The community of Lovat was located a few miles southwest of Paisley, Ontario, where it straddled the town line separating Bruce Township and Greenock Township in Bruce County. Lovat, and many places like it, were known as "postal hamlets" or "postal villages". The Lovat Post Office opened in 1864 and closed in 1913.
I have two covers that passed through the Lovat Post Office. They were both posted from Chatham to members of the same family in Lovat. The first (see below) is postmarked October 15, 1907, on what I believe is a 1905 King Edward VII postal stationary envelope (Canada Scott#U16) and addressed to Mr. Peter McArthur if I have interpreted the script correctly.
The cover, I assume, would have traveled from Chatham by train to ultimately reach the Palmerston hub (a train-spotter's paradise at the time) to then be whisked northwest through the rapidly diminishing Queen's Bush over the old Wellington, Grey & Bruce Railway track, which, by this time, had merged into the Grand Trunk system and later Canadian National. The transit backstamp indicates next day arrival in Paisley. The date on the Lovat receiving mark is not discernible but the few miles from Paisley to Lovat probably happened the next day via horse and wagon, or cutter, buggy or perhaps even a sleigh if there had been an early snow.
The second cover was sent from Chatham to Mrs Peter McArthur on Jan 15,1908 and it arrived in Paisley on the 16th again and Lovat the next day.
The cover back provides an added bonus in that it shows a penciled recipe for a "good salve", however, you will need "sweet oil" to make it. The cover back with the recipe can be viewed on my "d.p.o/dpo" thread.
I found this small cover in the United States part of my collection and it fits here given that it is addressed to "Miss Edna MacArthur". It was mailed from Detroit on April 15, 1917, based on the April 16, 1917, Paisley receiving mark on the back. I assume the stamp is either US Scott#425 or US Scott#463 depending on whether or not it is on water-marked paper. Unless the stamp had been horded I assume it was the latter as it is my understanding that the postal department had run out of watermarked paper roughly nine months before this mailing.
It's worth noting that by this time the Lovat Post Office had closed and the area was now part of the rural route delivery system served from Paisley. The address shows it as "R.R.#2", however, the sender wasn't taking any chances having written "Lovat" in brackets in the bottom left corner.
The placement of the stamp in the upper left corner probably relates to a death in the family the previous month (see gravestone below), which would make this a "mourning" cover that may have contained a small sympathy card.
All that remains of Lovat is a well-maintained cemetery and in it is the following gravestone:
(image from Canada Gen Web's Cemetery Project)
From the website "findagrave" we learn that "Edna was the daughter of Peter and Mary McArthur and the twin sister of Campbell. Edna never married and stayed on the McArthur farm until her death in 1953".
I'm always amazed how important old covers are in placing people within the context of space and time not only in relation to the receivers of those covers but the senders as well. Combining this resource with that of cemetery gravestone photographs on the internet creates a phenomenal tool for genealogical research.
By the way, Lovat's first Postmaster was a McArthur.
Posted 02/17/2014 2:34 pm
