Essays on Sussex County and New Jersey Postal History

Len Peck ~ MONTAGUE, NJ POST OFFICETHE MONTAGUE, NEW JERSEY POST OFFICEBy Len Peck[This article by Len Peck, longtime collector of Sussex postal history, continues the discussion begun byChet Smith and Arne Englund (“Elusive Early 19 th Century New Jersey Post Offices” in the February2004 NJPH (Vol. 32 No. 1) and addresses some of the questions raised by Arne in his original article,with regard to the Foster’s Ferry-Brick House-Montague conundrum - what appeared to be three postoffices existing simultaneously within a mile of each other in Sussex County.]Montague, in Sussex County, N.J., got its first post office on January 6, 1815 on anapplication filed by Samuel Hull, who became the first postmaster. Through an error, thePostmaster General’s office in Washington, D.C. also listed Brick House (the building in whichthe Montague post office was to be located) as a post office as well.Another application for a post office in the Montague area was also filed at about thesame time by Julius Foster, for a post office named Foster’s Ferry. This post office wasauthorized and established in error on January 13, 1815.Courtesy Arne EnglundEarly 1850’s cover from Montague, NJAt the time that applications for these post offices were being processed by thePostmaster General’s office in Washington, D.C., conditions were in great turmoil. The War of1812 had only just come to an end, and Washington, D.C. was still recovering from the fire of1814, set by the British, which destroyed much of the city. The General Post Officeheadquarters suffered the loss of many of their records, including their complete repository of allincoming reports and correspondence from the field. They were only able to save theirletterbooks containing the scribe’s recordings of copies of outgoing letters from the PostmasterGeneral. Because of this turmoil, a number of small post offices were authorized during thisperiod, which otherwise would not have happened. Two such post offices in Sussex Countywere Brick House and Foster’s Ferry -- Brick House because it was one and the same asMontague, with the same postmaster, Samuel Hull; and Foster’s Ferry because of its closeproximity (of only ½ mile) to the Montague post office, and the fact that Julius Foster, who hadVol. 32/No. 4NJPHWhole No. 156 145November 200451