When the Puget Sound Mail was Carried in a Pocket
The Washington Standard
By Antonio B. Rabbeson
Olympia May 4, 1886

I take great pleasure in an occasional trip about the Sound, thereby taking in the great changes which are constantly going on in our Territory; and when I remember that forty years ago I could recognize every man's track in the Territory when I had seen it in the trail before me, and now I hardly know my next door neighbor's face, it makes me sometimes think it is time for me to emigrate to some new country.

On my last visit to Tacoma I had the curiosity to see the arrival of the train from the South, and when the mail matter was brought from the cars it carried my mind back to my early days, when I carried the whole United States mail for the Puget Sound in my pocket. Being the first mail contractor, I received notice of the fact on the second day of July, 1851, with orders to commence service immediately. 

When I received the notice I was in Portland, at that time, five day's travel from Olympia, the designated point at which to commence service. (Here you will notice one of the changes, the present time from Olympia to Portland being six hours) When I arrived at Olympia I found no Postmaster; M. T. Simmons had been appointed, hut had not received his commission. I then went to the other end of the route and found Postmaster Ed. Warbass, but no mail bags. The Postmaster delivered the mail to me, consisting of two letters and one paper. 

There being no Postmaster at Olympia, I distributed the mail myself. Thus it was fully six weeks when I received a bag, and the Postmaster his Commission. When it is remembered that I made but weekly trips, carrying the entire mail in my pocket, and now with a daily mail and beholding the mass of the matter delivered at Tacoma each trip, do you wonder that it made an old settler's eyes stick out?