While Investigating Old Post Offices - Three Interesting Finds.

I was organizing old 1800 post offices with old maps..I have categorized about 400+ in just South Western Ontario...And about 700+ more.

FIRST THING
I was looking through an old map of Peel district and some areas have more than 80 smaller post offices...My wife looked at what I was doing and she said "How come so many"


I told her there were 11 postal stations back then just in the area shown in the picture below.




Area above is just one small area of Peel county and I said imagine being a farmer in the 1800's and having to mail a letter..The Government had to have many, because if there were only say 3 postal areas, these farmers would have to get his horse hooked up to his buggy, and travel sat 10 miles to mail a letter would be (at 10 miles) about a 4 hour return trip..Not nice.

SECOND THING
The book I use for cancelled stamp information is "Canada Post Offices 1755-1895"
There is a Post Office called BURTCH which I believe may be a wrong input of information..Follow what I am explaining and let me know.


See the Archive Canada's postal information time frame below.
George Taylor was postmaster from 1862 to 1880
F.L.Jarvis was postmaster from 1882 to 1883
Now David Burtch re-opened the office in 1884.
" Canada Post Offices 1755-1895" does not recognize the BUTCH postal station.
Now why would the first two postmasters name the post office after David Burtch..?..Until he re-opened it much latter.




THIRD THING
Now every stamp collector knows Scott 3, 5,7 are rare and hard to find..What about cancellation rarities..?..Below is a section taken out of Archives Canada's web site.



This Green River Station was open for only 3 MONTHS, before it got changed to Locust Hill..Now I am not a rocket scientist..But, if this office was only canceling with the Green River Station stamp..Find me one..Now that is rare.

Robert, on this Burtch thing. I have a feeling that maybe the map is wrong? Would not be the first time!
And your observation on the Green River Station is right on. I would not be surprised if you'd never found that cancel, but it might be a challenge to try?


Peter

Butch vs Burtch: I agree with Peter, I would seek another source as a tie-breaker. I would lean against the map being correct. Errors on maps are actually quite common. Maps are often made hundreds of miles away by people not truly familiar with spellings. Also, intentional errors are often made on maps as baited-evidence against copyright infringers. Same thing with phone directory compilers.

Peter..John, I am as we speak trying to find the tie breaker as John says.

Robert

I would also add it was not just to mail a letter, it was also to pick up mail since rural delivery was not implemented until close to 1900.
Don

Our former post office here in Ipswich is over 350 years old. That's older than the USA itself!

Jack Kelley

Also to intensify the rarity of actual postage stamp cancellations from Green River Station is the fact that most very rural stations income was less than $50.00 a year..Take into consideration the amount paid to Canada Post for parcel delivery, newspaper delivery etc, etc,..This did not leave much income from stamps., which would make finding a Green River Station cancel even harder to find..I could name a dozen more that fall into the rare category.


Jack..Try this link below
https://archive.org/stream/ipswichi...355/mode/1up

After doing some more investigating, I have come to the conclusion that as the pics below show that BUTCH was a misprint and BURTCH is the official name of the post office.

Good show, Robert !! work,work,work !! very gratifying indeed

René

Here is an old Post Office strike of St. Vincent, now the town of Meaford. Not many phones at that time so I guess there were alot of Post Offices.

The first settler was from Ireland, before the townsite was laid out by Charles Rankin in 1845 and called Meaford. By then, a sawmill and gristmill were already operating nearby; the post office there was called St. Vincent. Meaford saw little growth until 1850 but then began booming; it had a library by 1856...

The post office was renamed Meaford in 1865..

Cool - Thanks wert!