READ BEFORE THE SOCIETY, JANUARY 6, 1865.
No very satisfactory account of the origin and progress ofthe Postal Service of the country, in its more immediateconnection with the local history of Buffalo, can now becompiled. The early records of the transportation service ofthe Post-Office Department, were originally meager andimperfect; and many of the books and papers of the Department,prior to 1837, were destroyed or lost when the publicedifices at Washington were burned in 1814, and also when thebuilding in which the Department was kept was destroyed by fire,in December, 1836. For these reasons the Hon. A. N. Zevely,Third Assistant Postmaster-General—who has kindly furnishedextracts from the records and papers of the Department—hasbeen able to afford but little information in respect to the earlytransportation of the mails in the western part of this State.Indeed, no information in respect to that service, prior to 1814,could be given; no route-books of older date than 1820 arenow in the Department, and those from 1820 to 1835 are notso arranged as to show the running time on the several routes.
The records of the Appointment Office, and those of theAuditor's Office of the Department, are more full and perfect;and from these, and from various other sources of information,[300]much that is deemed entirely reliable and not whollyuninteresting has been obtained.
Erastus Granger was the first Postmaster of Buffalo—or ratherof "Buffalo Creek," the original name of the office. He wasappointed on the first establishment of the office, September 30,1804. At that time the nearest post-offices were at Batavia onthe east, Erie on the west, and Niagara on the north. Mr.Granger was a second cousin of Hon. Gideon Granger, thefourth Postmaster-General of the United States, who held thatoffice from 1801 to 1814.
The successors of our first Postmaster, and the dates of theirrespective appointments, appear in the following statement:
| Julius Guiteau, | May 6, 1818. |
| Samuel Russel, | April 25, 1831. |
| Henry P. Russell, | July 26, 1834. |
| Orange H. Dibble, | August 28, 1834. |
| Philip Dorsheimer, | June 8, 1838. |
| Charles C. Haddock, | October 12, 1841. |
| Philip Dorsheimer, | April 1, 1845. |
| Henry K. Smith, | August 14, 1846. |
| Isaac R. Harrington, | May 17, 1849. |
| James O. Putnam, | September 1, 1851. |
| James G. Dickie, | May 4, 1853. |
| Israel T. Hatch, | November 11, 1859. |
| Almon M. Clapp, (the present incumbent[C]) | March 27, 1861. |
The Buffalo