Mayberry RFD

Farmers made regular trips into town to the town's post office to receive their mail.  Postal delivery did not apply to anything outside the city limits.  The town's post office was most often in the town's general store, so the weekly trips were for more than the mail. 

It is interesting to note that since colonial times, the town's postmaster was called the "Publick Printer" who printed the legal documents and statues for the town.  He also controlled what went into the area's newspapers.in these sparsely populated towns. 

Farmers gathered in the general store, not just to get mail, but to talk politics, business, farm prices and gossip.  Some general stores had back rooms where billiards were set up, cards were played, and men gathered around the fireplace to meet and greet.  It was the social hub of the farmers and brought good money to the general store merchant as well.

Then the rumors started that there should be postal delivery to the rural areas.  Most people thought the idea ridiculous - "to hire federal employees to travel around the countryside to deliver an occasional letter that most farmers didn't even want to read was not cost effective!"  Besides, they liked the time spent with other farmers in town.  The Farm Journal quoted, "folks don't want the country roads overrun with half-paid federal officials delivering a two cent letter at the cost of 10 cents."

When John Wanamaker of Philadelphia, became Postmaster General in 1889, the idea began take on followers.  The movement for Rural Free Delivery (RFD) was endorsed by the Farm Grange nationwide and even Congressmen competed to become the "Father of RFD".   That honor goes to Tom Watson of rural Georgia who was known as the "agrarian avenger."  He introduced the first bill to pass Congress for RFD in 1893.

It was not an immediate success - RFD struggled.  A common saying at the time was "In God we trusted - in Kansas we busted."  People were not even sure how RFD could fundamentally help the farmer, or how it could pay for itself.

Next time...The struggling RFD
______________________________
Today in Pioneer History:  "On July 29, 1958, Congress passes legislation establishing the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), a civilian agency responsible for coordinating American's activities in space.