::: Mail Via San Francisco and Panama :::
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Back to Pre-Postal Mail.
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Chart of the California route and the steamship route between San Francisco and New
York via an overland transit across the isthmus of Panama.
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Plans began in 1845 to create a steamship route connecting the Eastern United States to Astoria in the Oregon
Territory. The plan called for steamers to run between New York and Chagres, on the Caribbean Coast of Panama. There
passengers would disembark and transfer to river boats to carry them up the Chagres River to a landing at Gorgona.
From there, the route would utilize mules to cross the cordillera and drop down to the city of Panama on the
Pacific Coast. Other steamers would run between Panama and Astoria to complete the route. By early 1848, these
plans were well underway with the first scheduled departure from New York to sail later that year.
Gold was discovered in the mountains east of Sacramento in early 1848. Word of this discovery reached New York after
the first steamship for California, the steamer California, departed in late 1848. When she reached Panama City
after rounding Cape Horn a throng of Argonauts clammored for a berth. When the California reached San Francisco,
the crew deserted and headed for the diggings. Plans to make Astoria the Pacific terminus were abandoned and San
Francisco became the end of the line. After initial problems in getting things organized, a post office was open by
March 15, 1849. Within a few weeks, the next steamship, the Oregon, arrived and unloaded beneath the guns of a U.S.
naval ship to prevent desertion. The first steamer mail was dispatched by the Oregon on April 12. and the Panama
Route began to function. Postage for the new route was high – 40 cents per half ounce, to which a 2 cents ship fee
was added for letters deposited at the post office from ships arriving from a foreign port.
News of the new route was published in Honolulu, even before confirmation arrived to know it was in operation.
Despite the high postage, the Panama Route quickly became the preferred way to send mail because of the speed plus
the security of knowing it would be carried in the U.S. mail once it was deposited at the San Francisco Post Office.
From this point until the overland stages became well established in 1859, almost all mail between Hawaii and the
Eastern United States or Europe was carried via San Francisco and Panama.
The first cover from Hawaii to go by the new steamship route via San Francisco:
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M. Cook, a traveler from Valparaiso en route to China began this letter on March 1, 1849, at sea, and finished it on March 11 when "we are now running into
Honolulu". While at Valparaiso, he saw two steamships bound for San Francisco and learned they were to commence operating a new mail route from San
Francisco to New York via Panama; Cook brought this news to Honolulu. Information about sending letters for the new steamship line was published in The
Polynesian edition of March 17, 1849.
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At Honolulu, Cook's letter was put aboard the Hawaiian schooner S. S., departing March 14 via Lahaina for San Francisco,
arriving in the heart of the Gold Rush on April 16, 1849. The new San Francisco post office was still without any
postmarking device so the letter was postmarked on April 17 by writing the name of the town and the rating marks
"Ship" and "42" to indicate an incoming ship letter rated at 42¢ to be collected from the addressee. Postage
included the ship fee of 2¢ and the 40¢ overland rate by the newly established steamship route. The letter was sent
east on the first voyage of the steamer California from San Francisco, departing May 1.
Contents of this letter reveal how voyagers took opportunities to send mail home while en route from the Atlantic
States to the Pacific. Cook's letter mentions he sent correspondence home on two occasions between Boston and
Honolulu. In the Atlantic off South America he sent letters by an "English Brig bound into Rio Janeiro." Later in
the voyage, on the Pacific off South America, he sent letters by a Chilean Brig bound into Valparaiso "there to be
forwarded by steamer to Panama."
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The second cover from Hawaii to go by the new steamship route:
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This cover enclosed a May 17, 1849 letter from Joel Turrill, the United States Consul at Honolulu, to his brother-in-law, Stephen
Lathrop. The cover is the only known cover bearing the San Francisco straightline, the first handstamp postmark adopted by the San
Francisco post office and used for a few weeks in 1849. This cover also represents the first recorded envelope (as opposed to a folded
letter) from Hawaii. The "40" rate rather than "42", shown on this cover indicates it was sent to San Francisco and deposited in the
Post Office there without being treated as a ship letter – probably enclosed in a letter packet addressed to a friend or agent in San
Francisco who posted the letters as ordinary domestic letters at the San Francisco Post Office.
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This cover to Gilbert Pendleton was datelined October 17, 1849 at Lahaina, Maui.
In August, 1849, San Francisco began using a circular date stamp, seen on this cover, and also obtained devices
for marking the rate to eliminate need for manuscripting the rates.
See San Francisco Postal Markings.
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This folded letter dated October 18, 1850, addressed to Charles Brewer, a San Francisco commission merchant is
the last recorded cover to leave Honolulu before Hawaii's first postal service was inaugurated on November 2, 1850,
in the form of a letter bag kept for the public at the office of The Polynesian, Honolulu's government owned
newspaper. Letters addressed for delivery to someone in San Francisco were charged the United States ship fee of
six cents, here shown by the well-known San Francisco "clamshell" SHIP/6 rate mark.
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Pre-Postal Covers Sent Via San Francisco and Panama
| Year |
From: Date/Place |
SF Date |
Notes |
Source Reference |
| 1849 |
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3/14 Honolulu |
Newburyport |
From N. Cook to Graves, Newburyport, Mass. with SF manuscript postmark |
File copy |
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4/19 Boston Incoming |
? |
To Honolulu with Boston cds and "Paid 40," evidently rated for the Panama route via SF |
Fox Auction 8/66, lot 383 (no photo) |
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5/23 Newburyport Incoming |
? |
To Makee Anthon & Co., Honolulu with PAID and ms "40" |
Fox Auction 8/66, lot 384, Siegel Auction No. 615, lot 639 |
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? Honolulu |
6/20 |
From Joel Turrill to Stephen Lathrop, Oswego, N. Y. with straight-line SAN FRANCISCO and ms June 20 |
Advertiser Sale, lot 2078 |
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6/30 Honolulu |
8/1 |
From Joel Turrill to Stephen Lathrop, Oswego, N. Y. with SF cds and ms "42" rate mark |
Wierenga, Incoming Steamship Letters, p. 27 |
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7/1 Honolulu |
9/1 |
From Turrill to Lathrop, Oswego, N. Y. with SF cds and ms "42" rate mark |
Advertiser Sale, lot 2079 |
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8/22 Honolulu |
10/1 |
From Turrill to Lathrop, Oswego, N. Y. with SF cds and Starkey Janion & Co. oval fwd mark |
Advertiser Sale, lot 2118 |
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? Honolulu |
10/1 |
To Chapman in Mass. with SF cds and Starkey Janion & Co. oval fwd mark |
Wolffers Auction No. 104, lot 1445 |
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? Honolulu |
10/1 |
To Mary Norton, North Guilford, Conn. with SF cds and ms "Ship 42" |
Wolffers Auction No. 186, lot 1486 |
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9/9 Ewa |
11/1 |
To Auburn, N. Y. with SF cds and boxed 40 |
Siegel Auction No. 615, lot 638 |
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9/16 Bridgeport |
? Lahaina |
To Lahaina with Wm. Ladd/Honolulu fwd mark, PAID and 40 |
Siegel Auction No. 397, lot 460 |
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9/26 Honolulu |
11/1 |
To Lathrop, Oswego, N. Y. with SF cds and boxed 40 |
FShreve Auction 6/6/97, lot 343 |
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9/26 Honolulu |
11/1 |
To Mrs. Annie ..., New York with SF cds and boxed 80 and ms "45" |
8 Heliograph No. 4, p. 29 |
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10/17 Lahaina |
11/20 |
To Gilbert Pendleton, Waverly, R. I. with SF cds and boxed 40
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File copy |
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10/19 Honolulu |
? |
To Sir George Simpson, London (arrived Jan. 19, 1850; carried privately with Maitland, Phelps NY fwd mark |
File copy |
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11/1 Lahaina |
11/27 |
To Swift & Allen, New Bedford with SF cds and boxed 40
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Rust Sale (Siegel Auction No. 681), lot 575 |
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11/3 Honolulu |
11/28 |
To Amsterdam via California, NY and London with SF cds and boxed 40, also ms "40", English 9½d and European rate marks |
Advertiser Sale, lot 2080 |
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11/14 ? |
11/1 |
To Durham & Co., New Bedford, Mass. with SF cds and boxed 40 |
Siegel Auction No. 790, lot 1122 |
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11/19 Honolulu |
11/1 |
To New Bedford; SF cds |
Harris Auction No. 1, lot 5 |
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? Honolulu |
11/1 |
From Joel Turrill to Lathrop, Oswego, N. Y. with SF cds and boxed 40
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Siegel Auction No. 397, lot 447 |
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11/30 Honolulu |
1/14 |
From George Lathrop to Stephen Lathrop with SF cds and boxed 40 |
Advertiser Sale, lot 2081 |
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12/2 Honolulu |
1/14 |
To Lathrop, Oswego, N. Y. with boxed 80 |
Kelleher Auction No. 585, lot 1778 |
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12/22 Honolulu |
1/30 |
To S. H. Lathrop, Oswego, N. Y. with SF cds and "1.20 ms rate mark
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Pietsch Sale (Shreve Auction 9/27/96, lot 1658
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12/23 Honolulu |
1/30 |
To S. H. Lathrop, Oswego, N. Y. with SF cds and boxed 40; ms "per English Bark Daniel Grant"
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Advertiser Sale, lot 2082 |
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12/30 Honolulu |
2/28 |
To Mrs. Thomas Watt with oval Makee Anthon fwd mark and ms "Via Panama"; SF cds
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Advertiser Sale, lot 2107 |
| 1850 |
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1/_ Honolulu |
2/8 |
To Lathrop, Oswego, N. Y. with boxed 40 and Starkey & Janion Honolulu oval fwd mark
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Letters of Gold, p. 119 |
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1/15 ? |
? |
To New York State with boxed 80 |
Siegel Auction No. 316, lot 18 (no photo) |
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2/5 Honolulu |
3/6 |
To Stephen Lathrop, Oswego, N. Y. from Joel Turrill with "San Francisco 40" cds
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Advertiser Sale, lot 2083 |
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? Honolulu |
4/8 |
To Stephen Lathrop, Oswego, N. Y. from Joel Turrill with "San Francisco 80" cds and ms "Rev May 27/50
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Siegel Auction No. 397, lot 446
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? Honolulu |
4/8 |
To Pennsylvania with "San Francisco 40" cds |
Siegel Auction No. 397, lot 448 |
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3/27 Lahaina |
5/15 |
To Cooke, Lewiston Falls, Maine with FORWARDED VIA PANAMA By BUSH & CO, LAHAINA fwd mark, "San Francisco 40" cds and PER STMR ISTHMUS straight-line
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Advertiser Sale, lot 2094 |
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? Honolulu |
6/1 |
To Stephen Lathrop, Oswego, N. Y. with SF cds and clamshell SHIP 6
(misapplied and overstruck by "42" ms rate mark) |
Rust Sale (Siegel Auction No. 681), lot 578 |
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? Honolulu |
6/1 |
To Stephen Lathrop, Oswego, N. Y. with SF cds and ms "Ship 42" |
Spelman Auction No. 58, lot 1252 |
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6/2 Honolulu |
6/29 |
To James Hunnewell, Boston with SF cds and ms "Ship 42" |
Blake Sale (Siegel Auction No. 363), lot 613 |
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? |
8/12 |
To Chapman in Mass. with ms "Ship 42" |
Wolffers Auction No. 104, lot 1447 |
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Honolulu 8/2 |
- |
To England from Maj.Gen. Thomas Collinson w/Crown in circle
receiving stamp; via Cape Horn |
Siegel #647, lot 2483 |
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Honolulu 9/24 |
10/21 |
To Ellis & Crosby, SF w/red clamshell 6 and Sept. 24, 1850
Honolulu dateline; the SF cds is Mahoney 6-1 but varies from Williams type 310 in that "RECd" appears below the
date instead of above it |
MH, fig. 3; Rumsey #26, lot 2327 |
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Honolulu 10/18 |
11/14 |
Collect to Chas. Brewer, SF w/red clamshell 6 and red SF cds
(Mahoney 3-1, Williams 280) and October 18, 1850 Honolulu dateline |
Siegel #397, lot 424 |
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