Rebuilding the Landscape of the Rural Post Office: A Geo-Spatial Analysis of 19th-century Postal Spaces and Networks

Nicholas Van Allen,Don Lafreniere

doi:10.16993/rl.23

Abstract

This paper uses Post Office (PO) petitions to uncover the complex spatial relationships that developed through the unique social space of the PO. These petitions were signed by the rural people of Middlesex County, Ontario, and submitted to the Postmaster General in order to request changes in the workings of their postal services. When used in a historical GIS they allow us to recreate and reconstitute postal communities in late-19th-century rural Middlesex. By observing the spatial relationships that surrounded the collective requests for changes in postal services, we show how the space of the post office reinforced and helped form rural community and neighbourhood networks. The participation of the post offices users who signed and conducted the petitions is developed at each level of the paper, showing that rural Ontarians were deeply involved in interpreting and altering their own community and neighbourhood landscapes.

Highlights

The story of the communications role of the Post Office system, the Post Office as an institution, and the Post Office as an arm of governmentality is relatively well known in Canada (Smith, 1920; Osborne and Pike, 1984; Campbell, 1994; Lee, 1989)
Post Offices were at the centre of rural social landscapes throughout Ontario in the 19th century
Since the time of initial settlement, the communication tools offered through Post Office (PO) gave rural people contact with friends, relatives, and others in nearby and international geographies, helping them get through the colony’s formative years

Summary

Introduction

The story of the communications role of the Post Office system, the Post Office as an institution, and the Post Office as an arm of governmentality is relatively well known in Canada (Smith, 1920; Osborne and Pike, 1984; Campbell, 1994; Lee, 1989). Though some scholars have examined post offices from a more social/cultural perspective (Osborne and Pike, 1984; Amyot and Willis, 2003; Little, 2006; Willis, 2007), what has not been thoroughly interrogated is the function of the social space of post offices and their contribution to the local communities that frequented them This is surprising given the prevalence of post offices in the 19th century and the important role that they played in building and maintaining community and neighbourhood social landscapes, especially in local, rural areas (for local histories on post offices in Middlesex County, see Ward, 1985; Grainger, 2002). Similar to what Coates (2000) found in place in Habitant society, rural citizens in Middlesex were able to define their own relationships and their own landscapes

Methods

Conclusion