The Postal Service of the United States in Connection with the Local History of Buffalo

The Postal Service of the United
States in
by Nathan Kelsey Hall
and Thomas Blossom

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States in
Connection with the Local History of Buffalo, by Nathan Kelsey Hall
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Title: The Postal Service of the United States in Connection with the
Local History of Buffalo
Author: Nathan Kelsey Hall Thomas Blossom
Release Date: September 30, 2007 [EBook #22812]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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THE POSTAL SERVICE
OF THE UNITED STATES IN CONNECTION WITH THE LOCAL
HISTORY OF BUFFALO.
* * * * *
READ BEFORE THE SOCIETY, JANUARY 6, 1865.
* * * * *
BY HON. N. K. HALL[A] AND THOMAS BLOSSOM.[B]
No very satisfactory account of the origin and progress of the Postal
Service of the country, in its more immediate connection with the local
history of Buffalo, can now be compiled. The early records of the
transportation service of the Post-Office Department, were originally
meager and imperfect; and many of the books and papers of the
Department, prior to 1837, were destroyed or lost when the public
edifices at Washington were burned in 1814, and also when the
building in which the Department was kept was destroyed by fire, in
December, 1836. For these reasons the Hon. A. N. Zevely, Third
Assistant Postmaster-General--who has kindly furnished extracts from
the records and papers of the Department--has been able to afford but
little information in respect to the early transportation of the mails in
the western part of this State. Indeed, no information in respect to that
service, prior to 1814, could be given; no route-books of older date than
1820 are now in the Department, and those from 1820 to 1835 are not
so arranged as to show the running time on the several routes.
The records of the Appointment Office, and those of the Auditor's
Office of the Department, are more full and perfect; and from these,
and from various other sources of information, much that is deemed

entirely reliable and not wholly uninteresting has been obtained.
Erastus Granger was the first Postmaster of Buffalo--or rather of
"Buffalo Creek," the original name of the office. He was appointed on
the first establishment of the office, September 30, 1804. At that time
the nearest post-offices were at Batavia on the east, Erie on the west,
and Niagara on the north. Mr. Granger was a second cousin of Hon.
Gideon Granger, the fourth Postmaster-General of the United States,
who held that office from 1801 to 1814.
The successors of our first Postmaster, and the dates of their respective
appointments, appear in the following statement:
Julius Guiteau, May 6, 1818. Samuel Russel, April 25, 1831. Henry P.
Russell, July 26, 1834. Orange H. Dibble, August 28, 1834. Philip
Dorsheimer, June 8, 1838. Charles C. Haddock, October 12, 1841.
Philip Dorsheimer, April 1, 1845. Henry K. Smith, August 14, 1846.
Isaac R. Harrington, May 17, 1849. James O. Putnam, September 1,
1851. James G. Dickie, May 4, 1853. Israel T. Hatch, November 11,
1859. Almon M. Clapp, (the present incumbent[C]) March 27, 1861.
The Buffalo Post-office was the only post-office within the present
limits of the city until January, 1817, when a post-office was
established at Black Rock. The appointments of Postmasters at Black
Rock have been as follows:
James L. Barton, January 29, 1817. Elisha H. Burnham, July 11, 1828.
Morgan G. Lewis, June 29, 1841. George Johnson, July 7, 1853. Daniel
Hibbard, (the present incumbent) June 1, 1861.
In July, 1854, the Post-office of Black Rock Dam, now called North
Buffalo, was established. The name of the office was changed to North
Buffalo, February 10, 1857. The appointments to that office have been
as follows:
Henry A. Bennett, July 12, 1854. Charles Manly, March 17, 1856.
George Argus, May 20, 1859. William D. Davis, July 29, 1861. George
Argus, (the present incumbent) 1864.

The Buffalo Post-office was kept, during Mr. Granger's term of office,
first on Main Street, near where the Metropolitan Theater[D] now
stands, and afterwards in the brick house on the west side of Pearl
Street, a few doors south of Swan Street, now No. 58 Pearl Street. Mr.
Guiteau first kept the office on Main Street, opposite Stevenson's livery
stable; then on the west