In the early 1900s, when the post office started delivering big parcels and packages, something unexpected happened: parents tried to send their kids through the mail! Yep, you read that right!
Before that, private delivery companies did all the heavy lifting. But when Parcel Post began on January 1, 1913, it made it super easy for millions of Americans in rural areas to get stuff delivered right to their door. This also made it easier for mail-order companies to reach more customers and sell more stuff.
But here’s when things got interesting. Some parents got a little creative and tried to send their kids through the mail. Can you imagine? It made the news because, well, it was pretty cute, but also kind of silly.
“It got some headlines when it happened, probably because it was so cute,” United States Postal Service historian Jenny Lynch shares with Smithsonian.com.
One of the first stories was about 8-month-old Baby James Beagle. His parents, an Ohio couple named Jesse and Mathilda Beagle, “mailed” him to his grandma’s house, just a few miles away in Batavia.
Baby James was just the right weight to be sent like a package (11-pound weight limit for packages sent via Parcel Post), and it only cost his parents 15 cents in postage (although they did insure him for $50). People thought it was cute, and more stories like this popped up.
There’s this famous story about Charlotte May Pierstorff. On February 19, 1914, this four-year-old girl was “mailed” via train to her grandparents’ house, about 73 miles away, by her parents! The reason for that was that it was cheaper than buying her a train ticket.
Her story was so famous that it was made into a children’s book, Mailing May.
You might wonder, “Why did the post office let this happen?” Well, back then, rural communities trusted their mail carriers a lot. Sometimes, these mail carriers even helped deliver babies or take care of sick people. So, when parents tried to send their kids through the mail, it wasn’t seen as too crazy.
After that, more stories like May’s popped up now and then. Some parents still managed to sneak their kids into the mail with the help of friendly workers in rural areas. But eventually, the postmaster had to step in.
On June 14, 1913, several newspapers, including the Washington Post, the New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times, spread the word that kids couldn’t be sent through the mail anymore. But according to Lynch, the story wasn’t completely true.
“According to the regulations at that point, the only animals that were allowed in the mail were bees and bugs,” Lynch says. “There’s an account of May Pierstorff being mailed under the chicken rate, but actually chicks weren’t allowed until 1918.”
Although the postmaster had stepped in to stop people from sending kids via mail, some kids still found their way into the mail due to incompetence or negligence on the part of the mail carriers.
“Mail carriers were trusted servants, and that goes to prove it,” Lynch says. “There are stories of rural carriers delivering babies and taking [care of the] sick. Even now, they’ll save lives because they’re sometimes the only persons that visit a remote household every day.”
Looking back, it seems pretty funny that kids were sent through the mail. But it also shows us how much people relied on their mail carriers and how creative they could be in finding ways to solve problems. Nowadays, we have lots of other ways to travel, so you won’t find any kids getting mailed anytime soon!