This envelope was postmarked the day after the stamps became valid.
As soon as the mail arrived and was sorted, Dr Goodale put on his big overcoat with large pockets on either side. He put the mail to be delivered into the pocket on one side of his coat. As he went out delivering mail to the businesses and residents of the village, he put the letters to be mailed out in the other pocket.
Typical dress of a professional man in the middle 1800s.
In 1853 the mail came from Manistee to Traverse City once a week from “outside”, as the world beyond the horizon of Traverse City was called at that time. People could expect their mail varied from a few hours to a few days. People who were anxious to get their mail did not know when to go to the post office to get it. So, Dr Goodale delivered it.
Why was the mail so uncertain? “Indian Jake” was the first mail carrier to deliver mail between Manistee and Traverse City. In 1853 the first post office was opened in Traverse City at Dr Goodale’s home. Jake Ta-pa-sah was hired to strap the mail pouch to his back and make the round trip to Manistee on foot once a week. During the snowy winter of 1854, a Mastiff dog was purchased to assist “Indian Jake”. A small sled was built to carry the mail and the large dog pulled the sled as Jake guided him to Traverse City. Sometimes it took a while for him to get there.
You might think Dr Goodale had a lot of time on his hands to assume the unpaid job of delivering the mail. Actually, he did not. Dr. David C. Goodale arrived in Traverse City with his wife, two daughters and one son in April 1853. He had been a busy and successful physician in Vermont, got involved with politics and managing a local newspaper. The doctor decided to give up practicing medicine and move to beautiful Northern Michigan. When he came to Michigan in 1852, he had a contract to manage the boarding house of Hannah, Lay, and Co. in Traverse City. This position came with the understanding he would also be the “unofficial” resident company doctor. And so, he became the only physician in the area for the next 9 years as well as Traverse City’s first Postmaster, all within the first year of his arrival. The Post office as well as his doctor’s Office were in Dr. Goodale’s house. A few years later, the Township Library was located there as well.
Dr Goodall could not say no when a need arose. The following year when a School District was established, he became its director. Two years later he became the prosecuting attorney for the county. In 1858 he became the county treasurer, all the while delivering mail to the town residents out of his large pockets. He was a busy man! By 1862, after almost 10 years, he again needed a change. He moved his family to Detroit.
These two United States postage stamps became valid for use on July 1, 1847.
When Dr Goodale left, the Traverse City post office was moved to the slab shanty of Charles Marsh, a lawyer, whose mother “could at least read the addresses”. Half a dozen people would gather at the Marsh’s about sundown Saturdays, to wait for Indian Jake. If the post did not arrive before ten, Mother Marsh would turn them out saying the Post Office was closed until morning.
But if Jake got there before they were turned out, the half dozen men would sit patiently waiting, listening to the conversation between Marsh and his mother while they sorted the mail. According to Thomas Bates as a young man in 1862 he was the messenger for the Herald (a newspaper) and the Unites States Land Office, which received most of the mail. So once sorted, the mail would be dumped into his market basket, and he would trudge through two miles of sand, sawdust, or snow to the house of “Saints Rest” where he delivered it.
As for the good Dr Goodale with the large pockets, he and Mrs. Goodale returned to Traverse City in 1878 and they remained there until his death in 1878 at 69 years old.
Courtesy “Grand Traverse Legends, The Early Years” by Robert E. Wilson. Some Impressions of Traverse City in 1862. “An Eastern Boy’s Recollections of the Times Before the Railroad and Telegraph in Northern Michigan” by Thomas Bates. An article in the “Morning Record” on December 10, 1899