Mail came to the northwest country long before there were post offices. Letters traveled back from many who ventured to this land when it was known as a wilderness. Yet there were no official mail carriers. Travellers over the westward trails were entrusted at the start of their journey with missives addressed to loved ones who had preceded them on the pioneer venture -- to fathers, brothers, sons and even to daughters who, as wives of those who had earlier plodded the crude trails into the West. Letters were tucked into the leather packets of trappers as they departed for another season of following their traps. Some such letters were written in the conduct of the fur business, others were strictly personal and were delivered whenever and wherever the unofficial mail carrier met the addressee. Military mail also followed the early trails, bearing orders from Washington to remote posts or Indian Agents. Military scouts often carried letters of an official nature, but private as well. (see MONTICELLO and OLYMPIA). Missionairies to the Indians reported to eastern headquarters, and headquarters sent letters back to those who had gone out to carry the word of God to the tribes of the Northwest. Letters accompanied those who covered the long distances afoot, by horseback, by conastoga wagons, by canoes.

Throughout all the tales of the Western movement are references to letters exchanged with those who came west and those who remained behind. In 1843 a letter arrived at Tshimakain^[1] from Marcus Whitman. An Indian acted as postmaster taking a letter to Tshimakain telling of the terrible Whitman massacre^[2]. Missionary Spalding^[3] wrote letters from Walla Walla. Spokane Gary,^[4] son of a Spokane chief, educated at a Protestant seminary in Winnepeg, and himself a missionary to his people, carried mail one winter for Captain Mullan, an engineer on Isaac Stevens' staff, who built the Mullan Road.^[5] There were letters between Chief Gary and Stevens.^[6] These brief historical references to unofficial mail carriers are but a few from thousands of incidents of letters passing from hand to hand within the territory before official carriers or post offices were known.

The earliest letters bore no stamps, were struck with no postmarks, nor were they entrusted to any official mail service, yet arrived eventually at destination unless fate in the form of a band of savages, starvation, flood, fire or storm interfered. Later, as the trails became more defined and freighting became a business, the freight or express companies took letters to and from the northwest. Usually such letters bore on their covers the name of the express company which carried them. These covers, as they have come to light from time to time, even to now, are collectors' items bringing lively bidding between those who seek to add them to their historical collections. Usually these "express covers" bear a written or stamped figure indcating the amount paid or due for transporting. Some bore the name of the point from which they were dispatched.

Post offices have been much the same the nation over. Many that are now large ones were once quite small and once thriving ones are long  since extinct. Changes that have come with the years have been the result of increase or decrease in population, of changes in modes of transportation, of the rerouting of roads, or of scores of other factors. The first Washington post offices were on the shores of some body of water, as the first mode of transportation was by the rivers, the ocean or the Puget Sound. As overland routes were formed to connect settlements on different bodies of water, inland post offices sprang up at intermediate points, usually at meal stops, places where changes of horses were made or at overnight hostelries as exemplified by the route between Monticello and Olympia. In eastern Washington where settlement came over a decade later than in the western counties, the first post offices were to serve land seekers, and were not located specifically on water courses for the travel routes were overland. The greatest increase in the numbers of post offices established came as the network of railroads, spread out over the State from the 1870s to the 1900s.

At this point an item that appeared in the SEATTLE TRIBUNE^[7] of July 1, 1878 is of general interest: "Washington Postal Service. During that period (year ending on this date) there was an increase of 5 post offices and 5 postmasters in Washington Territory which, on the first of last July, had 153 of them, 3 of these were Presidential offices, and 150 of the grade lower. In all, 59 changes were made in the Territory during the year: one postmaster dying, five being removed and 40 losing their appointments by resignation or limit of expiration. The length of the mail routes in Washington Territory during the year was 3,063; of which 105 was by railroad, 1816 by steamboat and 1142 by other means of conveyance, principally on horseback, and by stagecoach. The transportation by rail (between Tacoma and Kalama) cost the Government $5702; by steamboat $75900; and by other means $ 43699--total $125,301. The entire transportation by rail was over a distance of 65,894 miles and by steamboat, 120,981 miles, and by other means 258,040 --total $425,812. During the year the railroad route was shortened one mile; the steamboat routes were lengthened 59 miles and other routes 51 miles. The total increased transportation for the year was 45,497 miles and increased cost $11,637."

Changes in basic industries have had their effects on post offices, chief of which are those in the lumbering and mining innustries. Many offices were started at sawmills and waxed or waned with the fortunes or misfortunes of the mills. In spite of lessons learned in New England, the Lake States, and the deep South, the timber stands of Washington have suffered from the cut-out-and-get-out policy of the lumber industry, which is reversed only when the industry fancies itself compelled to turn to Tree Farms, reforestation, and other conservation measures. Hundreds of Washington post offices started at sawmills have gone the way of the vanished virgin timber. A few have survived as lumbering centers and others have come to serve a dairying or agricultural economy. Mining, an important basic industry in Washington has spawned numerous post offices, hundreds of which are now numbered among the discontinued, the one which first comes to mind being the gold-mining town of Monte Cristo where fabulous expenditures were made in attempts to wrest fortunes from the earth.

Two other events have had a telling effect upon the survival or discontinuance of Washington post offices. One of these, the increasing use of automobiles. However, the effect of both was to reduce rather than to increase the number of post offices, and of the two, the RFD had the most devasting effect on the ranks of post offices. Hundreds of offices were nothing more than the front room of a farmnouse to which mail came by horse rig through mud and snow in winter and dust in summer. Travel of only a few miles was a difficult and long undertaking, so every community had its own post office which was often combined with a residence or a place of business, general store, sawill, mine--and the postmaster had other duties of greater importance than those of his postmastership.

The arrival of the RFD brought mail to the farmers front gate, saving him an arduous trip to the post office. Some post offices benefitted by the acquistition of RFDs, but hundreds of offices were put out of business by the rural carrier. The automobile came into general use after RFD had its greatest impetus with horsedrawn vehicles, and had its greatest effect upon RFDs by reducing their numbers by combining them into consolidated routes due to the greater territory that could be covered by the motor vehicles. This tended, of course, to further reduce the number of rural post offices, but by the time that the motor car became the principal mode of travel within the State, the greatest reduction in the number of post offices had occurred. The following table will show these trends:

DECADES                                                                                                        NUMBER OF POST OFFICES
                                                                                        Established                                                                                 Discontinued

1850-59                                                                                 56                                                                                                    9
1860-69                                                                                 56                                                                                                  28
1870-79                                                                               196                                                                                                  58
1880-89                                                                               422                                                                                                143
1890-99                                                                               672                                                                                                330
1900-09                                                                               588                                                                                                399
1910-19                                                                               298                                                                                                343
1920-29                                                                                 81                                                                                                197
1930-39                                                                                 33                                                                                                157
1940-49                                                                                 15                                                                                                  94
1950-59                                                                                 12                                                                                                117

Total                                                                                   2429                                                                                              1875

In this work each post office has been accorded its own particular story as complete as it can be. Each is headed by the Post Office Department's record of date of establishmet, date of discontinuance or change of name, and all postmasters are shown with the date they started. Each story attempts to give the exact location of the post office geographically, and since some offices had more then one location an effort has been made to show all locations and dates of moves as accurately as possible. Also described is the manner by which each office was quartered--in a store, in a residence or how otherwise. In this respect there have been many changes all of which it has not been possible to determine. Moreover in connection with the description of housing or the post offices, the different local changes have been given wherever possible and the dates of local moves; for example the street addresses have been given in towns where streets are named, otherwise road intersections or other identifying descriptions of the sites are given. Consideration has been given to the methods by which each office received and dispatched mail to include such information as: from where mail came, by what route, by what conveyances, how often and methods of conveyance of mail between the depot, or dock, and the post office. The distribution of mail at and from the post office is covered as fully as possible wherein the subject of Rural Free Delivery (RFD) and Star Routes originating at the office is included. Star Routes are those which the Department let out on contract to private individuals or firms. It has been possible to include biographies of some postmasters, especially those who served for a long period of time. Admittedly there are repetitions -- especially in the descriptions of methods of receipt and dispatch of mail but from the viewpoint of the compiler such retelling is justified in order to present a complete story on each and every post office.

Every attempt has been made to keep the record on post offices up to date, and 1960 has been set as the year to conclude the compilation. Some unreported recent changes in postmasters will no doubt be found. Such omissions can be considered as unavoidable. However the records as given on the status of post offices and postmasters are as accurate as it is possible to obtain them. The compiler secured a microfilm from the National Archives of the Department's ledger on post offices and postmasters for Washington Territory and the State of Washington as kept in Washington, D.C which was complete to 1930.^[8] Subsequent changes have been given by the Department in later correspondence. Some corrections have been made in the official records by the compiler where it was found from later information that there were errors of entry.

In many instances the alterations consist of adding the maiden name and husband's name of a woman postmaster or giving the full name of a postmaster where only initials were shown. These additions tend to establish a line of succession which so frequently occur especially in small post offices operated in association with a business such as a general store. Furthermore the supplying of full names aid in preventing confusion due to similarity of names.

The compiler has had the generous assistance of current postmasters and postal employees, historians and old-timers. In a great many instances it has been necessary to rely upon the narratives of old-timers, especially in describing local moves of the post offices. Wherever possible the information has been verified but there are bound to be errors.

Considerable research was necessary to determine the location of many small and short-lived post offices as many did not get on maps and the Department's record on locations was not available. Some offices operated in no urban area but drifted about in rural communities often from farmhouse to farmhouse. The compiler sought county records of land deeds of postmasters as clues to locations and in a great many cases was able to verify conclusions made on such information by correspondence or interviews with people who were able to point out or describe the sites.

The method of arranging the stories on the different post offices presented a problem. The compiler did not think it suitable to present them in alphabetical order as this might present the less important post offices before those of greatest importance. Some closer relationship was desired, consequently some chronological arrangement was preferred. The method selected was on a basis of the date of establishment of the offices. The counties have first been divided into two groups: those west of the mountains and those in eastern Washington. Those of western Washington are presented first because the first post offices in Washington Territory were established west of the mountains. The first county to be reprorted is Clark and the second Thurston County, for the first post offices Vancouver and Nesqually, established on the same day, are in those counties. Other counties follow in order of the date of establishment of their first office. Following Skagit County, the last of the western counties to establish their first post office, the eastern counties are given starting with Walla Walla and Stevens. The other counties follow in the same manner as those west of the mountains.^[9]

 

Additional Context Suggestions provided by the Staff at the Washington State Library

1. "Protestant Missionaires Choose Tshimakain Plain as Site for a Mission to the Spokane Indians on September 25, 1838," by Jack and Claire Nisbet. Historylink Essay 20298.
2. "Cayuse Attack Mission, in What Becomes Known as the Whitman Massacre, on November 29, 1847," by Cassandra Tate. Historylink Essay 5192.
3. "Henry H. Spalding" essay courtesy of Wikipedia.
4. "Chief Spokane Garry (ca. 1811-1892)," by Jim Kershner. Historylink Essay 8713.
5. "The Mullan Road: A Real Northwest Passage." Historylink Essay 9202.
6. "Stevens, Isaac Ingalls (1818-1862)," by David Wilma. Historylink Essay 5314.
7. This citation is incorrect. The correct citation is Washington Standard, June 29, 1878 p. 4, column 3.
8.  "Post Office Records," from the website of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).
9. This description explains how the research is organized on the microfilm provided by Guy Ramsey to the State Library, not how the research is organized online.