1786 January 7 Transportation
The Post Office Department awarded the first United States mail contract today to Levi Pease, who runs the business from his tavern at 32 Main Circle. Pease and his partner, Reuben Sykes, were both blacksmiths three years ago when they established a regular scheduled stagecoach line between Hartford and Boston. As the popularity of the stagecoach grew, the line was extended to New York.
One distressed passenger, Josiah Quincy, reflected on the difficulty of travel in the early days:
I set out from Boston in the line of stages lately established by an enterprising Yankee, Pease by name, which at that day was considered a method of transportation of wonderful expedition. The journey to New York took up a week. The carriages were old and shackling, and much of the harness made of ropes. One pair of horses carried the stage eighteen miles. We generally met our resting place for the night, if no accident intervened, at ten o’clock, and after a frugal meal went to bed with a notice that we should be called at three the next morning, which generally proved to be half past two. Then, whether it snowed or rained, the traveler must rise and make ready by the help of a horn lantern and a farthing candle, and proceed on his way over bad roads… sometimes obliged to get out and help the coachman lift the coach out of a quagmire or rut.
Picture: Postmasters honor Pease in 1963