Yarmouth Post Office and Postal Service

Text

Nowadays we take for granted that our mail will conveniently be placed in our mailboxes daily. But 200 years ago, people were not so lucky. The mail service in Yarmouth has come a long way, and the following is a timeline of the Yarmouth mail service.

1806 - The first Yarmouth post office opened in June 1806 with Dr. H.G. Farish as the postmaster.

1812 - Parties interested in mail service would pay $40.00 per year to have Mr. Jesse Wyman carry mail from Yarmouth to Digby. He carried the mail on horseback and would make the trip weekly. He sometimes had only two or three pieces of mail.

1834 - On October 15th, 1834, James T.C. Enslow started running a mail service each week between Yarmouth and Shelburne. He would leave Yarmouth every Wednesday afternoon at precisely 4 p.m. and would return back from Shelburne every Monday, leaving at precisely 10 a.m.

1836 - On June 24th, 1836, Jesse Wyman, who previously provided mail service from Yarmouth to Digby on horseback, began using a covered carriage, which was drawn by horses. He would leave Yarmouth every Sunday morning at 6 a.m. and would arrive in Digby on Monday at 12 p.m. He would then leave Digby on Tuesday immediately after the arrival of the steamboat from Annapolis.

1847 - On January 11th, 1847, a semi-weekly mail service via Digby began running. This allowed Yarmouth residents to receive Boston and Halifax newspapers.

1853 - Young & Hutchinson put a new covered coach on the Digby to Yarmouth line. This new line ran three times a week.

1854 - On June 4th, 1854, a new daily mail service started between Yarmouth and Halifax. The route would run three times via Digby and three times via Shelburne.  

1886 - This three-storey structure housed the Post Office and Customs Office. Located on the corner of John and Main Streets. The clock faces that overlooked Main Street in this building were six-feet tall. Unfortunately, the Post Office was torn down in 1959, but people can still see the clock faces prominently displayed in the tower of the Town Hall Building on Main Street.

Some of the postmasters who have been employed in the Town of Yarmouth were, H.G. Farish (1806), Richard Huntington (1856 and 1860), Abel C. Robbins (1857), A. Lawson (1863) and Alexander J. Hood (1864).