First Postal Stop

First Postal Stop. . , Routes Established , The U.S. Congress established post roads in the late 1700s, which were the routes that carried mail throughout the country and into the distant territories. Having a postal stop in one's town was very desirable, bringing people from surrounding communities.

Postal Route 407 , Mail went regularly back and forth from the territorial capital of St. Louis to Washington, D.C. Davidsonville became the first postal stop in Arkansas, on Postal Route 407, on which mail traveled from St. Louis to Davidsonville, and on to Arkansas Post.

First Postmaster , Davidsonville's first postmaster was Adam Ritchey, who was appointed in 1817. Rather than having a separate post office, as we do today, the mail was delivered to Ritchey at his home or business. People came to Ritchey's location to pick up their mail, and the postage was paid at that time.

The mail ran about once a month. Riders carried the mail in portmanteaus (leather cases) or saddlebags. Riders were hired on contract and sometimes faced difficulties - such as floods or bad roads - in getting mail delivered.

"I traveled through part of the frontier districts of the United States in a sort of open cart called the mail coach. We went at a great pace day and night along roads that had only just been cleared through immense forests of green trees; when the darkness became inpenetrable, our driver set fire to branches of larch, by whose light we continued our way. From time to time we came to a hut in the forest; that was the post office. The courier dropped an enormous bundle of letters at the door of this isolated dwelling, and we went galloping on again, leaving each inhabitant of the neighborhood to come and fetch his share of that treasure.” , Alexis de Tocqueville, , Democracy in America, 1831-1832

[Photo captions]: , Mail was delivered in a leather bag to the house of the postmaster. (Photo by: Joan L. Gould, Hart's Square, Hickory, North Carolina.) , The postmaster sorted letters into the desk's mail slots for pick up by county residents. (Photo by: Joan L. Gould, Hart's Square, Hickory, North Carolina.) , Alexis de Tocqueville was a French political thinker and historian who visited America in the early 1800s.