New Vermont Doane Discovered

Above is the discovery copy of a Doane cancel from North Randolph.

A type of handcancel distributed by the United State Post Office Department to smaller post offices from 1903 to 1906 in an attempt to standardize cancellations, Doane cancels come with 3 types having numbers in the cancellation bars that give a clue to the amount of business that the post office had done in the year before the handcancel was issued to that post office.  A “1” meant that the office had revenues up to $100.  In the example above the “2’ means that the office had done between $100 and $200 worth of business in 1904.

This type of cancel was initially cataloged by Edith Doane in the 1950s, thus the reason for the “Doane” identification. The discovery copy of the North Randolph Doane was used just 18 days before the office was discontinued on June 30, 1905.

The cancel is a Type 2 which was distributed between September 1903 and June 1905.

North Randolph joins East Albany (1906) and Holland (1905) with only 1 example known.

Reading the letter inside the envelope I found an interesting comment  “Mother is feeling some what better although she isn’t very strong. The P.O. is to be discontinued the 30th of June. I am so gladfor their sakes.”  (her mother and father’s sake???)

I did some basic research on the Internet which leads me to believe that the writer “Carrie” may have been the adult daughter of  George W. Blodgett, who was Postmaster from February 15, 1876 to June 30, 1905.

There are now true Doanes known from 144 different Post Offices with two Doane mimics known from Wheelock.  Basin Harbor and Harvey each used 2 different type of Doanes.

If you are interested in learning more about Doane the best place to begin is on-line at http://www.doanecancel.com. Bill Lizotte is the Vermont coordinator for Doane cancels.

Railroad Ticket stampers

When I was at the Northeast Postal History and Ephemera Show in Albany, NY on July 30, 2016, I was able to add a couple of new railroad ticket stampers to my Vermont ovals collection.

As I walked by Doug Weisz's table he greeted me and asked me if I would be interested in looking at some new Vermont Railroad Post Office material that he had acquired earlier in the day.  He had purchased a major collection that was sorted by state.  

One of the areas that I find interesting is the oval ticket stampers used as postmarks since in many case the local railroad agent and the postmaster were the same person.

Both of the covers were from Gassett,  Vermont a post office in Windham County

 The above cover was the basic of the listing below.   The R&BRR abbreviation is for the Rutland and Burlington Rail Road.

The numbers under the illustrations are Towle catalog numbers.

Some More 1960s Post Office Pictures

This installment of my blog is hastily done so that I can make my personal goal of having a new blog post at least once every week.  Here are some black and white photographs of post office in the 1960s.

I've also illustrated a cancellation from the post office.

Hancock (Addison County)

The woman is probably Hazel R. Cole who was postmaster from 1943 to 1968.

West Rupert (Bennington County)

 

Montgomery (Franklin County)

The woman is probably Gertrude Marston who was postmaster from 1942 to 1972.  I wonder if she lived in the attached trailer since the walkway leads from the post office to the trailer.

Montgomery Center (Franklin County)

The man is probably John Kennett who was postmaster from 1948 to 1972.

Check out my other postal history blogs:

New York State Postal History (pre-1900)

New York State Postal History (20th & 21st Centuries)

New 210s (2c Red Brown of 1883)

I want to thank Elwyn and Annie Doubleday of Doubleday Postal History for being the conduit through which I added about 40 new post offices to my already extensive Scott #210 collection.

There are certain stamps that collectors have zeroed in on to collect as a speciality.  In the USA, such stamps are the 3c imperf 1851, the 3c 1869 Locomotive and the 2c 1883, all stamps that were issued to meet a first class rate and therefore were probably available from almost every contemporary post office.  At the current time, I have about 250 different post office examples in my collection out of the 400+ post offices that were in operation in Vermont during the 1880s.

Here are a few highlights of what I was able to add to my collection.  All are on full envelopes even though some of the scans show smaller versions.

An interesting killer from Chester.

Clarendon is misspelled Clarend"E"n

on this letter to New South Wales

A double oval from Gassetts

A nice shield cancel from Hinesburgh

An example from Pearl #1

Royalton "Star of David"

A duplex cancel with an oval and a scarab killer

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Don't forget to check out my other blogs:

New York State Postal History (pre-1900)

New York State Postal History (20th & 21st Centuries)

My other hobby:  photography

GREEN UVM Postal Card FDOI cancel

In 1991, Vermont had two First Day of Issue Ceremonies.  It was the 200th Anniversary of Statehood so the USPS issued a postage stamp in March to honor that occasion. 

The University of Vermont was founded in 1791 and later in the 1991, a commemorative postal card was issued in Burlington showing The Old Mill one of the oldest building on the campus.

But, the above postal card has the FDOI hand cancel in green not in black.  I don't remember where I acquired this card, but it was probably at a stamp club meeting in Burlington many years ago. I think that somebody from the stamp club was at the first day ceremony and arranged to have the cancel done in green ink.  Perhaps someone at the FD location had a green ink pad and was adding a rubber-stamped cachet to their postal cards and used the opportunity to add the FDOI in green also.

Any one have any other ideas?

As I was preparing for this blog I found the postal card below. Obviously, it was created by a zealous cancel collector or a U/O collector.  The cancels are from Burlington, South Burlington Station, North Burlington Station, and Reading, a post office about 110 miles southeast of Burlington.

Pictorial Cancels: 1st Half of 2015

The first half of 2015 was rather slow for pictorial cancels.  There were none used until May which had two cancels and then only three in June. Four of the five were part of ongoing series from previous years.\

2015 version of the Bethel History Fair. This series began in 2011 in South Royalton.

The Floating Bridge in Brookfield has recently been renovated.

The Chittenden County Stamp Club has commemorated the Civil War for the last five years.  This cancel is the last one in the series of five.

The Washington County Stamp Club has honored the Vermont Mountaineers baseball team with cancels since 2006.  Thus this is the 10 entry into the series.

Teenie's Fishing Derby is an annual event in Chittenden, Vermont in the central Green Mountains.  This is the 10th entry into the series which also began in 2006.

If you're interested in more information about Vermont Pictorial cancels, visit my website containing example for the last 30+ year: Vermont Pictorial Cancels

Sherburne Center (Late Killington)

I recently purchased this unusual straight-line emergency cancel for Sherburne Center (Rutland County),  Vermont

The late Leon White explained the handstamp in the February 1993 issue of The Vermont Philatelist.

"On July 28, 1926 the Post Office of Sherburne. Vt. was changed to Killington as it was easily confused by the mail service with Shelburne, Vt. But many of the patrons of the former named office were not too excited about having their mail delivered to an office named after the nearby mountain. They contacted their representatives and senators to have the name changed back to Sherburne, so on
December 1, 1926, after a little more than five months, the office name became Sherburne Center, Vt.

"This caused an emergency at the Post Office, as a new cancel was not at hand so they used, for a short time, an unusual cancel in straight line reading 'SHERBURNE CENTER VT / (Late Killington)'.

"I (Leon White) have two covers from the new office canceled Dec. 2, 1926…..

"Many years later the ski industry became the thing. The office of Sherburne
Center again became Killington, Vt. on Dec. 1, 1961."

As you can see my example is dated Jan 5 which must be Jan. 5, 1927.  So at least 3 examples the emergency cancel exist.

I am assuming the date is in 1927, but there is a 1928 Christmas seal on the back, so perhaps the cancel was used for a longer period of time.

East Putney, Vermont

Here's a cover with a cancellation that seems to have it all.  It's a County cancel, plus an oval and a star killer.   Only the second county cancel recorded from this post office.

See the information:  http://www.vermontps.org/CountyPostmaster/VTCountyPostmaster.html

The star killer shows better in this scan from the retroreveal website:

Office Request Envelopes: RFD Usages

Office Request Envelopes:

RFD usages

(this originally appeared in the August 2014 The Vermont Philatelist)

I know of no one other than myself who collects this area.  These are envelopes with a pre-printed return address that only included blank lines and the post office name.  Of course, individuals or companies could have their full names and return addresses printed on government envelopes for a fee in addition to the postal cost.

However, if a postmaster ordered at least 500 such envelopes at one time  with  the Office Request in the upper left, the cost to the postmaster was only the cost of the imprinted stamp.  This service was available from the 1880s through the 1930s.  

In the 1922 Postal Guide the advantages were enumerated:  “The use of ‘office-request’ stamped envelopes by patrons of the Postal Service should be encouraged by postmasters. The presence of the blank return card is of much mutual benefit to the public and the Postal Service; when purchasers of these envelopes complete the cards by writing their names and local addresses on the blank lines, it provides prompt return of undelivered letters to the senders, lessens the work of the Division of Dead Letters, and tends to encourage the use of return cards on other mail.”

Listing of items in my collection:

Bristol:  “R.F.D. Route No.....” (1904) Bridport:  “Rural Free Delivery Route No.....” (1903) Hinesburg:  “R.F.D. Route No. 1” (1904) Jericho: “Rural Free Delivery Route No. 2” (1903) Richmond:  “Rural Free Delivery Route No. 1: (1901) West Salisbury:  “Rural Free Delivery Route No. ....” (1904)

Burlington Station No. 4

As the largest population center in Vermont, it’s to be expected that Burlington would have more than one post office to serve its population.  According to Vermont Postal History: The Branches, Stations & CPO of the Green Mountain State (Abajian, Granger, 2000), Burlington has had 32 subsidiary offices since the late 1890s.  

In their 2000 listing, Abajian and Granger noted that six of the offices had no known postal cancels:  Station No. 1 (Elmwood Ave.)(1897-1939), Station No. 2 (1899-1920s), Station No. 2 (Andersons) (1951-1960), Station No. 3 (1916-1927), Station No. 4 (1901-1927), and Station No. 5 (1902-1918).

We can now show a postal marking from Station No. 4, which was located at 1 Church Street.  

Stations such as this probably had no postmarking devices but rather generic Burlington postmarks. However, they did need red concentric cancels for use on official documents, registered mail and other such uses.

The Taxman Cometh

                                              

It seems that taxes are a periennel condition of life as evidenced by this tax notice from 1866.  “all income for the year 1865; also, a list of taxable Carriages, Gold Watches, Piano Fortes, or other Parlor Musical Instruments, Gold and Silver Plate, Billiard Tables--kept for use--Yachets &c., &c.” 

                  

The tax notice was included in this cover from West Charleston to Brownington in May 1866. The two-cent Black Jack was canceled by an inverted “PAID” killer, probably left over from stampless period

Previous owner noted that there is a double transfer and that also a possible triple transfer at the lower right.

 

The previous owner also included this note:  “On July 1, 1862 Congress enacted the first income tax to meet Civil War requirements.  The rate, at first three per cent, was later raised, made progressive for a time and then returned to a propotional ten per cent figure with a 25% late fine in 1865!

(This originally appeared in the August 2013 The Vermont Philatelist, published by the Vermont Philatelic Society.)

Crossroads Stamp Show Purchases

The Crossroads Stamp Show held the 1st Saturday of April and October is usually a great place to find postal history.  Here are two items that I purchased from Vermont postal history dealer, Paul Abajian.

According to an article in The Vermont Philatelist, there are about 4 examples of this wonderful oval known.  The name of the town is in italic letters which is quite unusual.  South Strafford is still post office in Orange County.  Another nice item for my oval collection.

I have a small collection of postmarks showing the VERMONT completely spelled out. And the killer is a nice little fancy cancel also. This example from North Tunbridge, another post office in Orange County, is unusually fancy for such a small town. North Tunbridge existed as a post office from 1853 to 1911.

February 2014 Vermont Philatelist

Here's the Table of Contents for the February 2014 issue of The Vermont Philatelist

Vermont in the War of 1812   1

Cover of the Issue (Newfane RFD?)   3

Vermont Connection: Sir Wilfred Grenfell by George McGowan   4

Post Horn, The by Bill Lizotte   7

West Enosburgh: A Postal History by Bill Lizotte 12

Index to Volumn 58 17

2013 Pictorial Postmarks — 4th Quarter 21

Other Vermont Collecting Interests: PAID 3 in arc (1850s) by Glenn Estus 22

VPS Auction #113 24

Prices Realized VPS Auction #112 26

Post Offices from the Past: Center Rutland 26

UpDates and New Dates: North Montpelier Rural Station 27

Northeast Postal History and Ephemera Show 28

Crossroads Postcard and Stamp Show 28