Inquiring Minds Want To Know

When I see covers from the 19th century they are frequently addressed without any street information. How did they get delivered? If the recipient was Messr. Russell Worthington Dogpatch, WV, I can understand that the postman knew where everyone in a small community lived, but if the address is something like Miss Priscilla Snodgrass Boston MA, how the heck did the letter get delivered? I'm thinking maybe they had some kind of register at the post offices and the carriers had to figure it out that way.

Most of the covers I've seen for larger cities had some sort of street added to the address. But still, that's a great question! I can see the local carriers knowing their routes, but for larger areas how did they do it???

Mail addressed: John Smith, City.

In the good old days few people got letters - actually not many more than those well off or in business. So it was not unusual for letter sorters at post offices to know where 90% of the mail should go. And on those occasions when there was a death or birth - or similar events - the sheer volume of cards / letters who flag the appropriate recipient.

I think those early addresses was for general delivery ,you had to go to the post office and give your name .Then the letter was handed to you.

They were sent to a post office and the person needed to come pick them up. Rural Free Delivery did not begin until 1896, I believe.

I have many of these and also many stampless covers which simply have a name and city/state with no street. They were delivered to that specific Post Office and were then picked up by the person. If you think about how the Post Office has evolved over the past 100 years or so, it's truly amazing.

The post office used to offer a lot more service than it does today. If a town had home delivery service, clerks could use a city directory to find addresses for some individuals. City directories date back well into the 19th century. Not a foolproof way to find someone, but the directories were a help.

Don

Not only in the 19th Century. When I was growing up in a small Wisconsin town in the 1940s and 1950s the address was simply "John Doe, Almond, Wis." Sometime in the late 1950s or early 1960s, the Post Office insisted that a Box number be added to the address.

In the United States, free city delivery did not start until 1863. Prior to that, letters had to be mailed at the post office and picked-up at the post office, unless the sender or recipient paid an extra 1¢ or 2¢ for semi-official post office carrier service to or from the post office, or used a private local post.
The cover below used a private local post, Messenkope's Union Square Post Office, to carry the letter to the post office.