A Wyoming Contribution

Here is one of my all-time favorite Wyoming territorial covers -- kind of "alive" with the sense of how things were a-moving in 1880s America. The sender at Fort McKinney, having thought better of whatever he had previously mailed to a lady back in New York, was able to avail himself of the instantaneous possibilities of the telegraph to arrange for the cover to be intercepted and returned! I've never seen anything quite like it.

"Returned to the Writer / Requested by Post Master per Telegram / Fort McKinney Wyo. T."

Quite a fascinating cover - thanks for sharing!

Great cover that has "personality". Thanks for sharing.

Great registered cover to boot. I will add it to the registered U.S.A. data base. Thanks for sharing. Russ

https://stampsmarter.org/features/N...RegHome.html

I don't know they one could do that today; I am surprised it was legal then. My understanding is that once a letter is mailed it belongs to the addressee, not the sender. But I am not sure when that actually occurred.

That was my thought as well. I do know that I'd like the read the telegram, must have been pretty convincing.

Hopefully JohnB will weigh in, I am sure he either knows and/or can dig out the USPOD regulation for this situation.
Don

Withdrawal procedure:

Every 8-12 years the USPOD published a collective "Postal Laws and Regulations" volume. These included 1879 and 1887. The 1887 volume was a complete reorganization and renumbering reflecting a lot of changes.

From the 1879 volume, section 294 describes the procedure after the mail has left the originating post office:



The 1879 procedure clearly had been replaced by 1885 by some other less cumbersome method. Here is the 1887 PL&V text in section 533, which specifically outlines the telegraph procedure to be used by the postmaster:




I am unsure exactly when the procedural change was made between 1879 and 1887, but apparently before this letter was sent in 1885, but the answer is likely in the US Revised Statutes volumes.

Add: Skipping forward many years to the PL&R compilation of 1948, it is still on the books:

So it was legal to do this, and apparently the sender made a strong enough reason available. I would think it was a rare occurrence to begin with, and the survival rate for such covers still rarer. Thanks for the information.

For those like me who thought of Knapp, the famous collector possibly being involved, he was only six at the time. And he was from NYC, not Poughkeepsie.

Are there any markings or postage due stamps on the back of the cover?

Vince

I checked the Ft. McKinney cover again, vinman, and the reverse is completely blank.

John Becker, thanks much for the documentation on interrupting first-class mailings! I'd often wondered whether it was legal for even the original sender to do this.

Stan

That is a terrific and really interesting cover. Thanks for sharing.

Cover has been added to the Registered U.S.A. data base as item 1352:
https://stampsmarter.org/features/N...gViewDB.html You need to click on the "next" button at the bottom of this page to move forward one page to see this item.

Thanks again for sharing this wonderful example of a seldom seen registration procedure.

What an outstanding cover! thanks for showing it. Would love to know what he wanted to not say.....