The Postal Service of the United States in Connection with the Local History of Buffalo | Page 6

the mail, which, in 1800, had become so heavy as to require a wagon to transport it that the first four-horse mail-coach was sent through in 1803; and that in 1804 Jason Parker ran a four-horse mail-coach twice a week from Utica to Canandaigua. From an advertisement at Canandaigua, copied by Turner, it appears that a mail-coach was that year run twice a week between Albany and Canandaigua.
It is stated in Turner's "History of Phelps and Gorham's Purchase" (p. 174), that Luther Cole was the first to carry the mail from Whitestown to Canandaigua--on horseback when the roads would allow, but often on foot. The same history states that the mail-route from Canandaigua to Niagara was established "about 1798" (1797) and that the mail was carried through by Jasper Marvin--who sometimes dispensed with mail-bags and carried the mail in his pocket-book--and that he was six days in going and returning. The route, it is stated, was the usual one from Canandaigua to Buffalo and then down the river on the Canada side, to Fort Niagara; but other, and it is believed more reliable authority states, that the mail at this time was carried through Cold Springs, in the present town of Lockport, and did not pass through Buffalo Creek.
The surveys upon the Holland Land Company's Purchase were commenced in the spring of 1798, and the first wagon track on the Purchase was opened that year. Before that time parties came through from Canandaigua on the old Indian Trail. In 1802, Mr. Ellicott, the Holland Land Company's agent, procured the establishment of a post-office at Batavia, and the appointment of James Brisbane as postmaster.[H]
In 1804 the Holland Land Company's survey of the inner lots of the present City of Buffalo was made, and on the 26th of March in that year Congress passed an Act in relation to post-routes which provides that the post-route from Canandaigua to Niagara shall pass by Buffalo Creek. From this it is clearly to be inferred that the mail to Niagara had been previously carried upon a different route, as above stated.
In the Buffalo Directory of 1828 is the following statement:
The first mail received here was in March, 1803, on horseback. It was conveyed from the East once in two weeks, in this manner, until 1805. A weekly route was then established and continued until 1809. In 1810 the mode of conveyance was changed and a stage-wagon was used.
This statement is substantially repeated in several subsequent directories and is probably nearly correct; although it will be recollected that the post-office at Buffalo was not established until September, 1804, and it appears by extracts from a Canandaigua paper that a "stage road to Niagara" was advertised, in 1808, to leave Canandaigua every Monday, at 6 o'clock a. m., and arrive at Niagara via Buffalo every Thursday at 3 a. m. These stages were run by John Metcalf, who, in April, 1807, had obtained from the Legislature of this State a law giving him the exclusive right, for some years, of running stages from Canandaigua to Buffalo, and imposing a fine of $500 on any other person running wagons on said route as a stage line. He was required to provide at least three wagons and three stage sleighs with sufficient coverings and a sufficient number of horses. The fare was not to exceed six cents a mile for a passenger and fourteen pounds of baggage; and for every one hundred and fifty pounds additional baggage he was to be entitled to charge six cents a mile or in that proportion. He was to start on regular days, and between the first day of July and first day of October he was to accomplish said route between Canandaigua and Buffalo at least once in a week, unavoidable accidents excepted.
In a report made to Congress by the Hon. Gideon Granger, Postmaster-General, on the 21st of February, 1810, it is stated that in March, 1799, it required to write from Portland to Savannah and receive an answer forty days, and that it then required but twenty-seven; that in 1799 it required between New York and Canandaigua twenty days, and then required but twelve; and that most if not all the other mails have been expedited proportionably according to their relative importance.
On the 18th of April, 1814, Congress established a post-route "from Sheldon, by Willink and Hamburg, to Buffalo," and it appears from the books of the Post-office Department that mail service, once in two weeks, leaving Sheldon every other Friday at 6 a. m. and arriving at Buffalo the next day at 10 a. m., and leaving Buffalo the same day at 12 m. and arriving at Sheldon the next day by 8 p. m., was the same year put upon the route.
In 1815, the mail was carried from Buffalo