Scott 156 And 178 On Covers To Bangor Maine

Since they are on covers and I do not want to remove - the 1cent Ben Franklin has the secret mark and both appear to be hard paper best I can tell. Only date is month and day, no year. One has a letter but no year shown. And I cannot find anything on Lathum Perkins. Questions: Schooner Reporter - meaning? Was a ship on the west coast - maybe a newspaper in Maine? Also backside of one of the covers has a bakwards N - not sure of meaning.
Thanks all.

I suspect that all the one cent stamps are 206.

revcollector - I do see the added shading on the left scroll on both. That may lead me to believe the 2 cent may be a 183, the later printing of the 2 cent stamp.