, circa 1910 Until the late 19th century, residents of rural areas had to travel to a designated distant
post office to pick up their mail or to pay for delivery by a private carrier.
Fayette County in east-central Indiana claims to be the birthplace of Rural Free Delivery. Milton Trusler, a leading farmer in the county, began advocating the idea in 1880; as the president of the Indiana Grange, he spoke to farmers statewide frequently over the following 16 years. Postmaster General
John Wanamaker, owner of a major department store, was ardently in favor of Rural Free Delivery (RFD), with many thousands of Americans living in rural communities who wanted to send and receive retail orders inexpensively. Support for the introduction of a nationwide rural mail delivery service came from
The National Grange of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry, the nation's oldest agricultural organization. The Post Office Department first experimented with the idea of rural mail delivery in 1896, to determine the viability of RFD. It began with five routes covering 10 miles, 33 years after free delivery in cities had begun. The first routes to receive RFD during its experimental phase were in
Jefferson County, West Virginia, near
Charles Town;
Halltown; and
Uvilla. ever instituted by the
U.S. Postal Service. The service grew steadily. By 1901, the mileage had increased to over 100,000; the cost was $1,750,321, and over 37,000 carriers were employed. In 1910, the mileage was 993,068; the cost was $36,915,000, and 40,997 carriers were employed. In 1913 came the introduction of
parcel post delivery, which caused another boom in rural deliveries. Parcel post service allowed the distribution of national newspapers and magazines, and was responsible for millions of dollars of sales in
mail-order merchandise to customers in rural areas. By 1930, 43,278 rural routes served over 6,875,300 families, amounting to about 25,472,00 persons, at a cost of $106,338,341. The
Rural Post Roads Act of 1916 authorized federal funds for rural post roads. The adoption of a nationwide RFD system had many opponents. Most important were the four rich, powerful express companies that monopolized the delivery of valuable or time-sensitive packages. Wayne Fuller concludes that they "arrogantly served the public, rendered only mediocre service, [and] made inordinate profits." They were unregulated and confused customers with myriad rates; in rural areas they dropped off packages at the train depot. Furthermore many politically connected town merchants worried that the service would reduce farmers' weekly visits to town to obtain supplies, or that
Sears, Roebuck and Company with its catalogs would undermine their local business. The opponents mounted a fierce opposition to the use of parcel post, delaying full implementation. However Sears and the other mail-order houses realized that parcel post would be to their advantage and joined the farmers in a coalition that finally overcame the local merchants and express companies. Indeed, Sears sales tripled in the first five years after parcel post started in 1913. ==First routes==