The Post Office

    Had you chanced to be in Hopedale fifty years ago [1860], or a little earlier, you
    might have seen a chubby, rosy girl, with brown eyes and hair, who, every
    evening, except Sunday, between seven and eight traveled over that part of
    Hopedale between Hope Street and the Corner.  It was not Patrick's Corner then.

    If you had happened to meet this little girl some stormy evening in winter, you
    could have seen that she wore a warm hood, rubber boots and leather mittens.

     In one hand she carried a lantern, a queer four-sided lantern, three sides of
    which were of glass and the fourth side had a handle to carry it by, and would
    also open, so the lamp could be taken out to be filled with whale-oil.  In the other
    hand she carried a carpet-bag from which she took sometimes a letter and
    sometimes a paper, which she left in a house near by.

    So, allow me to present to you, Susie Thwing, one of the first mail carriers of
    Hopedale.

    The other carrier, whose route was the upper part of the village, was Anna
    Thwing, her sister.

    When the Community was first started the mail for Hopedale was brought from
    the Milford Post Office by any one who happened to go there.  About 1853 when
    Appendix A of the Constitution of the Community was written, Enactment 8
    provided for establishing a Post Office in Hopedale.  Soon after, my mother, Mrs.
    Almon Thwing, was elected Post Mistress.  All mail leaving Hopedale was carried
    to my father's, [Almon Thwing] who lived where Mrs. Charles M. Day's house is.
    [The Thwing house, shown above,  was across Hopedale Street from the
    Bancroft Library. It was eventually moved to Union Street and replaced with the
    house that's on the site now. Mrs. Charles Day was the daughter of Joseph and
    Sylvia Bancroft. Almon Thwing and his wife were Mrs. Day's uncle and aunt.
    Based on what Anna Thwing Field wrote for Hopedale Reminiscences, the
    Thwing house is evidently the only surviving structure in Hopedale that can be
    identified as having been a station of the Underground Railroad. Click here for
    more on this. In Abbie Ballou's reminiscences, she wrote that the original house
    on the lot where the Day house was later built, was the first house built in the
    Community, and was originally the home of George Stacey and family.]

    The letters were counted and securely locked in a bag, which was carried to the
    Milford Post Office by Mr. Pliny Southwick, or whoever drove the "express" to and
    from the railroad station.  There were two mails daily, each way.  The first arrived
    here in the middle of the forenoon, and the other, about half past six in the
    afternoon, but the carriers were only on duty after the latter.

    Some of the older residents will no doubt remember the sign, "Letter Box," over a
    hole cut in the south side of my father's house, where the mail could be dropped
    into a box in the wood-shed.

    To pay for the work of carrying and caring for the mails, a little stamp was issued
    which cost the sender or receiver of a letter, living in Hopedale, one and one half
    cents,  The first issue was a pink, oblong stamp, about an inch long, and the
    second was square and yellow, and both had printed on them, the words
    "Hopedale Penny Post."  When carrying the mail I also carried a supply of these
    stamps in a pen-box in my bag, and if the receiver of a letter had no little stamp
    to give in return, he usually tendered a silver three-cent piece and I gave him a
    stamp.  On the outgoing mail the Hopedale stamp was affixed to the middle of the
    back of the envelope.

    There were only fourteen or fifteen houses on my route then, and the Hopedale
    Home School received the greater number of letters. The best remembered
    newspapers that came in the mail, were the "New York Tribune," "The Liberator,"
    "Worcester Spy," and  "Woonsocket Patriot."

    As Hopedale grew the Post Office was transferred to the grocery store, first to
    the house where I now reside, when Mr. Ansel Harlow was store-keeper and post-
    master.

    I can show you where the hole was cut in my front door to receive the mail.

    After the Home School was closed and the school-house was altered into a
    dwelling-house, Mr. Hiram Gibson had a grocery-store there, and filled both
    positions.  That was in the first house north of the Town House.

    I think the little stamp was used until Hopedale had a regular United States Post-
    Office.  These stamps have now become objects of interest to stamp-collectors.

    One has recently been sold by a Hopedale lady for five dollars, and had it been
    a perfect stamp it would have brought her more money.

    Sometimes I carried other letters than those that came in "Uncle Sam's" mail-bag.

    There lived in Hopedale, in a little house at the corner of Union and Dutcher
    Streets, although Dutcher Street was not there then, four unmarried sisters.  
    Mary Ann, albeit the youngest, so much desired to be married that she
    advertised for a husband in some paper.  I think it was the "Phrenological
    Journal."  One morning Mr. Humphrey came to my father's and asked if I would
    do an errand for a man who was stopping at his house.  I gladly consented and
    upon going to the gentleman received a letter which I was requested to carry to
    Mary Ann Hayward and wait for a reply. I distinctly remember what excitement
    prevailed among the sisters and how Mary Ann hastened to pen the answer.
    This I duly carried to the waiting gentleman and O, what bliss!!  I received a
    bright new ten-cent piece for my trouble.  The man proved to be Justin Soule
    who had answered Mary Ann's advertisement.  Soon after they were married
    and, as far as I know, lived happily ever after.

    Susan Thwing Whitney,
    Hopedale, Massachusetts

                      
                                     The Elusive Hopedale Stamp

                                                  By James Johnston

    There is one little thing that has seemed to have alluded me however as a
    collector of stamps, and it is something that should be sort of easy to find. It is a
    local stamp issue printed for the Hopedale Penny Post of Milford.

    Hopedale, back in 1849, was a substantial farming community located southwest
    of Milford. On Feb. 2, 1849, Hopedale residents held a meeting and voted to
    arrange for regular transportation of the mail to the nearest post office which
    happened to be located in Milford. Milford was about a mile and a half away and
    a charge of one cent was voted to transport the mail from Hopedale to Milford.

    Paper on which some of the stamps were printed was a glazed pink color. The
    stamps were primitive and printed in black typeset letters reading in two lines
    "Hopedale Penny Post." Other Hopedale stamps were printed on pink woven
    paper. The wording "Hopedale Penny Post" appears in a circle of four concentric
    rings.

    In very fine condition, these stamps carry a value in the "2011 Scott Specialized
    Catalog of United States Stamps and Covers" (the Bible of stamp collecting) of
    from $600 to as much as $4,500 in excellent condition and on the original
    envelope. A nice used copy off of its original envelope is a decent find too. In all
    my years collecting stamps, I have never owned one of these Hopedale local
    stamps. Someday, I hope to find one or two, hopefully on the original envelope.

    Maybe somebody out there has one or two of these hidden treasures and does
    not even know it. These local stamps look like some little label that somebody cut
    from a sheet of paper with a pair of scissors, because that is just what these
    stamps are. If anybody out there finds one of these little gems, please let me
    know. I think that I also owe my life to my various hobbies. I would love to see
    kids again getting interested in collecting stamps. Milford Daily News, June 15,
    2011

    For the Johnston article on the Milford News site, click here.   

                               Christmas with the Thwings       The Thwing Family   

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.

    The material below is from the Whitney Research Group website.

    Family:Whitney, James Irish (1841-1890)

    James Irish Whitney (William, Stephen, Isaac, Nathaniel, Benjamin, John), son of
    William and Mary Ann (Mayberry) Whitney, was born about 1841, prob. Otisfield,
    ME, and died 5 Jun 1890, Milford (Hopedale), MA.

    He married, 28 Feb 1867, Milford (Hopedale), MA, Susan Eudora Thwing,
    daughter of Almond and Sarah A. (Darling) Thwing. She was born 26 Jul 1847,
    Milford (Hopedale), MA, and died 21 Dec 1918.

    James was a Civil War veteran. He and his widow received a pension from the U.
    S. government.

    Children of James Irish and Susan Eudora (Thwing) Whitney:

      i.         Mabel Gertrude Whitney, b. 12 Jan 1868, Milford (Hopedale), MA.
     ii.         Almond Thwing Whitney, b. 3 Aug 1869, Milford (Hopedale), MA.
    iii.         Anna Thwing Whitney, b. 30 Aug 1871, Milford (Hopedale), MA.

    Census

    * 1850: Casco, ME; in the home of Orasmus Symonds
    * 1860: not found
    * 1870, Milford, Worcester Co., MA:

    319 478 Baker, Jonathan 36 M W Fish market (ret.) $300 Mass. Male citizen
    over 21
    -----,Emeline 34 F W Keeping house Maine
    -----, Bertram A. 11 M W Attending school Mass. Attended school
    -----, Griswold E. 4 M W " 479 Whitney, James P. 30 M W Fish market (ret.)
    $300 Maine Male citizen over 21
    -----, Susan 22 F W Keeping house Mass
    -----, Mabel 2 F W "
    -----, Albert 9/12 M W "

    * 1880, Milford, Worcester Co., MA:

    James I. WHITNEY 40 Self M M W ME Fish Dealer ME ME
    Susan E. WHITNEY 32 Wife F M W MA Keeping House MA MA
    Mabel G. WHITNEY 12 Dau F S W MA At School ME MA
    Almon T. WHITNEY 10 Son M S W MA At School ME MA
    Anna T. WHITNEY 8 Dau F S W MA ME MA

    Widow Susan:

    * 1900: Somerville, MA
    * 1910: Hopedale, MA

    References
Susan Thwing Whitney

    Civil War Pension File of James Irish Whitney
    Widow: Susan E. Whitney
    Widow Applic. # 436041 Cert. # 335625
    National Archives Building, Washington, D.C.

    He is identified as James Irish Whitney, Sergeant, Company E, 8th Maine
    Infantry Regiment
    On 13 May 1890 from Worcester Co., Massachusetts James I. Whitney signed a
    Declaration for Original Invalid Pension. On 10 September 1862 he enrolled in
    Company E, of the 8th Regiment of Maine Volunteer Infantry commanded by Lt.
    William Campbell. He was discharged at Richmond, Virginia on 12 June 1865.
    His personal description is: 48 years old, 5 feet 11 inches tall, light complexion,
    dark hair, and dark eyes.

    While in the service and in the line of his duty at Newhart, North Carolina on or
    about 1 April 1863 he contracted chills and fever with general malarial
    poisoning, resulting in disease of the heart from which he still suffers. He was
    treated in hospital at Beaufort, North Carolina.

    Since leaving the service he has resided in the towns of Milford, Massachusetts
    and Rutland, Vermont. His occupation has been that of a marketman. Prior to
    his entry into the service he was of sound physical health and had been a
    mechanic by occupation. He is now totally disabled from obtaining his
    subsistence by manual labor by reason of his injuries suffered in his service to
    his country. He resides at 16 Church Street in Milford, Massachusetts. The
    Declaration is witnessed by Clarence H. Woodbury and Sarah Thwing.

    There is in the file a certified copy of the death record of James I. Whitney. He
    died at Milford, Worcester Co., Massachusetts on 5 June 1890 of Endocarditis
    Chronica Deformeus. The record is certified by John T. McLaughlin, Town Clerk.

    On 10 July 1890 from Worcester Co., Massachusetts, Susan E. Whitney, widow
    of James I. Whitney, signed a Declaration for Widow's Pension. She is 42 years
    old and a resident of Milford, Worcester Co., Massachusetts. She was married
    to James I. Whitney on 28 February 1867 at Hopedale, Mass., by Rev. Adin
    Ballou. She has not remarried, and the soldier left no children under the age of
    sixteen. The Declaration is witnessed by Anna T. Whitney and Thomas
    Kiernahan.
    There is a certified copy of the record of the marriage of James Irish Whitney
    and Susan Eudora Thwing in the file. They were married in Milford,
    Massachusetts on 28 February 1867 by Adin Ballou, Minister of the Gospel.
    The record is certified by John T. McLaughlin, Town Clerk.

    Susan Whitney applied for in increase in benefits on 25 June 1917. She testifies
    that she is 69 years and 11 months old, having been born 26 July 1847 at
    Hopedale (then Milford), Massachusetts.

    Susan Whitney was last paid $25.00 to 4 December 1918, and was dropped
    from the pension roll because of her death on 21 December 1918.

    See bottom of this page
    for more on the stamp.

    I met Mike Danello at the Milford History Museum recently. (Summer of
    2016.) When he told me that he was a stamp collector and dealer, I told
    him of the Hopedale Community postal stamp. He had never heard of it,
    so when he got home, he looked it up in a catalog. What you see above
    is what he found. Catalog prices are based on sales, but Mike said
    since they are so rare it's been a long time since one sold, and so the
    price has shown as $800 in the catalogs for many years. He found one
    being offered for $1200, but until and unless it sells, the price in the
    catalog will remain at $800. The page shown is from the 2016 Scott U.S
    Specialized Catalogue.

    U.S stamp in usual position and
    Hopedale stamp in lower left.