Help With 1881 Illinois Cancel

Can't find anything where Galesburg ended in GH.

Was looking at something that ended *****BURCH but the more I look at it O believe the C is a G.

Knoxville ILL receiving mark on the rear

That's all I have.

(Cancel would be from 1891, rather than 1881. Stamp not issued in the 1880s)

Name standardization was one of PMG John Wanamaker's legacies. Particularly in the 1893-1895 era there are hundreds of post offices which had small changes in their names. It was a gradual process over several years. These are particularly noticeable when looking for opening/closing dates in post office lists like found on Jim Forte's webpage.

Some of the more notable standardizations:
-borough to -boro
-burgh to -burg.
-centre to -center
place condensations like Le Roy to Leroy and La Fayette to Lafayette.
possessive names lost their apostrophe, etc.
Pittsburgh, PA resisted.

In the case of Galesburgh, Postal Bulletin #4018 dated May 8, 1893 has:



Out of necessity, offices might continue to use their old devices until the new ones arrived.

Add: As I keep digging ... Marshall Cushing's wonderful and extremely useful1893 volume "The Story of Our Post Office" has a more contemporary account on page 282:

As someone with deep roots in Galesburg, I found this most interesting. (KNOX alum, grandfather taught at Lombard, etc,)

You are amazing John.

Thank you !!

Edit - Adding in Receiving mark on rear

This is why I went with 81. Lazy of me to miss the issue date of the stamp.