Essays on Sussex County and New Jersey Postal History

SNUFFTOWN [SUSSEX COUNTY] EXPLAINED! ~ Len PeckSNUFFTOWN [SUSSEX COUNTY] EXPLAINED!By Len PeckThere has long been a rumor that a post office existed at Snufftown, a community thatwas located about a mile from Stockholm, a post office that in its own right has an interestinghistory. In 1985, Samuel Osgood wrote in an article for this journal entitled “In search of theelusive Snufftown” 1 :…Snufftown was located about a mile west of Stockholm in the Wawayanda mountains andwas the location of a tannery, bark mill and moonshine still, and nearby was the Williams Mine. Thearea was also popular as a 'summer retreat' for vacations. Local historians claim there never was asnuff mill in the area, but that the name was given by the groups of men who went to the top of` thehill to fill their jugs at the still on their way to a carousal. An 1872 reference states there were twohotels, two stores and a Methodist Church there, and that the Midland Railroad passes through thetown, and that the Church was built in 1826. The tannery and bark mill operated from 1800 until1887.He shows the following cover, from Germany to Snufftown in 1852:From NJPH September 1985 article by Samuel OsgoodFig. 1. Cover from Riedrich, Wurttemburg to Snufftown, Sussex County, NY in 1852.Osgood suggested that perhaps the name of George Walther could lead to furtherdiscoveries. I also have a cover addressed to Snufftown, to the same George Walther.Geneaological information indicates that George Walther was born in Germany and is buriedin the Stockholm Methodist Episcopal Cemetery, and that he was married to Phebe J. Strait,although I could not discover the exact relationship between Phebe Strait and the Hiram H.Strait below. 2 My cover is from a somewhat later time period, and is illustrated in Figure 2:NJPH 62Vol. 33/No. 2May 2005 Whole No. 15853