PI pioneer, David Dudley, and a little postal history …
FORGOTTEN TIMES
by Dick Graves
A couple of weeks ago, I purchased one of the most powerful pieces of Presque Isle history one could imagine.
The item was being sold on eBay and was brought to my attention by Richard Rand of the Presque Isle Historical Society. The item was a letter addressed to David Dudley of Presque Isle dated 1850.
Photo courtesy of Dick Graves
DAVID DUDLEY’S home in Presque Isle, circa 1885.
Now, the vast majority of you readers have no idea who David Dudley was in relation to the history of our Presque Isle, but I do. It’s certainly not because you missed that day in school. It’s not because I didn’t miss that day in school. It’s because the house that David Dudley built in 1860 stood practically across the street from where I grew up in the 1940s through to the 1960s. The house sat on the corner of State and Second streets and was an old, old home when I was a youngster. Of course, that house was just a house and I had no particular interest in it, although I passed it many times a day in my rounds around the neighborhood during my years on Second Street.
It wasn’t until later I discovered the historical significance of that house and David Dudley’s contribution to the early years of Presque Isle. Dudley’s house became even more significant to me when, in 1974, my wife, Angie, and I purchased a home on Third Street which resembled strongly the Dudley house. I discovered then that the homes were built just a few years apart in the 1860s. That got my attention. And so did the envelope addressed to Dudley and the stamp used to mail the letter in 1850. Both David Dudley’s local history and the 1850 stamp have powerful historical significances. Read on …
Image courtesy of Dick Graves
AN ENVELOPE addressed to David Dudley, former postmaster for Presque Isle, bears one of the first stamps used in the United States, dating back to about 1850.
Dudley hailed from South China, Maine. He traveled here to go into business with a certain Mr. Hacker. Likely that was sometime in the 1840s. There is no mention of a Hacker in any local-history source I’ve researched. Hacker is often a Fort Fairfield name; perhaps he and Dudley split as business partners and Hacker settled in Fort Fairfield. In any case, Dudley succeeded as an early Main Street merchant and in 1849 he and his brother built a fine two-story building on the southeast corner of State (then Fort Street) and Main streets where, 44 years later, the Perry Building was erected and where, 105 years later, the W.T. Grant Building would be built.
Whatever he sold is lost to history — probably hardware supplies and the like — but one item he didn’t sell was tobacco. Dudley was dead against the use of tobacco way back then, but not likely for the same reasons we are today. You see, many chewed tobacco back in those days and simply spit the juice wherever it was convenient. Dudley forbade that practice and was adamant about its usage. In fact, he was so adamant that a fairly prominent politician sometime in the early 1850s came into Dudley’s store using tobacco and was summarily dismissed by Dudley and was told to vacate the premises. Later, Dudley would become a state politician himself.
Photo courtesy of Dick Graves
THE PRESQUE ISLE HOME of David Dudley, as it appeared around 1962.
Dudley and his brother apparently did well as Main Street merchants because four years later, they erected on the northwest corner of Main and State (the Fort Street) a two-story general store and conducted business there for a 30-year spell. In the mid-1880s, a gentleman named Aubrey Smith bought the building. It became the building we’ve known forever as the A.M. Smith Building. That structure today isn’t the original; the original was consumed by fire in 1909 and rebuilt in 1911. One can see the date on the Main Street side of the building.
In 1860 or so, Dudley, having done well in business, constructed a fine home on the corner of Second and State streets right across from the local library. It was there a daughter, Mary, was born in 1862. She attended Vassar College and was the first woman born in Presque Isle to attend any college. After, she taught science for a number of years in a school in New Jersey. Somehow she found herself back in Presque Isle only to live the rest of her life out and to die in her father’s house, the home into which she was born. I remember that house … old, dilapidated and occupying the northeast corner parking lot of the Northeastland Hotel. Mary died at age 98 and soon after the property was purchased by the Hotel and torn down in 1963. Few of you remember that house, I’m sure. Perhaps it was the oldest local building at that time still standing.
Dudley, as I mentioned before, was a successful merchant. He owned lots and lots of property up and down State Street (Dudley Street was named after him). He was a state senator in 1868, 1871 and 1881. His store also served for a time as a post office. In those days, mail arrived by horseback once a week and delivered to whatever store was the designated post office for that time. The owner of that store was the official (appointed by the U.S. Postmaster General) postmaster for the town. In December of 1850, Dudley’s store became the post office for the town and Dudley was appointed postmaster. It was around this time that someone from South China (Dudley’s hometown) sent him a letter — contents unknown. It was addressed to him with no street designation. Besides, he was postmaster and needed no further addressing.
In 1850, the postal system was in its infancy. In fact, the first official stamp wasn’t authorized by Congress until 1847. Before that, postmasters made provisional issues. These included both prepaid envelopes and stamps, mostly of crude design. This first U.S. stamp was offered for sale on July 1, 1847. It was an engraved 5-cent red/brown stamp depicting, fittingly, Benjamin Franklin, the first postmaster of the U.S. The stamp remained in circulation for only a few years and on July 1, 1851 (exactly four years after its birth) was declared invalid. Believe it or not, the postal system from 1847 had become so efficient and profitable, that — take note now — the postal department actually reduced its rates and issued a new 3-cent stamp, making the 5-cent stamp invalid. The 5-cent stamp and, later, the 3-cent stamp were those issued for a 300-mile radius. Other stamps were issued for greater distances.
So, back to my prized item purchased on eBay a short time ago. Now mind you, I’m not a stamp collector except for a short stint as a 12-year old. The only reason I was interested in the eBay item was because it was all about an early Presque Isle pioneer who had spent most of his life just a couple of a hundred feet from where I spent my first quarter of a century in my family’s old homestead on Second Street. It was a little later that I learned that the stamp affixed to the envelope was the first stamp ever officially issued by the U.S. The postmark has only “OCT 8” with no year, but it had to be between 1847 and 1851; thereafter, the stamp was declared invalid and couldn’t be used. It is clear that it was sent from South China, the town of Dudley’s birth. The stamp is “imperforate,” meaning it had no perforations on the sides. Perforations didn’t come until 1857.
So now I bring to a close this little morsel of local history. I do invite anyone who has an interest in this 160-year-old philatelic gem to drop into my office to view the item. If I’m not there, simply ask Peggy at the front desk to show it to you. Somehow, I don’t think one could ever see and closely inspect an older P.I. relic. Remember, our town (unofficially established in 1828) was only 22 years old when this letter was delivered to Mr. Dudley on Main Street.
