Younger folks and city slickers
sometimes act puzzled when they hear
the name “RFD-TV.” They don’t know
what the letters stand for.
They don’t know their history, that’s all. But rural folks
do. RFD – Rural Free Delivery – by the U.S. Postal
Service is one of the most important developments in
American rural history. It’s even commemorated by a
special stamp, issued in 1996 upon the centennial of
RFD postal service and presented at the convention of
the National Rural Letter Carriers’ Association in
Charleston, W.Va.
According to the Postal Service, the image on the
stamp is based on a photograph of an early rural carrier
alongside his horse-drawn mail wagon.
There were no telephones in those days, of course.
No radios, no TVs. People stayed in touch by mail,
and that was about it. For rural people, it was a
problem. They had to go to the post office to get
their mail. Many people lived so many miles from
town, they collected their mail only once every
several weeks.
As communications in cities and towns improved, with
daily free mail delivery, the rural predicament became
intolerable. By the end of the 1800s, Rural Free
Delivery was launched. It began with a $10,000 grant
by the U.S. Congress in 1890 as a test for the free
delivery system in 46 small towns and villages.
The move was controversial because of the expense
involved. But a flood of letters to Congress
throughout the
1890s gradually increased the pressure. By Oct. 1,
1896, Postmaster General William L. Wilson of West
Virginia chose his hometown of Charles Town, W.Va.,
and two nearby villages, Halltown and Uvilla, as the
first sites where rural free delivery would be officially
tried.
In his October 1897, annual report,
Postmaster General James A. Gary
said, “It would be difficult to point to
any like expenditure of public money
which has been more generously
appreciated by the people, or which
has conferred greater benefits in
proportion to the amount expended.”
Gary wrote that rural carriers were paid a maximum of
$300 a year and furnished their own means of
conveyance, many riding 20 or 30 miles a day in all
kinds of weather, over every description of road, and
often across farms where there were no roads at all. By
1898, rural routes devised in Carroll County, Md.,
became the model for the nation.
A century later, rural carriers deliver the mail daily on
54,442 rural routes over 2.7 million miles to 24.7
million delivery points.
Historians say Rural Free Delivery not only improved
communications for rural residents, but was a shot in
the arm for the U.S. economy, stimulating road and
bridge development, and all kinds of economic growth.
Postal officials laud RFD as an important symbol of
unity for the nation, saying that universal mail service
at uniform cost was a turning point in American
history and culture.
