Cover Calendar For Month And Day -Pics

Today I can show an inter county (Mendocino) post card use, Sent from Westport on this day, it arrived at it's destination 3 days later ( a long stage coach ride) to cover the approximately 50 miles that separates the two towns. The Westport CDS is Williams Men 4030 and the Redwine (Spyrock) doane is Williams Men 3340, both rated 2, average.

From one side of the county to the other! Yesterday's pc was mailed from the western shore of Cal, and today's cover was mailed from Potter Valley, on the far eastern side of Mendocino county.
Postmarked with William's # Men 3180,(rated 2, average) Potter Valley's fourth of ten similar CDSs.

Missed a post card yesterday. Postmarked Fort Bragg.


And the front.




Today's postcard is from Inglenook, a few miles north of Cleone. The card was sent to Talmage, just east of Ukiah, where that Post office struck the stamp with their receiving cds, the number and dimensions are in red type

Today's post card is from Melbourne in Mendocino county. It is really a shame the postmastwer didn't mix the ink better, but then how would they have known that this strike would turn out to be the first known use of Men-2290, a postmark in service for 7+ years. This postmark is two months before the EKU shown is the Williams book. Unfortunatly, I can't show the front of the card, as it is too politically incorrect!

On this date I have an inter county post card, a newsy note from a daughter to her mother. Postmarked with Alderpoint's first CDC Hum 20 This is the earliest known use! Used 1 year 10 months after the PO opened, it is still 3 years and 8 months before the eku shown in the Williams book! It was not a very busy office, Postmaster Compensation for the year the office opened, 1911, was $60.00

littleriverphil,
Could you post a scan of the entire Melburne card? Thanks.

Sure.





Here is the front. I think that the ink was too thin. More linseed oil would have stayed on the letters and numbers better and given a fuller date.
Nathanial Smith was one of the first two non native Americans to live in Mendocino county. The other was Frank Farnier, known as Portuguese Frank. I'll leave it you as to what Nat was called.

LOL, Thanks, although I was only looking for the postal side! With the space at left for a message, the cancel on the Melburne card is from 1908, rather than 1903 as I believe you are wanting it to be (although you don't actually provide any year data). Also I would attribute the irregular impression to a dirty device more than ink conditions. The postmaster was lazy or careless in inserting the date slugs into his handstamp and appears to be equally careless in maintaining the cleanliness of the cancel and the inkpad, not to mention the lack of pride in striking the cancel upright on the card.

I have to agree, looking at the original scan, the crossbar of the 8 is higher than center. The Williams illustration shows the center bar of the 3 to be center.
My other two strikes of Men 2290 are a bit cleaner, and the first 3 years of the next CDS are much clearer.




Oh well, can't change all of The EKU's! But this Sep 12, 1809 Arcata does! Arcata's first CDS with a time slug, Hum 230. The Williams EKU is Mar 20 1894.

Do you know if the Williams illustrations are cleaned-up scans or tracings? It seems unfortunate they appear to omit the bars on the 1911 4-bar cancel.

They are tracings, the book was published in 1997.


He uses estimated year dates for cds with missing year slugs for a few towns.

Todays cover was sent from Alderpoint To a mysterious sounding organization of the 30's "The Cattle Protection Service" This cover being one of several I have addressed to them in the 30's.

Today's cover is the cover that led me to collecting Humboldt County. In Dec of 2002, Schuyler Rumsey's Sale#14 auctioned the "Tahoe Collection" of Western postal history. There where items from the collections of Edgar Jesup and Basil Pierce that hadn't been on the market for 50 years. I was high bidder on all but one Mendocino county lots, and lot 303, a balance lot, 33 Humboldt covers, and 14 Mendocino cover, It was this covers description that I really wanted, thinking that I'd sell off the Humboldt material. After seeing the lot, I haven't wanted to let them go.
Cahato, Cal Oct 18 1873 Registered. I wonder if that was the 6th registered letter for the Year? Postmaster compensation reported for Cahato in 1873 was $100.00

Post Offices were instructed by the regulations to start numbering registered letters with "1" on the first day of each quarter, that is: Jan 1, April 1, July 1, and Oct 1. Thus your cover would have been the 6th cover in the quarter, or roughly one registered letter every three days. A rough estimate would be about 120 registered covers for the year. And I do mean "rough" estimate!

Mike

I am very much enjoying the history of your covers littleriverphil