Democratic Sentinel, Volume 10, Number 13, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 April 1886 — Postage Sixty Years Ago. [ARTICLE]

Postage Sixty Years Ago.

•‘Walton’s Register” for the year 1828 shows that there were 163 post-offices in Vermont at that time, and that about $20,000 was annually paid on the postage of letters, papers, and pamphlets by the citizens of Vermont. The compensation of the postmasters was on the oasis of 30 per cent on the first SIOO of receipts and 25 per cent on the next SIOO. Brattleborough was then the largest office in the State. The salary of Asa Green, the postmaster, was $630.89. The rates of postage were: For a single letter of one piece of paper for any distance not exceeding 30 miles, 6 cents; over 30 and not exceeding 80 miles. 10 cents; over 80 miles and not exceeding 150 miles, 12) cents; over 150 and not exceeding 400 miles, 18J cents; over 400 miles, 25 cents. Letters composed of two pieces of paper were charged triple rates, and more than three pieces quadruple postage. The highest salary paid any of the 4,000 postmasters in the United States was then $2,000, and there were only 10 who were paid that sum, while 27 received SI,OOO and upward. The population of the State was about 235,749, an increase of 17,835 in 10 years, of which 50,951 persons were engaged in agriculture, 776 in commerce, and 4,484 in manufactures. There was an enrolled militia force of 20,781, and Gov. C. P. Van Ness, was the captain-general of the forces. — Burlington (Ff.) Press.