Buckingham County Post Offices, Part II
Courtesy Gene Lightfoot Collection.
This beautiful envelope was mailed from Buckingham Female Collegiate Institute at Gravel Hill. The handwritten cancelation reads November 8, 1860. An example of intra-Buckingham mail, the letter was only going as far as Diana Mills to Henry St. George Harris. The sender is unknown.
Postmasters at Gravel Hill included: Beverly A. Brown (1839), John B. [last name and date illegible], Beverly A. Brown (1853), Mrs. Sarah West (1866), Mattie J. West (1875), and Laura W. Claiborne (1901). The mail delivery moved to Dillwyn, effective June 26, 1905.
Beverly A. Brown was also an initial trustee of The Institute.
It’s easy to imagine the lovely young ladies of The Institute coming and going to the post office, visiting West’s country store, eager to send and receive news via the US mails.
Coming Next: Buckingham County Post Offices, Part III
slate river ramblings . . . . 
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