Keeseville Fancy Killers

Here are two unusual killers from Keeseville which is a post office on the county line between Clinton and Essex Counties. It is still in operation.

The "US" killer is from the Civil War era and shows a patriotic theme. Obviously the "K" stands for Keeseville.

3c PAID in circle

Recently I have been come enamored with stampless letter that are marked "3c PAID" within a circle. This marking was used after June 30, 1851 when the basic paid rate was lowered to 3c. Since stamps became mandatory on January 1, 1856, the time frame for use was only 4-5 years. Here're 3 nicely cancelled examples:

Binghamton (Broome County) has been a post office since 1830. A nicely struck example on a very clean Ladies cover.

Cape Vincent (Jefferson County) has had 2 periods of operation: 1817 - 1861, and then again from 1861 to the current day. Again, a very nicely struck example on a watermarked type of paper.

Oramal was a post office in Allegany County in 1850, and again in 1852 - 1968.

Another Cross Border Cover

Here's a very nice little ladies cover from Port Henry (Essex County) to Brooklin, Upper Canada (Canada West). Perhaps the most interesting aspects are the Red PAID and X from Port Henry, signifying the 10c rate to Canada and the Arc and Shield Exchange Marking from Rouse's Point, NY, the exchange post office.

Markings:

Port Henry, NY (Nov. 24)

Rouses Point, NY (Nov. 25)

Montreal, LC (Nov. 25, 1852)

????? (Nov. 26, 1852)

Brooklin, UC (Nov. 28, 1852)

4 days from the US to Canadian destination. Takes at least a week today.

Another Cross Border Cover

This is a true cross border cover going from Westport, N.Y. to Lacolle, Quebec (Lower Canada).

The "10" marking was applied at Westport and the "U.States" in arc was applied at Plattsburgh, NY, an exchange post office. Since there is no paid marking the letter was sent unpaid and the "6" marking was applied Montreal to show "6 pence" due.

There are backstamps from Plattsburgh (Sep 13) and Montreal (Sp 13 / 1853)

1 day from Westport (my hometown) t0 Montreal; a distance of 100 miles. Not bad considering the date. Today the same mail can take from 3-7 days or longer.

Odgensburgh "Cross-Border" NOT!

This cover originated in the "OFFICE OF SUPERINTENDENT" of the Northern Ogdensburg Railway in the early 1850s. Even with only the embossed corner card, the cover would be a good addition to a collection. However, it has a number of pluses which all add up to a fantastic cover:

(1) nice handstamps of "PAID" and "3" showing the rate that went into effect on July 1, 1851.

(2) red circular date stamp from Odgensburgh

BUT, here are the bonuses:

(3) For some reason, the cover was originally rated as going to Canada. That's why there is a "10" handstamp: to pay the 10c rate to Canada. But it was going to Boston instead and, it seems that the postal clerk realized that and canceled the 10 marking with the 7 bar circle in black. The 7 bar circle was initially sent to post offices that received the 1st issue of US postage stamps in 1847.

(4) Under the postal agreement between the USA and Canada beginning in April 1851, each country would stamp its mail with the country name. In this case the postal clerk used a red "U.States" in ribbon marking.

Finally:

(5) companies such as the Railway that sent a lot of mail sometimes has accounts with the post office. Even though postmasters were not supposed to do it, many kept such accounts. That's the reason for "Charge N. RR" manuscript at the upper right.

A wonderful addition to my Cross Border Collection

Two Early County Cancels

Here are two very early county cancels from New York state. If you've read some of my previous posts you know that I am very interested in county cancels.

Little Falls is in Herkimer County and was established on December 1, 1802 and is still in operation today. For a brief period in 1850-1852 it was called Rockton.

This is an interesting cover beside the county cancel. It was sent from Little Falls (December 14, 1830) to Saybrook Connecticut where it was then forwarded (December 23, 1830) to another post office. Which post office is not apparent, but there is a light Saybrook red cancel at the bottom near the Little Falls cancel. The forwarding was local because only 6c was charged. At this time 6c was for distances under 30 miles. So the total postage on the letter was 24 3/4c, an usual rate.

Newark in Wayne County was originally established in Ontario County (July 20, 1822). On April 11, 1823, the New York state legislature erected Wayne County. The post office is still in operation.

It's very unusual to see the county name in a circular date stamp at this early date. The cancel reminds me of the attached rate cancels that were also used around this time in many post offices in New York and New England.

Ovid Maltese Cross

Just after I wrote the previous post about the Star in Star from Forest Glen, this little item from Ovid, Seneca County arrived in my mail.

I find this item fascinating for a number of other reasons: 1. The beautiful purple ink, 2. The double circle in the townmark, and 3. The well defined double maltese cross.

Ovid was established in 1815 and is still in operation. For a few months in 1814, the post office was called Seneca. (Smith and Kay, page. 304, 1980)

Star in Star Killer

Continuing with the theme of New York State County Postmarks here's an interesting one from Forest Glen (Ulster County). This is a fairly early use in the post office history since it was established on September 21, 1882. Forest Glen was discontinued on September 15, 1930 with mail going to New Paltz (Smith and Kay, p. 342, 1980).

However, I find it more interesting if you look at the star killer. Since it's probably early in the life of the cancel, the cancel is still fairly distinct. Notice that there is a small star inside the larger star. With cancels such as this as the years go by with lots of use, such details disappear.

New York Mills County Postmark

One of the more interesting areas of research and collecting is post office cancels with the name of the county in the cancel. In a large state such as New York, adding the county name in the cancel would aid the recipient to add the name of the name of the county in any reply. This was helpful to postal workers who depended on their knowledge of counties to decide which mail bag a letter would go ito.

These were mainly used in the 1870s and 1880s just before the Post Office Department began to try to standardized postal cancels.

But there are some examples from the earlier part of the 19th Century.

Here is the discovery copy from the Oneida County village of New York Mills. New York Mills is just south of Utica and was established on December 8, 1832 and is still in operation today.

The stampless letter is dated January 1, 1833 very early in the operation of the post office. The rate is 12 1/2c for postage to Auburn, NY. This is the rate for 80 to 150 miles under the postal act effective May 1, 1816 which remained in effect until June 30, 1845.

1792 Postage Rates

Before June 1, 1792, postage was charged in a non-decimal terms of pennyweights and grains of silver. The federal postal act of February 20, 1792 established a decimal system of payment with 9 levels of charge dependent on miles carried. The rates remained in effect until March 2, 1799 when the 9 levels were reduced to 6 levels.

The letter from New York City to Albany was charged 30c. This reflects a double weight of the 15c charged for letters traveling between 150 and 200 miles.

The New York postmark is the "clamshell" used from 1798 to 1802.

Adirondac (Essex County) New York

Adirondac, New York

(1848 - 1853)

orginally printed in Excelsior! (March 2009)

It all began with an email from fellow ESPHS member, Doug Penwell, telling me to look at a listing on eBay, the online auction site. At first I couldn't figure out why Doug had steered me towards the site: the title was "UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 1852. Unstamped envelope to S".

Then when I saw the accompanying scan of the "unstamped envelope", my heart raced and I understood why Doug had sent me his email. The unstamped envelope was manuscript postmarked Adirondac, N.Y. June 28/52 and sent to Annan in Dumfrieshire, Scotland.

Adirondac was a post office that authorized August 3, 1848 and discontinued November 7, 1855. The only postmaster was Andrew Porteous. According to Arthur H. Masten, in his "The Story of Adirondac" (1968), "A post office under (the name of Adirondac) was established through the efforts of Orlando Kellogg, Congressman from the Essex County District, and in October, 1848, Andrew Porteous received his commission as the first Postmaster.

"By the Government contract with the mail carrier, John Wright, the office at Adirondac was to be supplied with the mail twice a week from Schroon River, a distance of nineteen miles. His compensation was to be the net proceeds of postage collected at the office, not exceeding $18.75 per quarter. The mail was then sent from Albany by way of Sandy Hill and Glens Falls." (Masten, 112)

Today, Adirondac is a ghost town. It was originally established as a iron mining town in the 1820s. In an 1854 brochure the town was described as having: "1 Cupola Furnace; 1 Blast Furnace; 1 Forge and Puddling Furnace; 1 Stamping Mill; 1 Mill for driving small machinery; 1 Saw Mill, 1 Grist Mill, or Mill for grinding feed; 1 Hay Scales, 2 Kilns for roasting ore; 1 Brick House; 1 Granary, 1 Tool House, 1 Blacksmith shop; 1 Carpenter shop, 3 Coal Kilns; 6 Coal Houses; 1 Long Wood house, 1 Store for merchandise; 1 Ice house; 1 Powder house; 1 Large Boarding house; 16 dwelling houses for workmen; 1 School House; 3 Large Barns; several Cow Stables and Cattle Sheds; 1 Piggery; 1 Building with Steaming apparatus." (Masten, 131)

By 1859, the village was a deserted village (Masten, 144). A huge flood in 1856 plus the financial panic of 1856 doomed the mining company and town. Today the deserted town is part of the Town of Newcomb. An excellent online resource for more information about Adirondac is found at http://www.aarch.org/archives/leeman.html

In my collecting of Essex County covers for over 40 years, I have never seen another example from this post office. When I showed a photocopy of this cover to postal history dealer Elwyn Doubleday he also said that he had never seen an example from Adirondac.

I would have been very satisfied with an ordinary domestic rate cover but this cover was prepaid for the 24c Treaty rate to GB and was carried by American packet across the Atlantic on Havre Line "Franklin", which left New York City on July 3 and arrived in Southampton on July 14. Because an American ship carried the letter, GB was only entitled to its inland postage, and the red 3 is a US credit to GB for that purpose. If a British ship had carried the letter, the prepayment would still have been 24c, but the credit would have been 19 cents (3c GB inland plus 16c packet postage).

All in all, a very interesting cover. Even more interesting is where it was located. The seller of the cover was the Barcelona Spain stamp auction house Soler y Llach. Actually the listing was not an auction, but a BUY IT NOW. As you can imagine I quickly clicked on the BUY IT NOW button and purchased this gem

Thanks, Doug, for alerting me to this gem!

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Bibliography:

Adirondack Architectural Heritage. 31 Mar. 2009. .

Hochschild, Harold K. The MacIntyre Mine-From Failure to Fortune. Blue Mountain Lake, 1962

Masten, Arthur M. The Story of Adirondac. NY: Syracuse, 1968.

New York State Postal History (pre-1900)

This is a blog dedicated to the postal history of New York in the pre-1900 era. I have another blog New York State Postal History dedicated to the post-1900 era (http://www.newyorkpostalhistory.blogspot.com)