[Genealib] Post village vs post office

[Susan Scouras]

Does anyone know the definition of a "post village" as opposed to a
"post office," as used in the early 19th century?  I have tried
dictionaries and Googling with no luck.  I checked four different postal
histories, plus a couple of historical journal articles. A post road is
a road over which mail was carried.  A post office is an established
building or site (someone's store, usually), run by a postmaster, where
stamps and other services can be purchased.  Statistics give the miles
of post road designated and number of post offices, etc., but no mention
of postal villages.  I can find hundreds of towns identified as "post
villages," a far higher number than the total number of post offices at
any given time, but no explanation of what a post village is.  Much
later, around 1911-12, a postal village was one that had mail carriers
that delivered to one's door, but that was not the case prior to this
date.  The term appears to have been used in England as well  
 
I am guessing it is essentially a mail drop along a post road without a
full service post office, since other towns in the same sources are
designated as having a post office and are not called postal villages.
Post offices and postmasters were classified, with those offering the
fewest services and handling the least mail designated as "fourth
class," but again, this does not seem to correlate with post villages.
Contemporary works assume the reader knows what the designations mean.  
 
Susan Scouras
Librarian
WV Archives and History Library
The Cultural Center
1900 Kanawha Blvd. East
Charleston, WV  25305-0300
(304) 558-0230, Ext. 742
 
 
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