A Pile of Envelopes
Postal History Sunday #239
As a young stamp collector, I remember seeing pictures of items that were interesting - but far beyond what I could ever hope to own. Of course, being a kid with the “collector’s gene,” I wanted everything. But that’s a different matter entirely. There is excitement when you explore what is possible in a hobby and there is disappointment when you discover that it’s going to cost more than the 25 cents you have to get a thing you think you want.
I remember that most beginner stamp albums included images of some of the older (and much more expensive stamps) for each country. There were, of course, images for items I was more likely to have in my collection too. But those illustrations - the ones that were out of reach - burned their images into my brain.
For example, it was impossible to ignore the Black Jack - a US postage stamp issued in 1863 that showed an over-large representation of Andrew Jackson’s face.
You can imagine how I felt when I finally was able to have one of these Black Jacks in my own collection years later. And now, I have covers - pieces of postal history - that include Black Jacks paying part or all of the postage.
The kid collector in me is quite amazed by this development.
A stamp featuring a pile of envelopes
Another very odd item that got my attention as a young collector was this octagon-shaped design that depicted a pile of letters. You see, most of the stamps prior to 1900 - from almost every country - showed a bunch of "old, dead, white guys." A pile of envelopes was something that was very different from the rest. So, naturally, it was appealing to me.
A few years ago, Michael Gutman decided to auction his amazing collection of material featuring mail carried by Hale and Company - the creators of the “pile of letters” postage stamp. Mr. Gutman spent many years acquiring and studying old covers that used this private company’s services and he shared his research in his book, Hale & Co . Independent Mail Company : 1843-1845. A person can get a taste of Michael’s work with this article on Richard Frajola’s website and a review of the book can be found here.
The auction featured hundreds of items with these stamps, providing an opportunity for me and many others to *maybe* pick up an example at reasonable prices for our own collections. The supply of these stamps on letters available for purchase was probably going to never be higher in my lifetime and the demand was not sufficient to keep prices high.
Long story short - I was able to pick one up!
Hale and Company - Independent Mail Company
James W. Hale created a network of private post offices and mail delivery routes in 1843 centered around New York and Boston. Hale had this stamp design created in 1844, printing them in sheets of twenty. A single stamp paid for mail service between Hale's offices. A person could buy a whole sheet of 20 stamps for one dollar (5 US cents per stamp).
The stamp indicated payment for the carriage between cities, but did not cover any carrier service (2 cents for their penny post) to the address shown on the envelope.
To put this in perspective, the first United States postage stamp was issued in 1847. The British had issued the first acknowledged postage stamp in 1840. Printing stamps to show payment for services was still a very new thing and Hale was very much on the forefront of this innovation.
Hale operated with agents in many towns in the northeastern US from 1843 to 1845. The Pittsfield, Mass newspaper advertisement shown above gives a pretty good idea of how the mail service might look from the perspective of a customer in one of the towns where Hale had an agent.
The postage cost is cited as 6 ¼ centavos in the advertisement, which had an equivalent value in US currency. The US had a half-cent coin, but no coinage for a quarter cent. However, the Spanish and Mexican "pieces of eight" remained legal tender in the US until 1857. The "Spanish Milled Dollar" was equal in value to the US silver dollar and was segmented into eight “bits” (or reals). Each real (or bit) was worth 12 1/2 centavos each so the cost to mail a letter was essentially half a “bit,” which explains the odd fraction (6 ¼) in the cost.
If you have interest, the Frontier American Illustrated News website has a good summary of currency in the US during this time period.
Examples of the “pile of envelopes” stamp in use
Not only was I able to pick up an example during the Gutman auction, I was able to add another item at a later date. In both cases, I was perfectly happy to find “presentable examples” and let others with more interest (and money) pursue the items that had “more going for them.”
This folded letter was sent by Susan G Spooner of New Bedford (Mass) to Augustus H (or R) Gardner in Boston on July 12, 1844. The Hale & Co agent was Amos Bates, located at 92 Union Street (now a parking lot and not far from or part of the New Bedford Whaling Historical National Park).
The blue stamp with the "NB" pen marking showed payment for the 6 cents required to get the letter from New Bedford to Boston. It did NOT pay for delivery directly to Mr. Gardner. The letter may have been delivered by carrier and the postage for delivery collected from the recipient. The red boxed marking on the stamp, a full address, all combined with the Pittsfield advertisement seems to support delivery by penny post. However, there is no conclusive evidence and it is quite possible that it was picked up by the recipient at Hale & Co’s office at 13 Court Street.
The distance traveled was a little over 50 miles, so a similar letter sent via the US Postal Office at the time would have been 10 cents (for distances over 30 miles and up to 80 miles). This is a four cent difference (and perhaps 5 cents if the sender bought a whole sheet of stamps), an amount that was not inconsiderable in 1844.
The second item is a cover front - meaning only a portion of the folded letter with the address and postage stamp remains. It was mailed in Portsmouth, New Hampshire on March 26, 1845 to Mr. George Upham in New York City. It was forwarded through Boston on its way to New York City.
The stamp itself shows several interesting features. If you look closely at the address printed on the top envelope in the “pile” illustrated on the stamp, you might notice that the street number has been crossed out. Hale moved their Boston office from its 13 Court Street location to 23 State Street - making the address on the stamp incorrect. The Portsmouth agent, C.E. Blunt, also marked the stamp with “P NH” to clearly indicate the origin of the letter.
Another characteristic of Hale & Co stamps used from Portsmouth is that they were “precanceled.” This precancel comes in the form of two perpendicular pen lines on the stamp.
One of the processes used to insure that a postage stamp could not be re-used was to deface the stamp with some sort of cancellation. Blunt actually applied ink cancellations while the sheet of 20 stamps were still intact and before the stamps were applied to letters.
The demise of Hale’s Independent Mail
Congress passed new laws, enacted on July 1, 1845, that reduced postage to 5 cents for distances up to 300 miles. Suddenly independent companies, like Hale & Co., were no longer attractive simply because it cost less to use their services.
The final nail in the coffin that led to the closure of independent mail services was the declaration that made all railways and public roads “post roads.” Since it was unlawful for anyone but the US Post Office to carry mail on post roads, alternate postal services could no longer legally carry the mail as they had been doing.
For those who might like to learn more:
Once again, I refer you to Michael Gutman’s book Hale & Co . Independent Mail Company : 1843-1845 and this article on Richard Frajola’s website. Also, you might enjoy examples shown in displays of collections by Mike Farrell and David Snow. Also, this online article by Richard Frajola discusses Hartford (CT) mail, including Hale & Co.
A Run-On Letter
The entire letter for our first cover is present, with a couple of holes in the paper that make it hard to read a few words. Both Susan and Augustus were likely younger, with Augustus attending school in Boston. If I identified Susan correctly, she was born in September of 1826 and was seventeen at the time she wrote this letter.
The content seems consistent with someone that age and Susan likely wrote as she talked. She seems to randomly apply punctuation as it suited her whim. I have added some punctuation and paragraph breaks to increase readability, but left spelling as I found it. Feel free to click on the image below to view a larger image and get a taste of what the letter is like.
----------------Letter transcript--------------------
New Bedford. July 12 1844
My dear Augustus:
It is so warm today that I cannot settle myself down to any regular employment, and am going to throw myself upon your kindness whilst I indulge in a short tete-a-tete with your humble self. Although I have not yet received an answer to my last epistle which was sent just two weeks ago this day. But I suppose every moment of your time is occupied in your studies, as your final examination comes off next month. Tell me what day so that my thoughts may be with you, if I am not there in proper persona."The Ship" has at last arrived, but where we shall start on our journey is yet quite uncertain. It may possibly be week after next. The route which we now propose going is first to Boston, thence to Springfield, Hartford and then toward adjoining down the Connecticut to New York. Then, up the Hudson to West Point and Saratoga Springs, perhaps to Niagara. Though we have not decided on that yet ??? it be delightful. I wish you could be of the party.
Our stay in Boston will be very short, which I shall very much regret as I always enjoy myself so much there, or I should say I have of late, but I hope you will come and see us. Remember that when you get to New York that it will a much longer time that we shall not see each other than it is now. And do you (know) that is now nearly eight months? But I suppose that time with you passes very swiftly you have so much to do that you sometimes forget that you have a friend in New Bedford until she forces herself upon your memory by a letter.
Be that as it may she would very much prefer intruding herself into your presence and having a real old fashioned talk. Why I should talk you blind in half an hour. I have so much to say and so many questions to ask you so you had better be preparing yourself for my visit.
Mr Tarbell has been making us a visit. He arrived in town last Friday and left on Tuesday and what do you think, he did not call on me until the day he left. Isn't it melancholy? But I think I know the reason why he did not come before and I think to he knows what I thought of his calling at to late an hour. He will not trouble me much more. I met him at a party the evening he came and he seemed delighted to see me. And afterwards I met him at a dancing party and we danced and waltzed together and were very good friends. He acted very strangely for there was no consistency in his doings. I guess he is an odd fellow. He told me that he liked New Bedford so much that he was coming down to spend the month of August. What an honor he is conferring upon us. I hope we shall be able to appreciate it.
Mr. Currier has left ?? and gone on to one of the wharves?? I was very glad to hear it for it seems to me rather small?? business, a man of his years. Clerk in a dry goods establishment. How unlike he and Tarbell are, but I believe they are neither of them great favourites of yours, so I will say no more about them only that if you knew Mr. C you could not help liking him or else you would be unlike every one else who has his acquaintance. I mean gentlemen of course.
Do you know that is just a year this month that I was in Boston and that our acquaintance commenced which has now ripened with friendship. Had you told me then that a year from that time I should be writing you I should have thought it the most absurd thing possible as you know what my views on that subject was then. But I have cause to be truly grateful that I have overcome those foolish notions. My enjoyment has been so great ?? in receiving your kind letters which are always filled with entertaining matter and kind feelings that it seems to me, without them time would have passed on leaden wings. I ?? that I fully appreciate your kindness and wish that I was more worthy of them but you know we are never satisfied so I have a new request to make. which is that you keep a journal and send it o me every Saturday with a postscript..... I shall expect one next Saturday. Send it by Hale & Co's Independent Mail, which I shall patronize altogether.
Your friend ??? Shepherd I met at a party this week. She was looking very pretty. I thought of you and wanted to ask her some questions about you but did not dare to as I am but slightly acquainted with her. I am sorry to say that she is carrying on a great flirtation with a Mr. Williams of ? town. You had better be looking after her. Young girls that have too much beauty as she has it is dangerous to leave them.
Have you seen any of the Dr's family lately? I should like to see Sophia, she is a disappointed woman. Her situation in life and everything is so entirely different from what she wished that I pity her very much. How can she be happy with such a husband? Why I should rather be buried alive than live with such a man. He is so cold and forbidding in his manners that there is no pleasure in his society. I should very much prefer that my husband should be ? fond of society than be as he is. But I have no patience to talk about this so I will stop now and begin to think a little more of you so as not to quite exhaust your patience as I fear it will be if I make this poor apology for a letter much longer.
Do write me soon for it seems an age since I heard from you and besides if we start on our journey as soon as we expect to I shall write you a third letter before hearing from you. I will take that back for I don't think I should if you could not write me I should not think that you would care about knowing of my being in B (oston) so it depends upon you whether you receive that intelligence.
And now believe me sincerely . your friend. SusanSusan G Spooner to Augustus H Gardener
dated July 12, 1844
rec'd July 13th
Ans(wered) 31st
-----------------------------------------
Augustus appears to have written the pertinent dates for this correspondence as a docket for the letter, which was a common practice for the time. So, we know that he answered the letter more than two weeks after he received it.
We are not likely to ever discover if Susan took it poorly that Augustus waited over two weeks to respond to her letter. I wonder, of course, if she did meet him in Boston while she was traveling. Perhaps Augustus was more interested in his flirtatious, pretty friend (Miss Shepherd) who appeared to be attracted to Mr. Williams. Maybe he wasn’t really that interested in Susan, regardless of how he felt about this other woman.
Or maybe, he really was just busy trying to pass his exams.
Whatever the case may be, Susan would later marry John Powell, an individual that receives no mention in this letter.
Bonus Material: Another related Spooner?
Sometimes, as I am digging around the edges of a particular piece of postal history, I find a story that needs to be amplified - even if it is not necessarily directly related to the rest of the article. While I was searching for information regarding Susan Spooner, author of our first letter, I came across New Bedford firefighter Edward C. Spooner (1835 - 1890). Edward would have been nine or ten years old at the time the Susan wrote her letter to Augustus.
According to the Whaling City website, Spooner was having supper at 107 Cedar Street when he heard an explosion in the apartment above them. Edward ran upstairs to find Mrs. William Cobb completely engulfed in flames after an accident with a can of petroleum.
Mr. Spooner wrapped his arms around her and carried her downstairs where he wrapped a blanket around her to smother the flames. Unfortunately, both Spooner and Mrs. Cobb were badly burned in the process and both succumbed to their injuries not long after.
Spooner had to know that his actions were going to cause him injury, yet he did what he could to help Mrs. Cobb anyway. I hope we can all have a little bit of Edward C. Spooner in us when we are placed in a situation where we could render aid.
Well we’ve done it, once again! Another Postal History Sunday in the books! Thank you for joining me. Have a great remainder of your day and a fine week to come.
Postal History Sunday is featured weekly on this Substack publication. If you take this link, you can view every edition of Postal History Sunday, starting with the most recent publication. If you think you might enjoy my writing on other topics, I can also be found at the Genuine Faux Farm substack. And, some publications may also be found under my profile at Medium, if you have interest.
very interesting and entertaining - thanks