Why mail carriers once hated this Georgia politician’s beautiful Victorian mansion

Thomas Watson’s Rural Free Delivery Revolution of 1893

In 1893, Georgia Congressman Thomas Watson changed rural America with a pen stroke. His bill set aside $10,000 for Rural Free Delivery despite fierce pushback from private carriers and local shops.

Before this, 41 million country folks had to trek hours to get mail or pay someone else to fetch it. The test run kicked off in West Virginia in 1896 with just five routes.

Soon after, mail carriers on horses and wagons brought the world to isolated farms through letters, newspapers, and Sears catalogs.

The Watson House in Georgia still stands where this revolution began, with his law office preserved just as it was when he drafted the bill that put America on wheels.

Georgia Lawmaker Got Country Folks Their Mail in 1893

Thomas Watson pushed a bill through Congress on March 3, 1893, setting aside $10,000 to test rural mail delivery.

Private mail carriers, local store owners worried about catalog sales, and four big express companies fought against it.

The year before, Congressman James O’Donnell tried but failed with his $6 million plan that seemed too costly. When Wilson S. Bissell became Postmaster General, he refused to start the test, saying it would cost at least $20 million.

Farm Families Traveled Hours Just to Get Their Mail

Nearly 41 million Americans lived in rural areas in 1890, making up 65 percent of the population. Country folks had to travel miles to the nearest post office or pay someone to get their mail.

City people got mail right to their doors since 1863, creating an unfair gap between town and country.

Farm families often checked their mailboxes only every few weeks, leaving them cut off from news that city folks took for granted.

Five Men on Horseback Changed American History

Rural free delivery finally started on October 1, 1896, in three West Virginia towns: Charles Town, Halltown, and Uvilla. Five men rode out on horseback along 10 miles of country roads on the first day.

Harry C. Gibson, John W. Lucas, Frank Young, Melvin T. Strider, and I. Keyes Strider became America’s first rural mail carriers.

The service caught on quickly, and within a year, carriers delivered mail on 44 routes across 29 states.

Mail Carriers Became Traveling Post Offices

Rural delivery workers traveled by horseback, bicycle, wagon, and horse-drawn sleds during winter. Unlike city carriers, country postmen bought their own vehicles and paid for feeding and housing their horses.

They did more than deliver mail, they sold stamps and money orders right from their bags as they moved along their routes. Some farmers looked at the new service with doubt at first.

Thousands of Routes Spread Across America

The rural delivery system grew very fast. By 1901, carriers traveled more than 100,000 miles of routes at a cost of $1,750,321, with over 37,000 people working as carriers.

Four years later, the Post Office ran 32,000 rural routes.

During the six-year testing period, customers sent more than 10,000 requests asking for routes to their areas. On July 1, 1902, rural free delivery became a permanent service.

"Wish Books" Brought the World to Farm Doorsteps

Sears and Montgomery Ward catalogs took full advantage of the new rural delivery system. Montgomery Ward grew from offering just 163 items in 1872 to selling 10,000 products by the late 1880s.

Americans spent more than $500 million through mail-order catalogs by 1919.

Rural families called these thick catalogs “Wish Books” because they opened up a world of products that country folks never had before.

Farmers Finally Got News When It Was Still News

Rural delivery ended the isolation that farm families had lived with for generations.

Farmers could now get daily newspapers with world events, weather forecasts, and market prices that helped them know when to sell crops.

President Theodore Roosevelt noted in 1903 that rural delivery “lessens the isolation of farm life and makes it brighter and more attractive.”

The mail brought fashion trends, national politics, and links to the wider world to farmhouse doors.

Better Roads Followed the Mail Routes

The new delivery system needed decent roads to work properly. Mail wagons and carriers couldn’t travel through mud and over rough ground day after day.

The Post Office soon realized they needed improved roads and standard mailboxes.

This need for better country roads helped push for the Federal Aid Road Act of 1916, which put $85 million toward rural road building across America.

Packages Up to 70 Pounds Started Arriving in 1913

The Post Office added parcel post service in 1913, creating another boom in rural deliveries. This new service let mail carriers bring packages weighing more than four pounds directly to farm homes.

Before this, rural Americans used costly private express companies for larger packages.

Parcel post helped spread national newspapers and magazines to remote areas and created millions in sales for mail-order businesses.

Catalogs Connected Country and City Life

Mail-order businesses could now reach customers everywhere, giving the American economy a big boost. Catalogs brought city products and urban culture into rural living rooms across the country.

By 1925, Sears mail-order sales alone made up over 2 percent of all farm cash income in America.

Montgomery Ward’s company raised the living standard for middle-class Americans who previously had access only to whatever their local general store carried.

RFD Still Serves Millions of Rural Americans Today

By 1930, the system had grown to 43,278 rural routes serving over 6,875,300 families, reaching about 25,472,000 people. Rural Free Delivery stands as the largest and most expensive program ever created by the U.S. Postal Service.

Today, the rural delivery system still serves more than 41 million customers.

The service forever changed country life by cutting into small-town store profits and bringing urban culture directly into rural homes across America.

Visiting Thomas Edward Watson House, Georgia

You can visit Thomas Watson’s house at 310 Tom Watson Way in Thomson, Georgia to see where he wrote the 1893 legislation creating Rural Free Delivery.

The National Historic Landmark now houses the Watson-Brown Foundation offices.

Tours are available Monday through Friday by appointment – just contact the Watson-Brown Foundation to schedule.

You’ll see Watson’s preserved first floor office and writing spaces where he worked on connecting rural families to mail service.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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