Town Postal History Articles

There is only one town in the world named Primghar— and that is for a very good reason. Primghar is the county seat of O’Brien County, Iowa. It is very nearly in the dead center of the county in the northwestern part of the state.

Churchill is close to the geographic center of what was once British North America. Located on the salt water of Hudson Bay and at the mouth of the Churchill River as a route into the interior, Churchill is strategically located.

Dover-Foxcroft, in the 1940 census, had all of 4,015 people, which raises the question of why such a small town had a contract station. To answer that, we must examine earlier events.

The story of the West Point, New York, Post Office at the United States Military Academy is one that embodies not only great elements of philatelic and postal history, but military and political history as well.
Founded in 1802, West Point is our nation’s oldest military academy. The military fortifications at West Point were originally established during the American Revolution as a defensive position overlooking a strategic bend in the Hudson River, about fifty miles north of New York City. Today, West Point remains the longest continually occupied U.S. Army garrison in America (since 1778).

In June 1861, Kit Carson, Indian agent for the Ute and Jicarilla Apache in Taos, resigned and left to join the Union Army. Officials with the Department of the Interior decided to establish a new Indian Agency for these natives on the Maxwell Land Grant in present day Cimarron, Colfax County, New Mexico.

Sapelo Island is one of the seventeen Georgia barrier islands extending approximately 110 miles along the Atlantic coast of Georgia. This article, which explores the postal history of Sapelo Island, is included in a larger study by Swain that will encompass the postal history of all seventeen Georgia barrier islands.

The village of Hooterville, along with its post office, attained national celebrity, primarily through a trio of television shows that aired during the 1960s and 1970s — Green Acres, Petticoat Junction, and The Beverly Hillbillies. For many viewers, Hooterville was the embodiment of small-town, rural America. The Hooterville Post Office and general store represent a way of receiving mail that, for most Americans, has all but vanished. As such, the Hooterville Post Office warrants a closer look.

Duck Key, in Monroe County, Florida, is located oceanside of U.S. 1 (the Overseas Highway) at mile marker 61 in the center of the Florida Keys. It lies about 90 miles south of Miami and nine miles north of Marathon (Figure 1). The .9 square mile island has a long history. Its name was given around 1722 and land ownership dates back to an 1814 Spanish land grant.

Compared to its neighbors to the north and south, Georgia has a short coastline, measuring just 100 miles from Savannah to St. Marys. The islands off the Georgia coast are called barrier islands because they form a barrier, or wall, blocking ocean waves and wind from directly hitting the mainland.

Warsaw, located in Duplin County, North Carolina, is perhaps one of the most patriotic towns in the nation. Not every town in the United States is adjacent to some of the world’s largest military institutions.

Paw Paw, Michigan (first called Lafayette) is located in Van Buren County, which was founded in 1829 and organized in 1837. It was named for Martin Van Buren before he became president.

Sandy Spring, in Montgomery County, Maryland is a distinct community that was settled in the 1720s by members of the Religious Society of Friends, or Quakers. These Quakers made their way from Pennsylvania and settled in this area, which was later named Sandy Spring.