Ping! You have mail! - Glimpses of the Past with Karen Webster

In our 2024 age of sending written messages around the world in the matter of seconds, it is difficult to imagine a time when communication was rather difficult.

 

The earliest settlers came to our area in the 1820s and, at that time, there was no mail service. People would have to rely on acquaintances to take a letter with them on their travels and thus get it into a postal system that had used the St. Lawrence-Lake Ontario route since the 1600s. Water travel to Detroit and beyond to York, now Toronto, was the easiest route, until the Huron Road was hewn out of the virgin bush from Galt to Goderich. York’s post office was established in 1797 and Galt’s in 1825.  

 

Canada Company used mail bags to cover the area from Goderich to Galt by 1832. The Belden 1879 Atlas discloses that, in 1833, the first post office in Goderich, run by Edwin Griffin, was located in the store of E.C. Taylor, which was “on West Street, near the octagon”.  Close on the heels was the establishment of the McKillop (Harpurhey) office.

 

As more settlers came into the area, the extent of the postal service increased with Port Albert added to the list in 1851, Clinton in 1853 and Wawanosh (Dungannon) in 1853. Gradually,  the service extended inland with post offices in Auburn, Westfield, and Cranbrook being established in 1854. The inclusion of Belfast, Benmiller and Bodmin followed in 1855 and then the next year with Blyth, Brussels and Zetland. 

 

Actually, the post office in what is now Brussels was first called Dingle. The village at that time was called Ainleyville. Once the village changed its name to Brussels, confused people might have mail addressed to Ainleyville, at the Dingle post office in Brussels! The first postmaster was William Grant, who served in that position for 14 years. The next postmaster, R.J. Grant, served for 20 years, but some of that time was under duress because the newspaper editor constantly attacked him in print. Others got into the fray and there was even a trial in which R.J. prevailed. 

 

The post office in Blyth was first called “Blythe” and the first person in charge was J. Templeton, who held the job for six years.  He was succeeded by William Drummond. Today, the names of these early Blyth founders are commemorated in street names.
At first, mail was carried by men on horseback with a satchel of mail.  As roads came into existence, mail was carried on stagecoaches. The advent of the railways in the county brought another improvement in mail delivery. 

 

It wasn’t until 1908 that rural mail delivery was instituted in Ontario due to the efforts of George Wilcox. Many people were against this development, citing increased costs and a fear that there would be a decline in the number of rural residents visiting their local municipalities. Nevertheless, the service did begin on a route of 37 letterboxes between Ancaster and Hamilton.

 

Controversy occurred over the years concerning the appointment of postmasters and, then later, of rural mail carriers. North Huron MP George Spotton addressed the system of tendering for rural mail routes every four years, advocating instead for the positions to be that of civil servants who would receive adequate remuneration for their services.

 

With rural mail delivery come the stories of dedicated men and women who held their respective positions for many years. Theirs is a legacy of hard work and determination, because roads were primitive compared to today’s standards. 

 

One such carrier was Charlie Scott, who delivered mail on RR2, Auburn beginning in July of 1940. For the first 15 years, he delivered the mail on the 25.5-mile route by horse and buggy in the summer and by horse and cutter in the winter months. The hardy souls who braved the winter elements to deliver mail would bundle up in warm wraps, such as buffalo robes, and carry heated bricks to keep their feet warm. 

 

Mr. Scott was interested in the lives of his customers and kept a diary that chronicled deaths, marriages and births during his time on the route. In addition to the mail, sometimes Mr. Scott was called upon to deliver medicine for Dr. B.C. Weir. “A highlight of his trip, through the years behind a horse, was a daily lunch and hot drink brought out to him at the mailbox by Miss Josephine McAllister,” reported the Lucknow Sentinel in an August 1965 article. After using horse-drawn vehicles, Mr. Scott drove a Model A Ford until the spring of 1965 at which time he bought a 1937 Chevrolet. 

 

He continued on with his mail route for another seven years after the Sentinel interview, but in 1972, unfortunately, he was killed in a car crash at Blyth. With each post office having several mail routes, the list of rural mail carriers is a long one and some of them attained such a record as Charlie Scott. 

 

Through the years, the number of small rural post offices has dwindled as some have been amalgamated with larger ones. Canada Post ended Saturday delivery in 1982 (except in Prince Edward Island) in an attempt to decrease the deficit incurred by the corporation. Yet still, the rural postal delivery continues with carriers who are members of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers. They make their rounds and let us see, when the little flag on the mailbox is up, that “we have mail”.