Cover Calendar For Month And Day -Pics

Phil -- I apologize for being pedantic, but the 20th century began on January 1, 1901, not 1900.

Thank you for correcting me, I corrected my post. Sounds better too. This is the last cover of the 19th century portion of this collection.

Today's cover is also from Fort Bragg, but 7 years earlier, Had to be forwarded as the addressee was no longer at the given address. Disconcerting when its your banker! The back of the cover has a different San Francisco post mark. It says BOX where I expected to see Cal, and 3 where Rec'D usually is. Was this because it was forwarded?

Today's post card was sent to Hardy, and Hardy used their postmark as a receiver. You can drive thru Hardy if you follow Calif Hwy 1 all the way north, when the Hwy turns East away from the Pacific, you'll cross Hardy creek. Mendocino's northern most ghost town. The postmaster had his/her equipment in fine condition, and it left an almost perfect impression in this Ellen Clapsaddle card of an ear of corn.

littleriverphil. The Alton cancel you posted on Nov 17 is the Doane 2/3 cancel (type 2 with a 3 in the killer bars) listed 1905-1913 as Hum-100. It is unfortunate the tracings in the book omit the killer bars, since they are a part of the postal device. These devices were made of rubber and can vary in size as they absorb solvents from the ink and later dry out. Note the tracing is from the eku and you are measuring an impression over 4 years later.

John, if that is the case, the rubber absorbed enough solvents to grow 1.5 mm in diameter and shrink the distance between first letter of town and state by 1mm? The Williams listing does mention the Doane cancel as Doane TY (2) And the postcard shows a doane like cancel on the stamp but it has no number.

It is the same device. If in doubt, please contact Gary Anderson through his "Gary Anderson Postal History" website. He maintains the master list of Doane cancels there.

Today's cover is from Willits in Mendocino county. The first post office there was named Little Lake. On April 7 1884 the PO was renamed Willits. The Willits office used a manuscript cancel (Men 4080) until they got the new postmark (Men 4090) which has an EKU of Feb 12 1878 and a LKU of Feb 18 1879. There is a receiving San Francisco postmark on the back that also has no year date. Nov 30, late 70's.

New month, new list, and a long one, 59 cards and covers for December.
Today's cover is postmarked with Mendocino's third town mark ( the 1 is upside down) Men 2330 to Taunton, Mass. where it spent nearly two months while the cover was advertised, and was never called for. The cover was marked on the back with Taunton's rimless townmark on Dec 14, an Advert sed oval, a Jan 4, and a large L, and a large rimmed Taunton Feb 3 1872 CDS on the back. All in blue, I think. The Manuscript Not Called For is in red ink. Any idea what the L was for?

Re: The "L".

I suspect this is from the Taunton, Mass post office, and was a filing aid in their Advertised mail or General Delivery section..

The addressee's last name was Lazaro, which begins with "L".

The rubber stamp "L" is definitive, and probably helps avoid filing errors when the letter is handled by less literate clerks who might think the script "L" was an "S" or something.

Thank you.

Today I have a postcard from Kenny at the northwest end of Mendocino county and a cover from the southernmost town in the county, Gualala. Kenny was so far from the rest of Mendocino county that the sender bought the card in Ferndale and sent it to a Humboldt town. It's actually the road to Kenny that was tough! State of California abandoned that section of road and the section of Humboldt and Mendocino counties is called "the Lost Coast" There are two other town there, Thorn, in Humboldt and Moody in Mendocino.
The card is pretty nice but the cover is from the 'Not so pretty but By golly, it was there' file! The right edge of the Trans Miss is actually still intact.

Two Cards today, Cuddeback and an incoming San Francisco Mendocino Discount Bank card. The back of the bank card shows what I assume are deposits. I don't recognize the name in the middle, but Navarro and Noyo;
Are rivers and had mills ( almost every river in the county had a mill)
Had towns and post offices.
The Navarro Ridge PO closed in 1888. The mill burned again, company sold the saw mill machinery and the train and track to the Albion mill around this time
Noyo was thriving, postmaster compensation for 1889 was $193.26, the highest it ever was.

Two cover from Humboldt county and an incoming card to Hardy, Mendocino county today. The card is soiled, but the Hardy strike is solid as is Falk CDS but the cover was opened on the stamp end. More of the less than beautiful file. Rio Dell is pretty nice except whoever opened this sniped off the corner of the stamp.

Pearl Harbor Day: December 7, 1941, from Watertown, New York ... only a coincidence that it is going to "Rising Sun", a town which had its name since 1815.