First Rural Mail Route

Hennessey's route came early in a national experiment. Rural families had long had to fetch mail from a distant post office or pay a private carrier. Milton Trusler of the Indiana Grange campaigned for free rural delivery from 1880, Postmaster General John Wanamaker favored it, and Georgia congressman Thomas E. Watson pushed through the legislation that mandated it. The Post Office Department's first trial routes ran in 1896 in Jefferson County, West Virginia, near Charles Town, Halltown and Uvilla, and the service was not adopted across the country until 1902, two years after this route began.

What the plaque says

First Rural Mail Route Oklahoma's 1st rural mail route was established at Hennessey on Aug. 15, 1900, with Albert W. Darrow as carrier, his salary at $500 a year. J. A. Felt was the Hennessey postmaster. Route ran east over 24 mi., serving popu- lation of 700, in 31 sq. mi. Oklahoma Historical Society and State Highway Commission

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• The Chisholm — 18 mi
  Kingfisher's farming and ranching museum on the Chisholm Trail's stage branch, with a heritage village and Horizon Hill, the mansion a territorial governor built for a capital that never came.
• Cherokee Strip Regional Heritage Center — 19 mi
  The Oklahoma Historical Society's Enid museum of the September 1893 run into the Cherokee Outlet, with the town's original land office among the old buildings out back.

More markers nearby

• Roy V. Cashion — steps away
• Massacre of Pat Hennessey — steps away
• Bull Foot Station — 0.7 mi
• Cherokee Strip — 3.7 mi