Seeking Help Understanding 1800's Postal Markings.

I am doing historical research that involves the lives of several postmasters of post offices in Staten Island NY and rural upstate NY, throughout the 1800's, all of whom were general store proprietors. As I am collecting examples of envelopes with their markings, I am trying to get a better understanding of those markings themselves.

But I don't have any particular knowledge about stamps or the history of the United States Postal Service, and I am having a little trouble getting started educating myself. I have looked at the American Philatelic Society and their digital library but didn't see anything that seemed directly relevant to my research. The same is true of searching Amazon, Archive.org, Google Books, etc. I'm hoping someone might take pity on me and show me the way forward...

My initial questions are about the ink stamps that include dates, times, and locations, and at least in one case, the postmaster's name (which itself may be meaningful?). I note that they have different shapes and configurations, but also significant standardization. There are also ink stamps that are often, but also often NOT, on the paid postage stamp, presumably to cancel it. I note that they have different shapes also, and I am wondering about any possible significance to that. The two examples I have are a bullseye (concentric circles) and a five pointed star. Finally, the general store/post office connection seems like it was common, and it makes sense to me, but I am wondering if there are resources that specifically explore this connection.

I appreciate any help offered. I have published a few examples of Edward H. Mills' and his immediate predecessor, Walker V. Personious, on my website at https://memills.com/family-of-edwar...allock-1819/ -- I apologize in advance for the length, but they can be found approximately a third of the way down the page.

Thank you in advance for any help! (A warning: I may end up wanting to quote you in my work...)

The 1800's is a broad postal history topic, but to hit a few high points and broad generalizations starting about mid-century....

Handstamps in 1860 were supplied to only the larger post offices as fairly uniform supplies. Small offices were on their own to follow general directions and typically marked their mail with pen/ink or bought their own handstamp. By the 1870s and 1880s several private companies sold handstamps to postmasters in the lower-class offices, and gave the option of postmaster names, county names, fancy-shaped killers, etc., which is what you are describing. The shape of the killer has no particlar significance other than satisfying the whim of the postmaster who purchased it, with the concentric circles being both USPOD-supplied and common on privately-purchased devices. By about 1890, there was a strong push to have uniformity of devices and ink and thus for all offices to be supplied by the Post Office Department. Salaries for postmasters were based on the size of the office and the lowest classes based closely to revenue, thus being a postmaster in a 4th class office meant that (to survive) you had to be running the PO as a side-businesss to some other steady/real income source, with a grocery being a very common primary host.

One decent reference is Richard B. Graham's "Postal History Sampler" which covers many of these basics at the 10,000ft level.

You may also find the "Postal Bulletin" a useful publication at this site as well as the other sources there:
http://www.uspostalbulletins.com/pd...oup=48&id=48

Also the biennial "Official Register" volumes listing (in volume II) the postal employees and the their compensation. Here is a portion from the 1883 "Offical Register", p524 with columns for City/County/ Postmaster/compensation covering Brookton, NY


The USPOD sources will be primary sources, rather than the secondary newspaper articles. Also useful is the "US Post Offices" link on Jim Forte's website, which is useful on its own and also can help narrow down searches in the Postal Bulletins when loking for exact opening/closing dates:
https://www.postalhistory.com/Post_...es/index.htm

Thank you! I just purchased a copy of the Postal History Sampler and am reviewing postalhistory.com now. Very much appreciate your guidance!

Thanks to your nudging, I am indeed learning what I had hoped to about Edward Mills' postmark, and a bit more context on the general store connection. I am still deep in following up on everything, but I thought a thank you and update were in order.

In particular, the bibliography on the New York State page on Jim Forte's website at https://www.postalhistory.com/State...rk/index.htm led to some interesting discoveries, including the directly relevant "Star Cancels of New York State" by David Proulx published by the Empire State Postal History Society in 1990, which includes references to Edward Mills' postmark. (Overall, David catalogs 70 different versions of star cancels known to be used in New York State!) I also found another of David Proulx's works "County and Postmaster Cancels of New York State" published by Empire State Postal History Society in 1990 that includes references to Edward Mills and shows a postmark from another town that is the same formatting as Edward's. I know it may be a tall order, but I am going to attempt to find the manufacturer of the stamp used based on advertisements from the period. Proulx's works are excellent but only a few hundred copies of each were printed; Luckily, copies of these two were nearby at Cornell University. I am going to try to find if he has other relevant works that might not be widely distributed.

"Star killers" also get significant treatment in Richard Graham's "United States Postal History Sampler".

I am still in the middle of following up on all the leads, but this has already been quite rewarding and has opened my eyes to a whole universe I didn't know very much about before.

A few follow-up questions if folks don't mind: the first is really basic: what postal "class" would Edward's postoffice be, or how might I go about finding that out? I see references to fourth class postoffices, etc., but I am unclear on the exact meaning. It looks like it might be related to the income of the postoffice? In which case, would the biennial "Official Registrar" volumes contain this information? (I haven't looked at these volumes yet, but will.)

The other question is probably more far-fetched: the fact that Edward's name is on his postmark seems somewhat distinctive, at least based on my limited experience, this seems to appear in the minority of cases. This suggests to me the possibility that the device used might be collectible, and may have possibly survived the decades. I'm guessing that people might even specialize in collecting such stamps? If we assume that it may exist somewhere today, either in an archive or private collection, how might I go about finding its current owner?

(Perhaps relevant, and itself an interesting footnote, to me at least: Proulx's works are dedicated to Royden ("Dick") Lounsbery, whose widow funded the printing of Proulx's works. Dick was also a collector, perhaps inspired by his grandfather, Fred Lounsbery, who was Brookton postmaster for several decades, one of Edward Mills' successors. Fred Lounsbery is a famous name in the history of Brooktondale (as it is called today), both for the length of his service as postmaster, and the fact that rural free delivery began during his tenure. A locally famous photograph shows Fred and several other postal employees posing on the first day of RFD. It is is said of Dick Lounsbery that "one of his interests was cancels, and he had many of the unusual ones in his collection". I wonder what became of his collection?)

Sorry for the length!

Although some postmarking devices have survived, the odds of finding a specific device are miniscule. I suspect most postmasters who spent their money to get a device with their own name in it took it with them when they left office, although some were used with the name carved-out and used by the next postmaster in the altered configuration. There is no master database of surviving devices. Most owners of obsolete devices are fairly quite about having them.

Publications like the Official Register, Postal Laws & Regulations, Postal Bulletins, and Postal Guides are very useful as noted earlier. Salary and class information can be found in these. As an example, for classes, from the 1887 Postal Laws and Regulations volume, pages 195-200: Other earlier and later PL&R volumes will have the gradual shift in sales ranges vs salaries.

Thanks again!