Independence Postal Service

Independence never had a post office building to speak of. From 1843 to 1958 the mail went wherever the postmaster did, to a house or a store. About 1925 Thomas H. Shannon handled it from his store on the west side of the town square. A stagecoach and mail depot was part of the limestone complex now called the Blanton Block, whose oldest parts date from the late 1820s or early 1830s. The office closed after the railroad had passed the town by and its schools and college had gone.

What the plaque says

Independence Postal Service Until 1840, mail was carried by private conveyance--neighbors paying expenses of young man to travel by horse to Houston and bring mail for all; 1840 brought two stage routes giving weekly service. Postal service authorized in 1843; Moses Johnson appointed first Independence postmaster. During Civil War 10 (cent) stamps made by stamping with wood postmark; die carved by John McKnight. During 115 years of operation 21 postmasters served; Kathryn Schwarze being the last when service discontinued, Jan. 31, 1958. Now museum mailing station. (1967)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Independence and Old Baylor Park — 0.6 mi
  A crossroads north of Brenham that was the richest town in Texas when it won Baylor University in 1845, refused the railroad, and lost the college to Waco and Belton in 1886.
• Washington-on-the-Brazos State Historic Site — 11 mi
  The townsite on the Brazos where delegates met in a cold, unfinished hall in March 1836 to declare Texas independent, with Independence Hall rebuilt and Anson Jones's Barrington farm worked as in 1850.
• Star of the Republic Museum — 11 mi
  A star-shaped museum of the Republic of Texas years, 1836 to 1846, built at Washington-on-the-Brazos after a Brenham campaign and opened on March 1, 1970.
• Navasota — 16 mi
  A railroad and cotton town where the La Bahia Road crossed the Navasota River, scarred by an 1865 explosion and yellow fever, and the home ground of the songster Mance Lipscomb.

More markers nearby

• Independence — steps away
• Site of Mustering of a Unit of Hood's Texas Brigade, C.S.A. — steps away
• Site of Independence School — steps away
• Old Baptist Church — steps away