning and digitizing 50 years of back issues of the La Posta postal history magazine. Of course as I scan I also read and I ran across something that I thought you might like. "Post Roads in New Jersey 1791 - 1802" written by Robert Stets and published in 1987 has the following NJ map of Post Roads.
The La Posta back issues will all be freely published in the near future and will be a great resource for anyone interested in postal history.
Don
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Thanks Don! That's a great resource. It was interesting to see Hope on the map. It's a tiny little town dwarfed by the slightly larger Blairstown. But I check my spread sheet and see that Hope post office was established in 1802, and Blairstown didn't come about to 1839.
Equally interesting to see Monmouth Courthouse, which was the post office from 1795 to 1801, when it was renamed Freehold, which it is still called today.
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I was surprised to see Basking Ridge (my hometown) named Baskenridge, I have never heard it called that but I am unsure if this is a mistake or if it is accurate. Keep in mind that pre 1812 Federal postal records can be problematic since most of the original records were lost when the British burned Washington in 1812. Making matter worse is the fact that more records were lost in another fire in the Treasury Department building in 1836.
Do you have any Basking Ridge or Liberty Corner covers/cancels?
Don
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Hey Don! With all the information you provide to the hobby, it's great to give you some information! Here's Basking Ridge....
Your map is correct, it was originally called "Baskenridge". It was called that in the era of the map, from the post office inception in 1802. I couldn't find anything on the name change, but in 1857 the post office was changed to "Basking Ridge", which it is called today. The post office is still in service.
There was the period of the Geological Survey of 1896, which removed spaces in town names and standardized other elements of names. I have a document on this. The "standardization" was not popular across the land, and there had to be a rescinding order somewhere around 1905 as many post offices went back to their original spelling in the first decade of the 20th Century. If anyone has that info, I'd love to have it!
So in that period of 1896 to 1905, Basking Ridge became Baskingridge, at least on postmarks. And as mentioned, in 1905 they went back to Basking Ridge. And yes, I collect the name change postmarks! Interesting that I don't have any of the earlier names, I will have to seek them out!
Two of our three Basking Ridge covers are of philatelic intent. I do prefer to have actual postal usage on covers, but will include the events and such as I find them. They are subject to being replaced as I find new covers. This one is a 1933 Airport Dedication cover, this topic was quite popular in that era.
Basking Ridge is a section of Bernards Township, so this slogan is appropriate. Note that it's on a postcard, actually an index card addressed to Margie Woodworth. She was a postmark collector back in that era. I have several of the covers she serviced in my collection.
A more modern standard machine cancel from 1978. You may ask what the significance of the printed address is on this cover, well it was the RSVP envelope in my wedding invitation addressed to my inlaws! There are several of different towns in my collection and they never ever will be removed! Important family history I like to have in the NJ Collection!
And a bonus cover! We already established that Basking Ridge was part of Bernards Township. That would leave any well informed NJ person to ask "What about Bernardsville?" Turns out that it was originally a section of the township, originally called Vealtown. That just shows that some folks shouldn't be allowed to name towns! And thankfully there never was a Vealtown post office or cancellation! So Bernardsville was established as it's own town in 1840, with land that was formerly in Bernards Township.
Liberty Corner post office was established in 1811 the Kay / Smith book, lists two periods, 1811-1816 and 1817-current. There are no listed dates for the earlier era, but the later date was December 19, 1817 so it appears the area went without a post office for nearly a year.
It appears Liberty Corner was not affected by the Geological Survey in 1896 because there is no record of any name format changes. For smaller offices, the changes were to be implemented "upon change of postmaster". I'm assuming the incoming postmaster would have been responsible to provide his own cancellation devices, and this was done so not to cause financial hardship on small town postmasters. I would like to find a listing of all the postmasters at Liberty Corner to confirm there was no change of postmaster during this era.
My cover example is an unofficial First Day Cover of the Statue of Liberty. The town name was perfect for this purpose. That is on my own ODDITY Cachet, and I remember running up there on several occasions to get cancellations.
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Here's a quick update...
We are getting to the point of completing the current post offices within counties! With the romps of last summer, we have completed Cape May County. And Atlantic County wasn't far behind. I noticed I needed only four current postmarks!
This weekend was The Race of Gentlemen at Wildwood, New Jersey. This is an old time race of pre 1940s cars on the beach. My friend Bill and I decided we needed to witness this for ourselves and made plans. Bill has a condo in Ocean City, so we agreed that this was home base, about a half hour north of Wildwood... and no hotel costs!
On Friday, I worked through about noontime and left the house around 2pm. I had told Bill I'd be at his condo in time for dinner, and this should have been about a 2 hour drive. Of course I had to see if there were any post offices en route! And there were, as luck would have it! Three of the four I needed to complete Atlantic County were right in a line, on my way to Ocean City! And per our good friends at Google Maps, it would only take me about a half hour astray to hit all three. I also noted that all three closed for lunch so I would get there in the afternoon. It was on!
The first office on our trip was Landisville. The post office is a century old large stucco house, on the main drag through town. The clerk was a younger guy with long hair and a beard. He was pleased to postmark my two cards for me with great precision!
Stop two was Milmay. As I had my Waze program set for the address, it confidently announced "You Are Here!" as I was in front of the town fire department. Having been this route a couple of times, I pulled into the lot and drove around the side of the building. I saw a bunch of cars and yes! The post office was in the building.
The post office was run by a young woman with a Spanish accent. She was interested in what I was doing so I showed her the Landisville postmark and let her know I was on my way to Dorothy. She laughed and said that her's was the best post office!
And with that she told me the date section of her postmark was broken! She said it was a pain because she had to write in the date on every cancellation. That takes us back a century. She is waiting for a new device. Notice the only postmark without a date! And upside down and missing the stamps entirely!
And maybe that was starting a trend. On my next stop in Dorothy, note that the postmark doesn't have a day! Just month and year. The nice lady there didn't question my motives at all, and gave me my cancels.. again missing the stamps. Good enuf!
The Dorothy post office was again in an old house. It's fun to go postmarking in Southern New Jersey, as the small offices are so varied architecturally. These little offices probably don't do a great business, but there were always customers there when I was.
Now Dorothy is a bit of a back track. Back when I did most of Atlantic County, my check list had Dorothy checked off! I thought I had a postmark! And to add insult to injury, I drove right past it, as it's on the same cross county road as Rosenhayn. And now it's in the collection!
I accomplished all three stops and took a look at my watch... I had time for one more! And ya know, I had one more back track to complete Atlantic County.. Cologne! Those who followed my earlier treks will note that I hit this office during the lunch hour. I was moving too fast to wait around almost a whole hour for the postmark.
I checked the USPS website for the address since I hadn't planned on going there. Once I put it into the Waze program I saw it was 18 miles away (and we were past the lunch hour).. so I decided to go for it!
I had originally thought I could take the wife for an interesting excursion to Cologne someday. The streets in the town are all named after German cities. There is an interesting pub down the road a bit, and a local winery that gives tours! I proposed this to my wife, who isn't really adventurous and she responded that she didn't like wine. Oh well.
So we headed towards the Cologne post office. This became my first questionable stop and maybe I jinxed it going for the fourth? The clerk inside was a middle aged man who questioned my intentions. He said he couldn't hand back an unaddressed card. I told him it was in his postal manual under "Cooperation With Collectors" and that didn't seem to register with him. I checked in my envelope where I keep the cover stock and darn! I didn't have my usual copy of the regulation.
I kept my cool. I asked him that with a neat name like Cologne, weren't there other collectors seeking cancels? Nope. He never had anyone ask for a cancel! I explained my collection and put the three other town cancels out on the counter. He then reasoned that if the other post offices did it, then it must be okay. He gave me my cancels. And the theme of this trip is that three out of four clerks missed the stamp with the cancel! Four outta four for the day! Score!
The building is cute and fitting for a neat name like Cologne! That completed my mission and I got to Bill's condo in Ocean City right before 5pm, right on schedule too! Bill is a good friend in the car / model car arena and my favorite companion to travel with to events. In fact next weekend we are headed to Toledo, Ohio for a model car event together. I shared my adventure and my four new covers with him and he was pleased for me. He then started naming towns... "Betcha don't have..." and of course I had every town he could name. In fact, Bill is the type of friend who wouldn't get upset if I hit a post office or two with him in the car. Great friend!
Bonus cover! Ocean City, New Jersey! A nice old shore town. A dry town too! So that evening for dinner we had to leave town and head for...
Somers Point! (yea, on the way there Bill asked, "Betcha don't have Somers Point!" and of course I do! We had a nice dinner and beers at the Anchorage Tavern, a water front old time grand shore hotel type of building.
And on Saturday we headed to the races in...
All in all, it was a pretty nice weekend! I completed Atlantic County and had a nice time at the races!
Next time I'll go through some neat old cancels I've recently acquired!
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I just noticed that it's been a long time since I wrote an update, so here's a few recent covers that have made it into my albums.
First town up is Delran, whose post office has always been a station of the Riverside post office. I recently acquired the 1979 card stating that. On one of my postal road trips I visited Delran and received the second cancel that just calls it Delran. It shows there is very little consistency. The office was established in 1965 and is currently in operation in Burlington County.
Union is one of those "I can't believe I don't have that postmark" towns! It is Union Township, and although it has the same name as the county, it is not the county seat. That would be Elizabeth. The post office has been around since 1820.
The one thing that always comes to mind when thinking about Union, is the Flagship! It sits in the center of Highway 29, and originally was built in the 1930s as a nautical theme restaurant. It's changed ownership and use over the years and is currently a retail store. It's one great landmark!
I found this nice handcancel from Oceanville, in Atlantic County. The post office was established there in 1874 and still is in operation today. It is a beach front community with frontage on the Atlantic Ocean. It's a bit south on Route 9 from Smithville, and north of Atlantic City.
Hainesport was one of the towns I covered in my very first postal road rally. This was the trip where I had my rude awakening that post offices wouldn't provide collectors with hand cancels. See the cover below, bad cancel and had to be sent through the mails. So I was very pleased when I found the above cover to replace it! It's a great commercial cover from a local florest in 1936 with a great 4 bar killer cancel. Hainesport got it's post office in 1853 and it's still in operation today.
That's all the time I have today! I do have a bunch of covers I've acquired since my last posts so I will post some as I have the time.
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A couple more pieces have arrived in my mailbox since I last posted...
I always go through the eBay covers category and at times I find interesting and amazing items. This Blackwells Mills cover is one of those times. The post office existed in Somerset County for 38 years, from 1872 to 1910, which is now 110 years ago! And yet I was a successful bidder for less than $5. Gotta love it!
The target cancel is interesting, as is the forwarding from Flanders to Bound Brook with a forwarding postmark from Flanders, NJ. It's a keeper!
The cover I recently received was Petersburgh, the top cover, but I thought it would be fun to show everyone the complete album page from my collection. Petersburgh post office existed from 1949 until 1893, during the US government's Geological Survey with their standardization and approval of place names. As part of this, they wanted to simplify place names and one of those changes was modifying names that ended with "burgh" to "burg". A lot of towns complied, but I understand that Pittsburgh told them to pound salt!
Anyway, Petersburgh went along with the change and the town name was modified to Petersburg until the post office closed in 1959. The town was in Cape May County in Southern New Jersey, and still exists as an unincorporated community in Upper Township. In 1959 postal duties went to Woodbine, which is still in operation today.
And why not a bonus cover, Woodbine, NJ. Post office established in 1891.
As I wander I find interesting things. I found the bottom card, with "West Point Pleasant". The card was cheap and had a nice cancel so I checked to see if I could do a cover upgrade. What I found was that the cover I already had was "W Point Pleasant" with the abbreviation. With that I grabbed the new cover and retained the older one since they are variations. Note that the first cover is from January 1909, and the later is December 30, 1909, and is on a Happy New Year card. Interesting. West Point Pleasant is in Monmouth County, my home county and the post office today is Point Pleasant since West Point Pleasant was closed in 1956, two years before I was born!
And that's today's entry, I hope you have enjoyed my banter!
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As many of you know, I'm working on the New Jersey cancellation collection I started when I was 15. I've created a database of New Jersey postmarks from various sources. I try to perfect it every chance I can. Right now I have 803 town cancels of the 2187 possible that I've cataloged. That means I'm nearly 37% complete.
The list started with the book "New Jersey Postal History" by John Kay and Chester Smith. The book cataloged post offices starting with the formation of our postal system in 1776. Most, if not all of the original post offices were major population areas and still exist today. So it's easy enough to collect those postmarks. As I look in the list I see offices that existed for a brief period in the early to mid 1800s and I wonder if I should just delete these from my list since they predate postage stamps, and I figured it was a far fetch that I'd be able to find an example from that office. Now I'm rethinking that strategy!
I recently came across the cover from Oxford Furnace, New Jersey. That office existed from 1813 to 1866, one of those I thought I'd never find. And here it is. An Australian dealer offered it on Hipstamps for $20, so I grabbed it. I have no idea the year because it's nowhere on the cover, but the manuscript cancel cover clearly lists the town and August 9th. It's in remarkable condition. It's a folded letter sheet with two wax seals. The contents are mainly accounting numbers without any dates. I'm tickled pink to have it in my collection.
The Oxford Furnace post office was superseded by Oxford, New Jersey, which is still a current office. And of course I have that cancel in my collection as well.
So I won't be discouraged by early DPOs any more. I'll just search harder for them!
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re: A Bit More of My New Jersey Collection
Good stuff Tom! Just curious about your reasoning for displaying Oxford upside-down. I know it makes reading the postmark easier but...
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That's pretty much the reason Ernie! The postmark is the star here. So I positioned the card so it was readable. Note that it's just wedged into the page, so it can be re positioned at any time!
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re: A Bit More of My New Jersey Collection
Who would have thought that you would have picked up a NJ stampless cover from Australia? Wow
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Time for an update since this rare beauty came in the mail the other day and made it into my album this afternoon!
When we stay at the Jersey Shore, we go to Wildwood Crest. It's south of Wildwood, and is a bit more laid back and less crowded since it doesn't have a boardwalk. So of course I wanted the postmark. My catalog shows this office existing for just about four years. from July 1909 until April 1913.
Neighboring Wildwood is an easy postmark to find, since it was always a tourist destination. And the survival rate on postcards is greater than ordinary mail. The Crest, as locals call it, is a bit rarer and I've only occasionally seen a hand stamp, usually a poor strike. This was the first decent postmark I've found, and the only one I've ever seen in purple. You can actually read "CREST" atop the stamp.
So I am pleased to add this one to my collection. And here's the page it now resides on, along with a classic postcard of the Wildwood Crest arch. Unfortunately that's long gone!
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Very nice!
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04:42:03pm
re: A Bit More of My New Jersey Collection
Tom,
If you google the addressee of the Oxford Furnace cover, you will find a lot of information on David Thomas. He was famous for the start of the steel industry in Pennsylvania.
As he arrived there in 1839, your cover is probably from the early 1840's. BTW, the date might be Jan(uar)y 9.
Jan
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re: A Bit More of My New Jersey Collection
Great purple strike. Is there any rhyme or reason on the cancels whether they be black, red, purple etc.? I know some are seen more than others.
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"If you google the addressee of the Oxford Furnace cover, you will find a lot of information on David Thomas. He was famous for the start of the steel industry in Pennsylvania."
Thanks Jan! The history we can discover never ceases to amaze me!
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re: A Bit More of My New Jersey Collection
Tom,
This cover is currently on eBay and would make a nice additional to your collection (nice advert cover, nice postmark).
https://www.ebay.com/itm/153377568986
Don
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Thanks Don! Jersey City is an easy city to find, and my birthplace! I do have a lot of covers from there already including some early family correspondence!
In fact here's one with an ad from my Grandfather's store! The postmark stinks, it is the Hudson City branch though. It's a keeper!
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Got two new covers this week for the New Jersey collection....
Beaverrun... that's the town of Beaver Run without the space. The US Geological Commission eliminated the space in names in some sort of 1890s standardization scheme. I don't know what it saved, but it was pretty darn unpopular. And for postmark collectors, it means we need to collect three covers for this town:
Beaver Run 1869-1895
Beaverun 1895-1931
Beaver Run 1931-1933
I say it was unpopular because a lot of towns reversed this back as early as 1905 so I believe there was some reversal of the law. I haven't found record of this yet.
And a BONUS COVER! Beaver Lake, another discontinued post office which was in use from 1906-1960.
There is also a Beavertown that was in use for maybe a year, from 1871-72, rare and I doubt I will find one. And that would complete the New Jersey Beaver postmarks.
And I found a post office dedication cover for Monmouth Beach, in Monmouth County, which is my home! Established in 1872, the post office is still current. The town is on one of my planned postal runs, but I always like to find an older cover when I can, and this one was only $3!
So with these two covers that brings me up to 816 unique postmarks out of 2191 known types. That's a collection completion of 37.24%.
I brought one volume from this collection to my last club meeting, and passed it around. I got a few questions and comments... one being why I didn't bring the entire collection... well, because it's up to TEN binders. The second question was why don't I print the card for every town and be over with it. Again, because at 37% completion that would bring us probably up to 30 binders that would be mostly empty!
Still having fun with this. I may do a postal run in the next week or so!
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I received an interesting cover from one of my regular correspondents. He sent me a scan and asked if I needed it. I nearly flipped! Cramer Hill was one of those towns I thought I'd never see in this lifetime. While the cancel is less than optimal, the corner card provides proof, and I couldn't pass it up, checking off another town in my ever growing New Jersey collection!
Cramer Hill is a section of Camden, NJ and had it's own post office for a short period. It was originally called Cramer's Hill, and the name was later shortened to just Cramer Hill as the area is called today.
Cramer's Hill April 24, 1878 - Dec 12, 1893 (15 years) Postmaster: Joseph Cramer
Cramer Hill Dec 12, 1893 - Sept 30,1899 (6 years) Postmaster: Charles W. Scott
The cover I show above, was from the Cramer Hill era, that was just shy of 6 years of usage. Mail service was then done by Camden.
Cramer Hill was named after Alfred Cramer who bought the original tract of land and subdivided it into individual lots, which he offered for sale on an installment basis, to people of average means. This was a new and profitable trend in that era. The new area was called Cramer's Hill and a post office was established there in 1878 by Joseph Cramer.
Here's two images I found online and combined into one image in Powerpoint. I've incorporated this into my NJ album. Elwood Antrim Hardware had two locations. They were established in 1889 and were bought out by a Philadelphia company in the mid 1980s, so they were around almost 100 years!
All told, this is a very interesting piece of local history. I'm very pleased to have a cover for an office that only was in existence for a short time!
A fellow named Phil created a website of Camden, NJ history:
http://www.dvrbs.com/#CAMDEN-NJ
Within this site, there is a page of Cramer Hill History:
http://www.dvrbs.com/camden/camdennj-cramerhill.htm
And another page on Antrim Hardware:
http://www.dvrbs.com/camden/CamdenNJ-AntrimHardware.htm
I've emailed Phil the scan of my cover, as well as the supporting information I've included here about the post office dates and postmasters. He has a page on the Camden post office, but I didn't see any of this information I present here. And as historians we are always happy to share what we have! That's a big part of the fun of it all.
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It's been a bit crazy here at the Bat Cave! This past month was my club's annual model car show (www.nnleast.com) and I'm the show chair. At the same time, I was at the tail end of a job search, attending an interview a week. And then I started a new job, jumping into the shoes of someone who quit right as a program was to launch. So it's been nutz!
In the meantime, I did manage to acquire a few more New Jersey postmarks! They were received, and put into a pile. I only got to creating the pages and putting them in the proper albums (we are up to 11 albums now) last evening. So here's what Tommy got!
Hasbrouck Heights is up in Northern New Jersey in Bergen County. This particular version was in use from the inception of the post office there in 1889 and only in use until 1901, for less than a 12 year run. That makes it a fairly rare postmark, thus my acceptance of a "messy" cover, with the reversed New York backstamp inked on the cover front.
Note that this town violates the rules established in 1894 by the US Geological Survey. The name should've become Hasbrookheights, according to the rules. We have no clue why it was exempted.
The office became Hasbrouck Heights STATION in 1901 through 1908. I have on my list to keep an eye out for covers between these dates, since we cannot be sure if the postmark was changed to add "Station", creating a new type, or if they just kept using the old devices.
And why not a bonus cover?! Hasbrouck Heights became a branch of the Hackensack post office in 1908. This office is still in service today. Note that the postmark isn't any different than our oldest one. While my sources show three distinct eras, we may only have one distinct postmark. Still, I have collected them.
(Photo by TimSPC at English Wikipedia)
Anyone who has been to New Jersey has been exposed to our Diner culture. The diner was invented here. Many of the original historic units are still in use, while others have been exported around the world. Diners are still built today to the original style. This is the Bendix Diner, a landmark for years on Route 17 in Hasbrouck Heights.
Hamburgh is way up in the top corner of the state in rural Sussex County. The post office was established as Hamburg, after the city in Germany, in 1795 and somehow in 1827 someone got the bright idea of adding an "H" to the name. Thus our cover. It remained that way until that darn Geo Survey in 1894, where it reverted back to plain ole Hamburg! (note- I paid nowhere near the optimistic $18 shown on the cover, more like less than $5)
Bonus Cover! Here's the current Hamburg postmark. Note that this is a postcard that I mailed to myself back in 1973 when I began the postmark collection. Back then, local postmarks were still in use so obtaining one was as simple as mailing something. I believe I mailed this to myself from the Gingerbread Castle theme park.
And here's the other side of the postcard! The famed Gingerbread Castle theme park was built back in the 1920s and reflects that era in it's architecture, materials and simplicity. Unfortunately it fell into disrepair in the late 1970s and remained abandoned for decades. It as been under restoration for the past five years and the new owner vows to restore it to it's original hokey grandeur!
And now moving from the top corner of the state, to down near the bottom! Corbin City post office was in use from 1922 to 1954 in Atlantic County. The town still exists, but has the distinction of being the least-populous city in New Jersey with less than 500 citizens. When the post office was discontinued, service was moved to Woodbine which still serves the area today. This is the general area of Dennis and South Dennis that we covered in one of our summer postal crawls so it's possible I traipsed right through Corbin City and never even knew!
And we're big on bonus covers to show the depth of our collection! Here's Woodbine, the office that now serves Corbin City.
And back up the Garden State Parkway we go, up north to Passaic County! Here we have to town of Great Notch, an unincorporated community in Little Falls. It gets it's name from a gap in the first of the Watchung Mountains. The two prominent things here are the Great Notch Fire Company and that parts of Montclair State University are within the area. Note that both my daughter and my money went to Montclair! The post office was in use from 1914 to 1954, when mail was then serviced by Little Falls, as it is to this day.
And let's finish it with one more Bonus cover! Here's Little Falls, the town that took over service for the Great Notch area. An interesting bit about this cover... you may notice that some of my covers were collector serviced going back many years, proving that people have been collecting postmarks for a very long time. Years ago I bought a huge lot of covers. So big and heavy that it came in an air conditioner box! With that lot were a large amount of covers all addressed to "American Hay & Grain Co". I never did find out this fellow's name, but he was mailing covers to post offices all over the country. He was no doubt tackling the huge task of the entire country!
Last year I was looking at lots of covers on eBay. I saw a lot of RPOs, and noticed this familiar address. So I messaged the seller and he too had a huge collection from this source. We can thank early collectors with documenting and saving postal markings from their eras for future generations!
Well, that's all I have for today. I hope you have enjoyed my rambling.
Todays stats: We have identified 2201 unique towns and postmark types. Of that we currently own 858 of these! That represents 38.98% completion. There is still much to do!
Enjoy the holiday weekend in the USA! Until next time!
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02:30:52pm
re: A Bit More of My New Jersey Collection
Another great post.....Good luck with your new job!
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Hey Tom,
Do you have Brigantine, New Jersey? I remember dad taking us to Brigantine Castle and is scared the heck out of me!
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Hey Ernie! But of course... here's a card from 1950 and a more recent cover, it's an unofficial FDC.
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I've been a bit slow with the collection lately, being occupied with other pursuits. But here's two covers I purchased from one of my regular dealers that arrived this week!
Middletown Point is a town cancel I have been hoping to find for a long time. Ones that have been offered had unreadable cancels, so I waited for one that was legible and a decent cover. Middletown Point was in northern Monmouth County and the post office was one of the oldest in the region being established in 1795. It was established in April 1795 making it the third post office in the county.
To establish the importance of this office, it was only one of four post offices in Monmouth County prior to 1800. All of the land in this upper county region was part of Middletown, and was all sectioned off into individual towns in the 1800s. This area became Matawan and the post office name was changed to reflect that in 1865.
Bonus Cover! Matawan, New Jersey. The post office established in 1865 is still active today.
The other three post offices established in Monmouth County prior to 1800 are:
Allentown, surprisingly the oldest at 1794. Suprising since it's still a very small and quaint town in lower west Monmouth County. It's still in use today.
The third post office was called Monmouth, established in January 1795 was the second oldest. It was superseded by Freehold in 1801, giving it a 6 year run in those stampless mail times. Of course I don't have an example of this postal marking, and don't think I ever will. But never say never!
So I'm sharing a modern era card from Freehold. This is the Monmouth County Seat, established in 1776, so it became a natural for the post office name. It's still in use today. The card is one I personally serviced back in 1976 to obtain the slogan cancel. Man, I've been at this a long time!
The fourth oldest post office was Shrewsbury, established in 1797. It lasted until 1952, when it became a branch of the Red Bank post office. That branch lasted until at least the 1970s but doesn't exist today.
The second cover I acquired this week is Port Colden. This office was in Warren County from 1834 to 1919, making this cover a smart purchase for $10. The post office actually existed in three eras. Established in 1834 the first era only lasted to 1839. The office was reopened in 1841-1843 and finally reopened in 1861 until it's last gasp in 1919. My cover is from that third era.
The area still exists as an unincorporated area within Washington Township and has a tiny population of 121 souls. It was established as a "port" on the now abandoned Morris Canal which opened in 1834 to move goods and people through the county.
Now what's interesting is that 11 post offices in New Jersey were/are called "Port". And you may have noticed that I have all but two of these. And most importantly the two I need, Port Murray and Port Norris are both currently active. Road Trip!
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Here's a few covers I've acquired since our last installment.
I was in New Jersey for 5 days this past week, and I thought I'd be able to take a day to do another postal crawl. For most of the time the temperatures were over 100 degrees F, and that ended on Monday evening, with a huge storm that came through! There was a lot of damage in Monmouth County and many towns were without power. The towns were requesting that people stay off the roads while crews removed trees, and restored power. That ended any chance of a Tuesday run!
On getting prepared for that aborted run, I had set up a list of only 7 postmarks needed for Monmouth County, my home area, and 3 of those are CPOs! In adjacent Ocean County I need 13, and going south one county to Atlantic County, I need 4! Atlantic was the subject of our last run and these are the leftover towns. Note that these stats are for current post offices, I still need a ton of Discontinued Post Offices (DPOs).
So what have I acquired in the last month? Here's Bogota, in Bergen County New Jersey and not Colombia! The Bogota office was established in 1895 and closed in 1901, so this 1896 cover was pretty attractive to me since it represented this 6 year run!
And a bonus cover! The Bogota office reopened in 1916 and is still around today. There is also a "Bogota Rural Branch" on my list that also opened in 1916 and closed in 1923 that I'll have to keep my eye open for!
Next up is Wading River in Burlington County. I love those town names that conjur up nice images! This is a receiving mark on a postcard mailed who knows where! It's not legible due to the embossed greeting card, man I hate those!
Anyway, Wading River post office existed from 1858 until 1923 when postal service shifted to Lower Bank, NJ.
Chapel Hill is a cover I was very pleased to find. And as with some of the rarer bits I have acquired, this one came from one of the low priced dealers on eBay I frequent for a few dollars. I am pleased because Chapel Hill is in Monmouth County and within Middletown. This is my home base area. In fact, my inlaws are buried in Chapel Hill Cemetery.
You may have noticed that Chapel Hill is one word in the cancel, and that's because this was one of those towns affected by the Geological Survey of 1894, which dictated the removal of spaces in town names. It lays out like this:
Chapel Hill from 1884 to 1894
Chapelhill from 1894 to 1907
and back to Chapel Hill for 1907 to 1909 when the office was discontinued and the mail went to nearby Leonardo. So I do have 2 more fairly elusive postmarks to discover!
Middlesex Borough is in Middlesex County. You would think that would be the county seat, but it's just a small town that came about in 1914 when sections of Piscataway were incorporated into it's own entity. The post office didn't even come about until 1929 but is still in business today. I came across this neat commemorative cover from one of my favorite dealers so I added it to my order. Otherwise, I may have had to drive there! Seriously, Middlesex was on my list for a postal run, but I like variety in the ages of covers in my collection so I grabbed this cover.
Spring Lake Beach was in Monmouth County along the coast. The post office existed twice, the first run was from 1882 to 1889 and the second one represented by this card was from 1905 to 1931 when the mail was forwarded to Spring Lake, which still exists today.
I do own examples of postmarks from both eras and this back stamp represents the earlier one. Funny thing, one of the big postmark guide books that rates the rarity of postmarks states that receiving stamps aren't collectible! Ha! I wouldn't have many of the towns I've collected if it wasn't for them.
Another recent addition is Roselle, in Union County. This represents the era of from when the post office was first established in 1870 until it became a branch of Elizabeth in 1903. Not the greatest strike, but it was not expensive and I can always replace it if I come across a better example.
And we will close with Green Pond Rural Station. Every so often I come across a postmark not listed in my sources. I have no record of this Rural Station! So of course I grabbed it when I saw it. Often on eBay I'll see a town I've never heard of and I get a bit excited, only to find it's not what it seems, mostly dealer error. It's pretty common to find blurred state designations, and recently one that was listed as NJ turned out to be NC with the slightest amount of research. And then there's misread down names... I found "Bahway" which turned out to be "Rahway" a fairly common NJ town cancel. So it happens.
In this case, I got what was advertised and it showed up this week. My files show two listings for Green Pond. The first era is 1910 to 1958 and a second era of 1959 to the present. Note that the research book I use was printed in 1976, and I find the office is not current so it was closed sometime in the past 43 years. There is no notation why the change. Was it because Green Pond became a station of Newfoundland? Or was it also this Rural Station. It goes on the long list of questions to solve! And that's part of the fun with this collection.
And we will close with a view of the Green Pond. The "pond" is actually a lake covering 425 acres, 2 1/2 miles long! It is located in Rockaway township, with mail service provided by the Newfoundland post office.
And that brings us all up to date! Occasionally I wonder if anyone actually reads my ramblings, but I do get some positive reinforcement from the community. Mel Bohannon recently sent me a nice package of NJ covers and memorabilia. So my thanks go to Mel for some interesting items! And recently Scott Mehring dropped me a note with a source I wasn't aware of! That added another 20 towns to my collection and I await their arrival. That would be a whole 'nuther post all in itself and the largest gain in recent memory! Thank you to both of these gentlemen for helping the cause!
Until next time!
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re: A Bit More of My New Jersey Collection
Hi Tom,
I am in-process of scanning and digitizing 50 years of back issues of the La Posta postal history magazine. Of course as I scan I also read and I ran across something that I thought you might like. "Post Roads in New Jersey 1791 - 1802" written by Robert Stets and published in 1987 has the following NJ map of Post Roads.
The La Posta back issues will all be freely published in the near future and will be a great resource for anyone interested in postal history.
Don
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Thanks Don! That's a great resource. It was interesting to see Hope on the map. It's a tiny little town dwarfed by the slightly larger Blairstown. But I check my spread sheet and see that Hope post office was established in 1802, and Blairstown didn't come about to 1839.
Equally interesting to see Monmouth Courthouse, which was the post office from 1795 to 1801, when it was renamed Freehold, which it is still called today.
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re: A Bit More of My New Jersey Collection
I was surprised to see Basking Ridge (my hometown) named Baskenridge, I have never heard it called that but I am unsure if this is a mistake or if it is accurate. Keep in mind that pre 1812 Federal postal records can be problematic since most of the original records were lost when the British burned Washington in 1812. Making matter worse is the fact that more records were lost in another fire in the Treasury Department building in 1836.
Do you have any Basking Ridge or Liberty Corner covers/cancels?
Don
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Hey Don! With all the information you provide to the hobby, it's great to give you some information! Here's Basking Ridge....
Your map is correct, it was originally called "Baskenridge". It was called that in the era of the map, from the post office inception in 1802. I couldn't find anything on the name change, but in 1857 the post office was changed to "Basking Ridge", which it is called today. The post office is still in service.
There was the period of the Geological Survey of 1896, which removed spaces in town names and standardized other elements of names. I have a document on this. The "standardization" was not popular across the land, and there had to be a rescinding order somewhere around 1905 as many post offices went back to their original spelling in the first decade of the 20th Century. If anyone has that info, I'd love to have it!
So in that period of 1896 to 1905, Basking Ridge became Baskingridge, at least on postmarks. And as mentioned, in 1905 they went back to Basking Ridge. And yes, I collect the name change postmarks! Interesting that I don't have any of the earlier names, I will have to seek them out!
Two of our three Basking Ridge covers are of philatelic intent. I do prefer to have actual postal usage on covers, but will include the events and such as I find them. They are subject to being replaced as I find new covers. This one is a 1933 Airport Dedication cover, this topic was quite popular in that era.
Basking Ridge is a section of Bernards Township, so this slogan is appropriate. Note that it's on a postcard, actually an index card addressed to Margie Woodworth. She was a postmark collector back in that era. I have several of the covers she serviced in my collection.
A more modern standard machine cancel from 1978. You may ask what the significance of the printed address is on this cover, well it was the RSVP envelope in my wedding invitation addressed to my inlaws! There are several of different towns in my collection and they never ever will be removed! Important family history I like to have in the NJ Collection!
And a bonus cover! We already established that Basking Ridge was part of Bernards Township. That would leave any well informed NJ person to ask "What about Bernardsville?" Turns out that it was originally a section of the township, originally called Vealtown. That just shows that some folks shouldn't be allowed to name towns! And thankfully there never was a Vealtown post office or cancellation! So Bernardsville was established as it's own town in 1840, with land that was formerly in Bernards Township.
Liberty Corner post office was established in 1811 the Kay / Smith book, lists two periods, 1811-1816 and 1817-current. There are no listed dates for the earlier era, but the later date was December 19, 1817 so it appears the area went without a post office for nearly a year.
It appears Liberty Corner was not affected by the Geological Survey in 1896 because there is no record of any name format changes. For smaller offices, the changes were to be implemented "upon change of postmaster". I'm assuming the incoming postmaster would have been responsible to provide his own cancellation devices, and this was done so not to cause financial hardship on small town postmasters. I would like to find a listing of all the postmasters at Liberty Corner to confirm there was no change of postmaster during this era.
My cover example is an unofficial First Day Cover of the Statue of Liberty. The town name was perfect for this purpose. That is on my own ODDITY Cachet, and I remember running up there on several occasions to get cancellations.
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re: A Bit More of My New Jersey Collection
Here's a quick update...
We are getting to the point of completing the current post offices within counties! With the romps of last summer, we have completed Cape May County. And Atlantic County wasn't far behind. I noticed I needed only four current postmarks!
This weekend was The Race of Gentlemen at Wildwood, New Jersey. This is an old time race of pre 1940s cars on the beach. My friend Bill and I decided we needed to witness this for ourselves and made plans. Bill has a condo in Ocean City, so we agreed that this was home base, about a half hour north of Wildwood... and no hotel costs!
On Friday, I worked through about noontime and left the house around 2pm. I had told Bill I'd be at his condo in time for dinner, and this should have been about a 2 hour drive. Of course I had to see if there were any post offices en route! And there were, as luck would have it! Three of the four I needed to complete Atlantic County were right in a line, on my way to Ocean City! And per our good friends at Google Maps, it would only take me about a half hour astray to hit all three. I also noted that all three closed for lunch so I would get there in the afternoon. It was on!
The first office on our trip was Landisville. The post office is a century old large stucco house, on the main drag through town. The clerk was a younger guy with long hair and a beard. He was pleased to postmark my two cards for me with great precision!
Stop two was Milmay. As I had my Waze program set for the address, it confidently announced "You Are Here!" as I was in front of the town fire department. Having been this route a couple of times, I pulled into the lot and drove around the side of the building. I saw a bunch of cars and yes! The post office was in the building.
The post office was run by a young woman with a Spanish accent. She was interested in what I was doing so I showed her the Landisville postmark and let her know I was on my way to Dorothy. She laughed and said that her's was the best post office!
And with that she told me the date section of her postmark was broken! She said it was a pain because she had to write in the date on every cancellation. That takes us back a century. She is waiting for a new device. Notice the only postmark without a date! And upside down and missing the stamps entirely!
And maybe that was starting a trend. On my next stop in Dorothy, note that the postmark doesn't have a day! Just month and year. The nice lady there didn't question my motives at all, and gave me my cancels.. again missing the stamps. Good enuf!
The Dorothy post office was again in an old house. It's fun to go postmarking in Southern New Jersey, as the small offices are so varied architecturally. These little offices probably don't do a great business, but there were always customers there when I was.
Now Dorothy is a bit of a back track. Back when I did most of Atlantic County, my check list had Dorothy checked off! I thought I had a postmark! And to add insult to injury, I drove right past it, as it's on the same cross county road as Rosenhayn. And now it's in the collection!
I accomplished all three stops and took a look at my watch... I had time for one more! And ya know, I had one more back track to complete Atlantic County.. Cologne! Those who followed my earlier treks will note that I hit this office during the lunch hour. I was moving too fast to wait around almost a whole hour for the postmark.
I checked the USPS website for the address since I hadn't planned on going there. Once I put it into the Waze program I saw it was 18 miles away (and we were past the lunch hour).. so I decided to go for it!
I had originally thought I could take the wife for an interesting excursion to Cologne someday. The streets in the town are all named after German cities. There is an interesting pub down the road a bit, and a local winery that gives tours! I proposed this to my wife, who isn't really adventurous and she responded that she didn't like wine. Oh well.
So we headed towards the Cologne post office. This became my first questionable stop and maybe I jinxed it going for the fourth? The clerk inside was a middle aged man who questioned my intentions. He said he couldn't hand back an unaddressed card. I told him it was in his postal manual under "Cooperation With Collectors" and that didn't seem to register with him. I checked in my envelope where I keep the cover stock and darn! I didn't have my usual copy of the regulation.
I kept my cool. I asked him that with a neat name like Cologne, weren't there other collectors seeking cancels? Nope. He never had anyone ask for a cancel! I explained my collection and put the three other town cancels out on the counter. He then reasoned that if the other post offices did it, then it must be okay. He gave me my cancels. And the theme of this trip is that three out of four clerks missed the stamp with the cancel! Four outta four for the day! Score!
The building is cute and fitting for a neat name like Cologne! That completed my mission and I got to Bill's condo in Ocean City right before 5pm, right on schedule too! Bill is a good friend in the car / model car arena and my favorite companion to travel with to events. In fact next weekend we are headed to Toledo, Ohio for a model car event together. I shared my adventure and my four new covers with him and he was pleased for me. He then started naming towns... "Betcha don't have..." and of course I had every town he could name. In fact, Bill is the type of friend who wouldn't get upset if I hit a post office or two with him in the car. Great friend!
Bonus cover! Ocean City, New Jersey! A nice old shore town. A dry town too! So that evening for dinner we had to leave town and head for...
Somers Point! (yea, on the way there Bill asked, "Betcha don't have Somers Point!" and of course I do! We had a nice dinner and beers at the Anchorage Tavern, a water front old time grand shore hotel type of building.
And on Saturday we headed to the races in...
All in all, it was a pretty nice weekend! I completed Atlantic County and had a nice time at the races!
Next time I'll go through some neat old cancels I've recently acquired!
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re: A Bit More of My New Jersey Collection
I just noticed that it's been a long time since I wrote an update, so here's a few recent covers that have made it into my albums.
First town up is Delran, whose post office has always been a station of the Riverside post office. I recently acquired the 1979 card stating that. On one of my postal road trips I visited Delran and received the second cancel that just calls it Delran. It shows there is very little consistency. The office was established in 1965 and is currently in operation in Burlington County.
Union is one of those "I can't believe I don't have that postmark" towns! It is Union Township, and although it has the same name as the county, it is not the county seat. That would be Elizabeth. The post office has been around since 1820.
The one thing that always comes to mind when thinking about Union, is the Flagship! It sits in the center of Highway 29, and originally was built in the 1930s as a nautical theme restaurant. It's changed ownership and use over the years and is currently a retail store. It's one great landmark!
I found this nice handcancel from Oceanville, in Atlantic County. The post office was established there in 1874 and still is in operation today. It is a beach front community with frontage on the Atlantic Ocean. It's a bit south on Route 9 from Smithville, and north of Atlantic City.
Hainesport was one of the towns I covered in my very first postal road rally. This was the trip where I had my rude awakening that post offices wouldn't provide collectors with hand cancels. See the cover below, bad cancel and had to be sent through the mails. So I was very pleased when I found the above cover to replace it! It's a great commercial cover from a local florest in 1936 with a great 4 bar killer cancel. Hainesport got it's post office in 1853 and it's still in operation today.
That's all the time I have today! I do have a bunch of covers I've acquired since my last posts so I will post some as I have the time.
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re: A Bit More of My New Jersey Collection
A couple more pieces have arrived in my mailbox since I last posted...
I always go through the eBay covers category and at times I find interesting and amazing items. This Blackwells Mills cover is one of those times. The post office existed in Somerset County for 38 years, from 1872 to 1910, which is now 110 years ago! And yet I was a successful bidder for less than $5. Gotta love it!
The target cancel is interesting, as is the forwarding from Flanders to Bound Brook with a forwarding postmark from Flanders, NJ. It's a keeper!
The cover I recently received was Petersburgh, the top cover, but I thought it would be fun to show everyone the complete album page from my collection. Petersburgh post office existed from 1949 until 1893, during the US government's Geological Survey with their standardization and approval of place names. As part of this, they wanted to simplify place names and one of those changes was modifying names that ended with "burgh" to "burg". A lot of towns complied, but I understand that Pittsburgh told them to pound salt!
Anyway, Petersburgh went along with the change and the town name was modified to Petersburg until the post office closed in 1959. The town was in Cape May County in Southern New Jersey, and still exists as an unincorporated community in Upper Township. In 1959 postal duties went to Woodbine, which is still in operation today.
And why not a bonus cover, Woodbine, NJ. Post office established in 1891.
As I wander I find interesting things. I found the bottom card, with "West Point Pleasant". The card was cheap and had a nice cancel so I checked to see if I could do a cover upgrade. What I found was that the cover I already had was "W Point Pleasant" with the abbreviation. With that I grabbed the new cover and retained the older one since they are variations. Note that the first cover is from January 1909, and the later is December 30, 1909, and is on a Happy New Year card. Interesting. West Point Pleasant is in Monmouth County, my home county and the post office today is Point Pleasant since West Point Pleasant was closed in 1956, two years before I was born!
And that's today's entry, I hope you have enjoyed my banter!
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