So, parents had to get a little creative to save a quick buck.
asserted
parents → have → buck
But one child's parents took penny-pinching a bit too far.
asserted
parents → take → pinching
In January 1913, Jesse and Mathilda Beagle of Ohio found an unusual way to send their eight-month-old son, James, to his grandmother's house.
asserted
Beagle → find → house
Instead of buying a train ticket, the couple took advantage of the newly introduced US Postal Service's Parcel Post system.
asserted
couple → buy → system
They paid 15 cents in postage, insured their son for $50 and handed him over to the mail carrier for delivery.
asserted
They → pay → delivery
The grandmother lived only a few miles away in Batavia, making it a relatively short journey for the infant.
asserted
it → live → infant
James weighed just under 11 pounds, narrowly meeting the weight limit for parcels accepted by the postal service.
asserted
James → weigh → service
What sounds like quite a turbulent trip now, was a rather unusual interpretation of the postal service's new rules back then.
asserted
sounds → sound → rules
How children became parcels
When the US Postal Service introduced its Parcel Post service on January 1, 1913, Americans could suddenly send packages weighing more than four pounds through the mail.
uncertain
Americans → become → mail
This was a game changer for those rural communities, which had limited access to shops and private delivery services.
asserted
which → have → shops
However, the regulations surrounding what could and could not be posted were not particularly clear in the early days.
uncertain
what → surround → days
People began testing the limits of the new service, sending everything from eggs and bricks to snakes and other unusual items.
asserted
People → begin → snakes
With no explicit regulation prohibiting the mailing of human beings, some parents saw an opportunity to send their children to relatives at a fraction of the cost of a passenger train ticket.
asserted
parents → prohibit → ticket
Between 1913 and 1915, historians at the
Smithsonian's National Postal Museum identified approximately seven instances of children being sent through the US postal system.
asserted
children → identify → system
While the practice was hardly widespread, it occasionally made newspaper headlines, particularly when children travelled considerable distances.
asserted
children → make → distances
The journeys were not always as alarming as they sound.
asserted
they → sound → ?
In rural America, postal workers were often familiar faces in their communities, known to the families along their delivery routes.
asserted
workers → know → routes
Some parents entrusted their children to carriers they knew personally, rather than handing them over to complete strangers.
asserted
they → entrust → strangers
The children were also not necessarily stuffed into mailbags alongside parcels.
asserted
children → stuff → parcels
They were sometimes accompanied by postal employees, particularly when travelling by railway mail.
asserted
They → accompany → mail
The little girl who travelled 73 miles
One of the most well-known instances involved six-year-old May Pierstorff from Grangeville, Idaho.
uncertain
One → travel → Grangeville
On February 19, 1914, her parents arranged for her to travel approximately 73 miles by railway mail to visit her grandparents.
asserted
her → arrange → grandparents
Her parents paid 53 cents in postage, attaching the stamps to her coat before handing her over to the postal service.
asserted
parents → pay → service
Fortunately, May was accompanied by a relative who worked as a clerk for the Railway Mail Service, making the journey considerably safer than it might otherwise have been.
uncertain
it → accompany → Service
Her story eventually became so well known that it inspired the children's book
Mailing May.
uncertain
it → become → May
The incident, however, caught the attention of Postmaster General Albert S. Burleson.
asserted
incident → catch → Burleson
, May's journey prompted him to formally prohibit postal workers from accepting human beings as mail.
uncertain
journey → prompt → mail
The new restriction did not immediately put an end to the practice.
asserted
restriction → put → practice
In 1915, a woman in Florida managed to send her six-year-old daughter approximately 720 miles to her grandfather's home in Virginia.
asserted
woman → manage → Virginia
The journey became the longest known instance of a child being transported through the US postal system, with postage costing just 15 cents.
asserted
child → become → cents
The last recorded postal delivery of a child
Eventually (and thankfully), sending babies by post was put to a halt.
asserted
delivery → record → halt
In August 1915, three-year-old Maud Smith made what appears to be the last successful journey of a child through the US postal service.
asserted
what → make → service
Her grandparents arranged for her to travel approximately 40 miles across Kentucky to visit her sick mother.
asserted
her → arrange → mother
The incident attracted newspaper attention and prompted an investigation by John Clark, superintendent of the Cincinnati division of the Railway Mail Service.
asserted
incident → attract → Service
He questioned how the postmaster in Caney, Kentucky, had permitted a child to board a mail train despite the recently introduced restrictions.
asserted
postmaster → question → restrictions
Although the exact consequences for the local postmaster remain unclear, the incident brought further attention to the need for stricter enforcement of postal regulations.
uncertain
incident → remain → regulations
Even years later, some parents continued to enquire about sending their children through the mail.
asserted
parents → continue → mail
In June 1920, First Assistant Postmaster General John C. Koons rejected two such applications, clarifying that children could not be classified as harmless live animals eligible for postal transportation.
uncertain
children → reject → transportation
When the postman was more than a delivery person
While the idea of sending children through the mail might seem like a rather alarming example of parental penny-pinching, it also reveals something about rural American communities in the early 20th century.
uncertain
it → send → century
Postal workers were often among the few people who visited remote households regularly.
asserted
who → visit → households
…and 6 more, not listed.
The Aporia
