219 On Tobacco Advert Cover

Wearing a Scott #219 this Tobacco advert/corner-card was sent to me recently by a very good friend. Why is this only 1¢ when others I have from this time are 2 & 3 c3nts?



I'm thinking this is the fellow? - http://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/...hington-duke

It was mailed at the unsealed circular rate of 1 cent.

unsealed cirucular and drop rates are not the same. Drop Rate is a envelope that was dropped at the post office where the addressee lived. The envelope didn't really enter the complete mail system since it stayed within the locality.

Can anyone provide information on the town to which the cover was sent? It appears to read "McNichols, Pennsylvania", however, I can find no reference to a town by that name nor does it appear there has ever been a post office by that name either. It was probably merged with another town in the early history of Pennsylvania, but I'm curious as to where it was located.

I wonder if they meant McMichael's, PA and misspelled it badly?

You're absolutely right! I just searched for the McMichaels post office on the Jim Forte's Postal History website and they offer this cover for sale -- written to and from the same family, too -- which, by the way, is apparently spelled "Kishpaugh" rather than what appears to "Kispaugh" in the originally posted cover:



It's rather amazing the original cover reached its intended recipient with all of those errors on it!

Another piece of trivia: The "M. Kishpaugh" of McMichaels, PA could very well have been Martin Kishpaugh, Postmaster of McMichaels in the 1890s (this entry suggests he was Postmaster in 1887, but other references list him as Postmaster through the early 1900s as well):

That's incredible! I haven't yet had time to research the addressee yet so that really helps out greatly!

Assuming we're correct in identifying the addressee as Martin Kishpaugh, here's a photo I came across online of both Ellen and Martin Kishpaugh:



It seems Martin Kishpaugh lived from 1843-1909 and is buried with his wife in the Old Broadheadsville Cemetery, Broadheadsville, PA:

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/f...8280&df=all&