The Spanish Fork press. [volume] (Spanish Fork, Utah) 1902-current, 1907-03-28
FIRST POSTAL CAR
SMALL BEGINNING OF PRESENT
GREAT SYSTEM.
Joseph Elliott, Who Had Charge OF
the Experiment, Forty-Three
Years Ago, Tells About
Initial Trip.

"I'll never forget as long as | live
the first time postal car was run
in this country said Joseph Elliott,
who had charge of the first expert
ment Uncle Sam made with a travel
ing post office.
AS he spoke Mr.. Elliott dropped
back into his big leather-covered chair
in the New York Post Office building
and began toying with his gray mus
| tache reilectively. Mr. Elliott is a
veteran of many years service in the
| post office He Is now superintendent
of the money-order department, hav
| ing held this same post well nigh 80
years.
ut is nearly IS years since that
| first trip was made" he resumed
land l recall that it was regarded as
one of the most important expert
ments in the history of mails. So it
was, too, for without these railway
postal cars to-day the handling of
mails would be wretched botch.
Mail Shipped in Bags.
| THE car was nothing more than an
old freight car which bad been fitted
up with piegon-holes. We were or
dered to take a car to Washington on
a iaunt and then bring back a load of
mail from that city, distributing 1t as
we travelled along.
Prior to that time the mails had
simply been shipped in bags. There
were no clerks on the trains to work
over the letters and assert them, so
that they might be rushed straight
from the railroad station to the vari-
Gus sections of the city.
I'VE left New York in the morning
and travelled all day before we ar
rived in Washington, for in those
days railroading was nothing like
what it is now. We were simply on
a junket going to Washington. The
experiment was to be made coming
back to New York, for it should be
remembered that the heaviest mails
were those that came from the south
then, for the army of Gen. Lee and
that of Sherman were down that way.
The Return Trip.
81 remember that Gen. Grant was
fighting the Battle Of the Wilderness
the day we arrived at Washington
and in this way | know this first trip
must have been made with the rail
way postal car between May and
May Z, 1864. When we left the car in
Washington recall that great train
load of wounded soldiers had just
come in from the Wilderness They
were strung along Pennsylvania av-
enue in Washington pending their re-
mOval to the army hospitals.
THAT night we started back TO
New York, and then our work began.
letters from the army-letters which
had been accommodating in Washing
ton and which no doubt carried many
a sorrowful message to the homefolk
in the north.
, Il have often thought what traffic
, in sadness we handled on that first
, mail car. 1t seemed that the govern
ment's venture had been timed by
: fate to bring bad news from the Viii.
derness to the homes of the soldiers.
Arriving in Jersey City, the mail
bags were sent direct to the various
stations and not to the general post
office, and so successful was the first
trial that the railway postal car serv,
ice Immediately began to take on
life"
The real founder of the railway
postal distributing service Is said to
have been George B. Armstrong, who
was assistant postmaster at the Chi.
cago post Office in 1864, and Forest
Crissy. an authority on the service
says he started the first car, The
date given is, however, September l,
1864, while Mr.. Elliott remembers the
date of his first trip by the Battle of
the Wilderness. 1t was due to Mr.
Armstrong; persistent efforts, no
|, doubt, that the governments approval
of the car service was obtained in
those early days.
An odd story is told of how the first
travelling post Office was conceived
One of the distributing agents of the
postal service in the neighborhood OF
Chicago in charge of a junction point
where many mails had to be routed
told Mr.. Armstrong that he had found
mother mouse with a little brood OF
mise in one of the mail bags.
THAT ought never to be-" said Mr.
; Armstrong I'VE ought never to al
low mail to lie so long In train as
to start nursery for rats. am go
ing to see il we can't get the railroads
to allow a postal clerk to stay aboard
the car and assert the mail before II
gets to these towns and cities"
So the great system of to-day, per
haps, grew out of this story about the
mice. To-day there are nearly $4,000
railway postal clerks in the United
States