With a potential for an increased volume of mail in advance of the 2020 election in November, the nation’s mail service has been receiving a lot of attention lately. Today, practically all homes and businesses receive some sort of communication each day the United States Postal Service operates. While many improvements have taken place in that service through the years, complaints about slow mail delivery are not new to Arkansas.  

Prior to the availability of the telegraph, telephone, radio, television, or the internet, mail provided the only means of communication between different locales. And, in the United States, early on, the mail system proved to be primitive, slow, and unpredictable. But, as the new nation grew and expanded, so did its mail system. American settlers moved west to occupy new lands, and their commerce and communication needs demanded dependable, affordable mail service. One of the places served by the nation’s postal service was Arkansas Territory.

As opportunities grew in the new Arkansas Territory (established in 1819), postal service expanded into the area to meet the ever-increasing demands of settlers. Beginning in 1817, Davidsonville, in Lawrence County, became the site of Arkansas’s first post office. It was served once a month by a man on horseback who traveled from Monroe, Louisiana, via Arkansas Post, and then to St. Louis. A few weeks after Davidsonville, Arkansas Post joined the ranks of official mail service points and became the Territory’s second post office.

It did not take long for the complaints to begin. The Arkansas Gazette newspaper, published at Arkansas Post beginning in November of 1819, stated in its December 3, 1819, issue, that “Complaints of the irregularity of the mails have now become a matter of course.” The Gazette noted that mail was scheduled for delivery only once every four weeks at Arkansas Post, and even that schedule was not being adhered to! “Our mail is due here on the fourth Friday of every calendar month. The mail which should have been received at this post office last month has not made its appearance yet, although more than a week has expired since it was due.”

Certainly, it often proved difficult for post riders to maintain regular schedules over their wilderness routes. In sparsely settled country, accidents involving horses occurred frequently, and flooded streams often caused delays. Complaints about service appeared from time to time in newspapers. For example, Little Rock had no mail from the east for several months in 1823, and in 1832 mail from Memphis stopped arriving for over a month. In 1836, noted Arkansan Albert Pike observed that sending mail quarterly “by balloon or snagboat” would be an improvement! But problems were not confined to Little Rock. The editor of the Batesville News commented that mail service to the east and north was “like angels’ visits—few and far between.”

Certainly, in addition to bad weather and poor road conditions, other causes existed for delayed delivery or lost mail. In fact, even by 1872 after many improvements in transportation, observations about Hot Spring County mail service can be found in area papers. In September of that year, an Arkadelphia newspaper reported a theft: “We understand the mail from this place [Arkadelphia] to Little Rock was robbed on Friday night of last week, somewhere between Midway and Rockport. The driver and two or three others, we learn, have been arrested as being concerned in the robbery. The strap was cut and all the registered letters taken out and rifled of their contents, but fortunately, we are informed, there were but two in the bag.”

On November 30, 1872, another report described a delay in the mail’s arrival: “The mail from Little Rock failed yesterday. The Post Master at Rockport must have observed Thanksgiving day muchly, for he sent the Camden mail here, and we suppose sent the Arkadelphia mail to Camden. A friend of ours, however, gives another reason. He was once at Rockport when a fellow was assorting the mailbags, and noticing that he placed the Arkadelphia and Camden bags indiscriminately together, he inquired the reason why, when he was told by the distributor that he could not read, and as he was put there to distribute the mail, he’d do it somehow. That same fellow may have had the handling of the mail on Thursday morning.”