Essays on Sussex County and New Jersey Postal History

Len Peck ~ DEVELOPMENT OF SUSSEX POs: Hamburg & The Paterson-Hamburg PikeTHE PATERSON-HAMBURG TURNPIKEThe natural development of post offices follows population development, and beyondthat, the connections which were established between those centers. Post roads and postalroutes, as turnpikes developed (and the later rail lines) thus led to the establishment of newpost offices in the intermediate communities along these routes.Thomas Lawrence, as noted above, was instrumental in establishing post offices alongthe route of the Paterson-Hamburg Pike. When the turnpike was completed in 1810, hewrote Gideon Granger, the Postmaster General of the United States in Washington, D.C., “thata turnpike road had recently been completed from Hamburgh through the villages ofStockholm, Pompton, Paterson, and Aquackanock to New York, that the distance thereby tothe city is greatly shortened and the facilities for traveling much improved and that thecitizens of those villages beg leave to solicit the Postmaster General to favor them with theconvenience of having a post- office in each of these places ---”Fig. 10: The yellow line indicates the Paterson-Hamburg Turnpike, established in 1810, crossing the old postroad (in red). The original route was planned from Aquackanock (current day Passaic) to Deckertown (nowSussex – west of Hamburg). Additional road to Milford on the Delaware and to the Hackensack River on itseastern end. 4 39Vol. 37/No. 2111NJPHWhole No. 174 May 2009