Akron daily Democrat. [volume] (Akron, Ohio) 1892-1902, 1902-05-19
Delivery Through.
out the County.
It Will be Established
by Fall.
Summit County Will be In the
Front Rank.

Through the efforts of RepI sentative |
Dick. the Postofiice Department has |
consented to establish rural free deliv-
cry throughout Summit county. This
means that the county will be covered
with -workof rural delivery routes
| which will bring mail daily to the
doors of majority Of the farmers, and
not more than one-half mile from the
houses of any of the country residents.
While this ''ruralizing" of a whole
county is not in the nature of an ex-
pertinent in the rural free delivery Of
the plan in Ohio.
1t is expected that this elaborate
system of delivery Of daily mail in the
rural portions of Summit county VIII
be put in operation by the first of Octo-
ber. A special agent of the Postoffice
Department will be sent here at once
With an assistant he will drive over
all of the country roads Of the county,
note the location of the houses along
various highways, and compare the re-
suits of his investigation with map
of the county to be furnished by the
local officials. The Rural Free Deilv-
cry Division of the Postofficc Depart
mnte says, ''These county maps as n
rule are vile, especially in the Middle
West" 1t is necessary, therefore, for
representatives of the Department to
make n complete correction and veri-
fication of the maps before anything
can be done toward laying out the
routes. Once having determined upon
the most available routes, carriers will
be selected from a lst of names rec
commended by persons living along the
lines over which mail will be deliyered
and the postofiices from which the
various routes start will be designated.
The daily rural service will then begin
ut once.
Each rural free delivery carrier in
Summit county will be travelling
postofiice. He will be authorized to sell
postofiice. He W II be authorized to sell
stamps, register mail, and perform all
! the other functions of the ordinary
postofiice in county-seat town. The
/. benefit to the farming community of
; Summit county, us will be apparent,
will be almost inestimable. Daily
newspapers with market reports and
the news Of the world will be delivered
: at the door. Personal and business cor
, respondence may be carried on by
, farmers remote from the business CEN
ters Of the county with quite as great
facility and in manner identical with
4 that enjoyed by town and city residents
and business mcn. The establishment
e of county rural free delivery service, in
1 fact, will make Summit county practi-
l cally one large town, so far as the
Q collection and distribution of mail are
concerned.
! This useful innovation will entail
@ no expense upon the residents OF Sum.
e NIT county. All that the farmers will
be required to do Is to provide box
of a pattern to be designated by the De
s partment, for the reception of theil
= mail. Where the farmer lives immedi,
o ately upon the line of the rural free
{ delivery route, the box may be placed
J. In his door yard. If he does not live
o Immediately upon the route and it Il
o expected that none OF the Summ
& county farmers will be more than one
half mile from mail route, the bo,
will be placed ut a point on the roat
e nearest to the farmers house. For the
d purchase of stamps, for sending regis
: tered mail and other special matters i
G will be necessary, of course, TO see thu
: carrier personally, just as one woul,
l. need to deal with a clerk in post.
S Office.
d No other county In Ohio enjoys thi'
@ advantage. There is one in California
n one In Wisconsin, and one In Georgia
e Other counties where this service ha
r, been established are in the New Eng
l. land States, or territory adjacent there
l. to. The experiment was first tried 4
d Carroll county, Maryland, where 1t wa
$. SO successful that wagons which ar
4 practically postoflices on wheels, an
y constructed upon designs furnished by
the Department, are now being used.
Growth of the rural free delivery ser
A vice has been remarkable. The servic
o has been brought to it's present wide
:. spread usefulness almost wholly sine
q thp bppinninc of NliIlinp, NkcKin