When Children Traveled as US Mail

by Pa Rock

Student of History

The concept of "mail" went through a significant change in 1913 when the US Postal Service introduced parcel post service, a practice which allowed for the mailing of packages, some of which were unusual such as those involving the shipment of live animals.  Some animal shipments continue to this very day, with live baby chicks being a fairly common example.

During the earliest years of parcel post delivery an unusual practice developed where some people would ship their children to visit relatives by parcel post.   The children were measured, weighed, and had the correct postage affixed on a tag and then turned over to postal authorities for transportation and delivery.

Yesterday I received an advertisement from Newspapers.com, a subsidiary of Ancestry.com, that sells a  subscription service which allows researchers to peruse many collections of old newspapers on-line.  In that advertisement, Newspapers.com published several actual old newspaper accounts of children who were transported through the US Mail.  Here are three of the several that were included in the advertisement::

From the Minden (Ohio) Courier on January 30, 1913:

REAL BABY IN PARCELS POST.

Delivery Made by a Carrier at Batavia, Ohio

Batavia, O - A mail carrier on rural route No. 5, out of this place, is the first to accept and deliver under parcel post conditions a live baby.  The baby, a boy, weighing 10 and 3/4 pounds, just within the eleven-pound limit, is the child of Mr. and Mrs. Jesse Beagle, of near Glen.  The package was well wrapped and ready for "mailing" when the carrier got it.  Its measurement reached seventy-two inches, also just within the law, which makes seventy-two inches the limit.   The postage was 15 cents and the "parcel" was insured for $50.

From the Public Ledger:  March 30, 1915

GIRL SENT BY PARCEL POST.

Savannah, Ga.,  March 29 - Little 6-year-old Edna Neff, who weighs under the 50-pound limit, wearing a placard bearing her name and destination and 50 cents in parcel post stamps passed through the terminal station here on her way from Pensacola, Fla., to Christiansburg, Va.

From the Mountain Democrat and Placerville Times

GIRL SENT BY PARCEL POST

NEW LEXINGTON, Ohio, Dec. 1 - When the mail arrived here yesterday, Postoffice employees were surprised to find in it an eight-year-old girl bearing a tag which had been placed on her by New York immigration officers, reading:  "This child, Julia Kohan, is going to her father, John Kohan, box 117, R.F.D. No. 4, "New Lexington, Ohio."  After a breakfast supplied by the Postmaster, the child was taken in care of a rural delivery carrier to the home of her father, who lives six miles south of here.   The trip of 7,000 miles from Bavaria was made by her alone.

The practice of sending children by mail ended around 1920.

Several other similar stories were included in the advertisement.  They certainly shine an interesting light on a very odd page in American history.  For those with an interest in family history or just history in general, Newspapers.com offers a unique and worthwhile service.  I have been a subscriber to the service in the past and have unearthed several very interesting family stories in their digital archives.   It is a valuable research tool.