Christopher Warren shares one of the strangest chapters in U.S. Postal Service history: the time when Americans actually sent children through the mail. In the early 1900s, families, especially in rural areas, took advantage of parcel post rules to ship their kids across towns, counties, and even state lines. And it didn’t stop there. In one case, an entire bank was sent through the postal system. This bizarre and often hilarious look at early 20th-century mail shows just how far people would go to work around the system and how the Postal Service had to adapt.
Lee Habeeb:
And we return to Our American Stories, and up next, another story from our Rule of Law series. Christopher Warren of the Smithsonian National Postal Museum is here to share how some bizarre rules came to be—like why you can’t send your child through the mail. Here’s Christopher.
Christopher Warren:
Our postal history is very diverse in this country. It really touches on every aspect of American history. There’s not an event or person in American history that hasn’t been affected by mail delivery over the years.
During the 19th century, deliveries of packages were not part of the Postal Department’s purpose. They would only deliver things that were four pounds or less, so there was no real package delivery from the United States government. If you wanted to mail packages, you had to use private carriers—companies whose rates were constantly in flux. There was no regulation on how much sending a package from one location to another would cost, and it was relatively expensive. As a result, it was mainly used by businesses.
Other nations, especially in Western Europe, had already instituted government-funded package delivery. The United States was late to the game in this regard, but by the 1880s and 1890s, it was becoming a big topic of conversation. Many people wanted postal delivery upgraded to handle more than four pounds.
It was controversial in Congress because many senators and representatives were big investors in these private carrier companies. They didn’t want competition from the government, which would regulate rates—just as it had for regular mail delivery. So, it became a contentious battle throughout the 1890s.
Farmers and rural residents, used to getting their mail delivered, began advocating for a cheaper, regulated way to send larger packages. Eventually, the private carriers lost their advocates in Congress, and in 1913, parcel post delivery was launched by the Postal Service. Originally, you could send up to 11 pounds.
This was hugely successful—over 300 million parcels were delivered in the first six months alone. Because it was so successful, the Postal Department increased the weight limit from 11 pounds to 20 pounds, and eventually to 50 pounds.
With this new delivery system, the regulations weren’t fully spelled out. The Postal Department hadn’t anticipated the types of things people would want to send through the mail. You name it, people tried to mail it—including their children.
This wasn’t a widespread problem, but it did occur in a few specific instances. Probably the most well-known case happened on February 19, 1914. A little girl named May Pierstorff, almost six years old, was mailed from her parents’ home in Grangeville, Idaho, to her grandparents’ house 73 miles away—for just 53 cents in stamps, pinned to her coat. Her parents didn’t want to pay for the more expensive train ticket, so they used the postal service.
The first recorded instance of a child being mailed was an unnamed boy from Batavia, Ohio. Rural Free Delivery carrier Vernon Lytle personally delivered him to his grandparents about a mile away. It cost the parents 15 cents, and they even insured their “package” for $50.
Probably the longest trip taken by a mailed child was by six-year-old Edna Neff, who traveled from Pensacola, Florida, to her father’s home in Christiansburg, Virginia—over 700 miles by railway mail—for 15 cents in parcel post stamps, much cheaper than a train ticket.
All of these children weighed under the 50-pound limit. The first girl mentioned weighed 47½ pounds. Most of these cases happened in rural areas where everyone knew the mail carrier personally.
By 1914, the Postmaster General had begun receiving letters from local postmasters asking what to do in such cases. They found nothing in the regulations prohibiting mailing children—so the rule was quickly changed to explicitly forbid sending any human being through the mail. Even so, a few more cases happened in 1915, likely because postmasters in remote areas ignored the rules. The last known case was in September 1915, when three-year-old Maud Smith traveled from her grandparents’ home to her mother’s home in Jackson, Kentucky. It was reported in a local newspaper, and postal authorities investigated. After that, the practice appears to have stopped.
Many of the photographs of children in mailbags or with stamps on them were staged for fun or publicity. In reality, the total number of mailed children we know of is maybe 10, and in almost every case the parents knew and trusted the rural mail carrier personally.
People sent all kinds of unusual things through the mail. One New York man mailed a roast beef to his wife; it arrived in time for dinner. In Vernal, Utah, an entire bank building was mailed brick by brick from Salt Lake City—over 40 tons of bricks, sent in 50-pound packages—because it was four times cheaper than rail and horse transport. The Postmaster General eventually capped the maximum a person could send in one day at 200 pounds.
Farmers mailed eggs, butter, and even live bees in specially designed boxes. Many of these items are still sent through the mail today, but at the time, this was all brand new—and people took full advantage of the service.
Lee Habeeb:
And a special thanks to Madison for producing the piece, and to Christopher Warren of the Smithsonian National Postal Museum. When you’re in D.C., pay them a visit. The Smithsonian museums are scattered all over the city, from the Postal Museum to the Air and Space Museum.
Another Rule of Law story—this one not as serious as civil asset forfeiture, eminent domain, or cases about property and intellectual property rights. But I think we can all agree, it’s probably a good idea that it’s illegal to mail our children.
The story of America’s Post Office—some fun ones, some odd ones—here on Our American Stories.