Rural Free delivery - wikipedia Rural Free delivery For the EP by Whiskeytown, see Rural Free Delivery ( EP ). Rural Free Delivery ( RFD ) is a service which began in the United States in the late 19th century, to deliver mail directly to rural farm families. Prior to RFD, individuals living in more remote homesteads had to pick up mail themselves at sometimes distant post offices or pay private carriers for delivery. RFD became a political football, with politicians promising it to voters and using it themselves to reach voters. The proposal to offer free rural delivery was not universally embraced. Private carriers and local shopkeepers feared a loss of business. The United States Post Office Department began experiments with Rural Free Delivery as early as 1890. However, it was not until 1893, when Georgia Congressman Thomas E. Watson pushed through legislation, that the practice was mandated. However, universal implementation was slow ; RFD was not adopted generally in the United States Post Office until 1902. The rural delivery service uses a network of rural routes traveled by carriers to deliver and pick up mail to and from roadside mailboxes. Rural Free Delivery vehicle ( from Popular Mechanics, September 1905 ) Contents 1 History 2 First routes 3 See also 4 References 5 Further reading 6 External links History Rural carrier in an early electric vehicle, circa 1910 Until the late 19th century, residents of rural areas had to either travel to a distant post office to pick up their mail, or else pay for delivery by a private carrier. Postmaster General John Wanamaker, owner of a major department store, was ardently in favor of Rural Free Delivery ( RFD ), with many thousands of Americans living in rural communities who wanted to send and receive retail orders inexpensively. However, the adoption of a nationwide RFD system had many opponents. Some were simply opposed to the cost of the service. Private express carriers thought inexpensive rural mail delivery would eliminate their business, and many town merchants worried the service would reduce farm families ' weekly visits to town to obtain goods and merchandise, or that mail order merchants selling through catalogs, such as Sears, Roebuck and Company might present significant competition. Support for the introduction of a nationwide rural mail delivery service came from The National Grange of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry, the nation 's oldest agricultural organization. Fayette County in east - central Indiana claims to be the birthplace of Rural Free Delivery. Milton Trusler, a leading farmer in the county, began advocating the idea in 1880 ; as the president of the Indiana Grange, he spoke to farmers statewide frequently over the following sixteen years. The Post Office Department first experimented with the idea of rural mail delivery on October 1, 1891 to determine the viability of RFD. They began with five routes covering ten miles, 33 years after free delivery in cities had begun. The first routes to receive RFD during its experimental phase were in Jefferson County, West Virginia, near Charles Town, Halltown, and Uvilla. Legislation by U.S. Congressman Thomas E. Watson of Georgia mandated the practice, and RFD finally became an official service in 1896. That year, 82 rural routes were put into operation. A massive undertaking, nationwide RFD service took several years to implement, and remains the `` biggest and most expensive endeavor '' ever instituted by the U.S. postal service. The service has grown steadily. By 1901, the mileage had increased to over 100,000 ; the cost was $1,750,321 and over 37,000 carriers were employed. In 1910 the mileage was 993,068 ; cost $36,915,000 ; carriers 40,997. In 1913 came the introduction of parcel post delivery, which caused another boom in rural deliveries. Parcel post service allowed the distribution of national newspapers and magazines, and was responsible for millions of dollars of sales in mail - order merchandise to customers in rural areas. In 1930 there were 43,278 rural routes serving about 6,875,321 families -- that is about 25,471,735 persons. The cost was $106,338,341. In 1916, the Rural Post `` Good '' Roads Act authorized federal funds for rural post roads. First routes The following is a list of the first rural routes established in each state, along with the names of the ( up to three ) Post Offices served and the date of establishment. State Post Office ( s ) Date Alabama Opelika December 7, 1896 Alaska Nome May 10, 1901 Arizona Tempe November 24, 1896 Arkansas Clarksville October 19, 1896 California Campbell February 1, 1897 Colorado Loveland November 10, 1896 Connecticut Branford, Guilford, Milford June 1, 1898 Delaware Harrington October 3, 1898 District of Columbia Anacostia, Bennings September 1, 1902 Florida Winter Park January 1, 1898 Georgia Quitman December 8, 1896 Hawaii Haiku March 1, 1918 Idaho Moscow April 14, 1900 Illinois Auburn December 10, 1896 Indiana Hartsville, Hope October 15, 1896 Iowa Morning Sun November 10, 1896 Kansas Bonner Springs October 26, 1896 Kentucky Allensville January 11, 1897 Louisiana Thibodaux November 1, 1896 Maine Gorham, Naples, Sebago Lake November 23, 1896 Maryland Westminster October 15, 1896 Massachusetts Bernardston, Greenfield November 2, 1896 Michigan Climax December 3, 1896 Minnesota Farmington January 1, 1897 Mississippi Hickory October 1, 1901 Missouri Cairo October 15, 1896 Montana Billings February 1, 1902 Nebraska Tecumseh November 7, 1896 Nevada Lovelock December 1, 1903 New Hampshire Pittsfield October 20, 1898 New Jersey Moorestown June 6, 1898 New Mexico Roswell March 1, 1902 New York Elba October 15, 1896 North Carolina China Grove October 23, 1896 North Dakota Wahpeton October 3, 1898 Ohio Collinsville, Darrtown, Somerville October 15, 1896 Oklahoma Hennessey August 15, 1900 Oregon Turner October 16, 1897 Pennsylvania New Stanton, Ruffsdale November 24, 1896 Rhode Island South Portsmouth January 1, 1899 South Carolina Cope, Orangeburg, Saint George March 1, 1899 South Dakota Ellis May 1, 1899 Tennessee Atoka January 11, 1897 Texas Fate, La Grange August 1, 1899 Utah Murray August 15, 1899 Vermont Grand Isle December 21, 1896 Virginia Palmyra October 22, 1896 Washington North Yakima April 1, 1897 West Virginia Charles Town, Halltown, Uvilla October 1, 1896 Wisconsin Sun Prairie November 16, 1896 Wyoming Hilliard, Sheridan, Wheatland October 15, 1900 See also U.S. Parcel Post stamps of 1912 - 13 Mayberry R.F.D. References ^ Jump up to : Encyclopædia Britannica - Rural Free Delivery Jump up ^ Historian United States Postal Service ( May 2007 ). `` Rural Free Delivery '' ( PDF ). United States Postal Service. Retrieved April 17, 2011. On October 1, 1890, Congress authorized funding of $10,000 to test the `` practicability '' of delivering mail to small towns, defined as those having populations of from 300 to 5,000 people, and nearby rural districts... Jump up ^ `` Rural Mailboxes ''. National Postal Museum. Retrieved 2008 - 11 - 07. Jump up ^ Clark, Mary ( Spring 2007 ). `` Rural Free Delivery '' ( PDF ). Dane County Historical Society Newsletter. Madison, WI 53711, US : Dane County Historical Society. 26 ( 1 ) : 5 -- 6. Archived ( PDF ) from the original on 2012 - 03 - 05. Retrieved 2015 - 05 - 15. Did You Know ? ' Neither snow nor rain... ' Contrary to popular belief, the quote at the beginning of this article is not the official motto of the U.S. Postal Service. According to the Postal Service, this inscription was supplied by William Mitchell Kendall of the firm McKim, Mead & White, the architects who designed the New York General Post Office building in 1912. Kendall explained that the sentence appears in the works of Herodotus and describes the expedition of the Greeks against the Persians under Cyrus, about 500 B.C. The Persians operated a system of mounted postal couriers, and the sentence describes the fidelity with which their work was done. Jump up ^ Division of Historic Preservation and Archeology. Fayette County Interim Report. Indianapolis : Indiana Department of Natural Resources, 1981 - 07, xviii. ^ Jump up to : `` First Rural Routes by State ''. United States Postal Service. Retrieved 2013 - 12 - 28. Jump up ^ Harry McKown ( 2006 - 10 - 31 ). `` This Month in North Carolina History ''. This Month in North Carolina History. University of North Carolina. Jump up ^ `` Parcel Post : Delivery of Dreams ''. Smithsonian Institution Libraries. Further reading Barron, Hal S. mixed harvest : The second great transformation in the rural north, 1870 - 1930 ( U of North Carolina Press, 1997 ). Fuller, Wayne Edison. RFD, the changing face of rural America ( 1964 ), a standard scholarly history Kernell, Samuel, and Michael P. McDonald. `` Congress and America 's political development : The transformation of the post office from patronage to service. '' American Journal of Political Science 43 # 3 ( 1999 ), pp. 792 - 811 in JSTOR ; online copy Perlman, Elisabeth Ruth, and Steven Sprick Schuster. `` Delivering the Vote : The Political Effect of Free Mail Delivery in Early Twentieth Century America. '' Journal of Economic History 76.3 ( 2016 ) : 769 - 802. online External links 1903 film of carrier receiving RFD mail to deliver in Westminster, Maryland, from the Library of Congress United States Postal Service Organizations American Letter Mail Company American Postal Workers Union Board of Governors of the United States Postal Service Bureau of Transportation Citizens ' Stamp Advisory Committee National Alliance of Postal and Federal Employees National Association of Letter Carriers National Association of Presort Mailers National Postal Mail Handlers Union National Rural Letter Carriers ' Association Postal Regulatory Commission Postal Transportation Service PostalWatch Incorporated United States Postal Inspection Service United States Postal Service Office of Inspector General Systems Address Management System Advanced Facer - Canceler System Coding Accuracy Support System Flats Sequencing System Locatable Address Conversion System United States Postal Savings System Services Click - N - Ship Express mail in the United States National Change Of Address Permit mail Permit Reply Mail Postal notes Railway Mail Service Registered mail Special Delivery Special handling Facilities Air Mail Facility Boat Railway Post Office Community post office Dead letter office Highway Post Office J.W. Westcott II List of United States Post Offices National Postal Museum Network Distribution Center Railway mail service library Red Brick Roads Sectional center facility Streetcar Railway Post Office Terminal Railway Post Office Legal Comstock laws Post Office Act Postal Reorganization Act Postal Service Act Private Express Statutes Rural Post `` Good '' Roads Act of 1916 Title 39 of the United States Code Related Airmails of the United States CAR - RT SORT Catcher pouch Cimarron Redoubt Domestic Mail Manual Facing Identification Mark Flats Grumman LLV Information - Based Indicia The Inspectors Intelligent Mail barcode Label 228 List of postal killings List of U.S. state abbreviations List of United States airmail stamps Mail bag Mail cover Mail hook Mail Isolation Control and Tracking Mail jumping Mail pouch Mail sack Mail satchel The Mail Story Nixie ORM - D Owney ( dog ) Pony Express mochila Postage stamps and postal history of the United States Postal Alpha Numeric Encoding Technique Postal Clause Postal worker Postmaster General Prohibitory Order Remote Bar Coding System Rural Free Delivery Rural letter carrier STD - 4C United States post office murals List of murals USPS Post Office Box Lobby Recycling program United States Postal Service creed Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rural_Free_Delivery&oldid=815630322 '' Categories : United States Postal Service Postal services Rural society in the United States Rural culture Talk Contents About Wikipedia Add links This page was last edited on 16 December 2017, at 01 : 14. 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Question: where did free rural mail delivery service begin in the us
Answer: Fayette County in east-central Indiana