Between the 2020 election and Christmas gift giving, the United States Postal Service has been in the news. 1672 was the year mail service in the U.S. began with a post running monthly between New York and Boston. Benjamin Franklin was the first Postmaster General for the colonies, and he added a Philadelphia to Boston route. As populations grew in other cities and towns, more routes were added. In 1787 after the Revolution, all postal arrangements were transferred to the new U.S. government.
By 1790, there were 75 national post offices in the country. By 1880, the number of official offices had risen to 903, but it’s unlikely Rochester was on that list. In 1847, the first national postage stamps were issued, and by 1887, free delivery of stamped mail was available in cities with populations of 10,000 throughout the country. It wasn’t until 1901 that a Rural Free Delivery system was begun, paving the way for mail to get to sparsely developed areas. Rochester’s mail history had its starts and stops, but soon after 1800, Nathan Willis was known as the postmaster for Rochester. The post office, as such, was in his building (on the later site of Fearing Tavern) where he lived and also had a store.
According to Mary Hall Leonard, acknowledged in the 1900s as Rochester’s historian, there was a romantic tragedy associated with Willis’ post office. Mail for residents was sorted and kept here. As the story goes, Miss Bashie Holmes was engaged to a Mr. Pope, who regularly sent messages of love to her through the mail. Apparently. Mr. Willis’ daughter, Sophie, disliked Miss Holmes, and systematically removed the “love letters” sent to her by her fiancée.
Miss Bashie was described as a “high spirited damsel, swift to resent wrongs, and unrelenting in her resentment.” When the letters from Mr. Pope stopped arriving, she felt both spurned and neglected. When Mr. Pope tried to assure her that the letters had been sent and he was not ignoring her, she could not be persuaded. Holding close to her resentment, she turned him away. We don’t know if either young lady regretted her actions. Miss Bashie lived and died without ever marrying, and Sophie Willis had a “short and strenuous” marriage, dying at the age of 30 in 1821.
