Past Covers

THE NEW JERSEY POSTAL HISTORY SOCIETY was established in 1972, to study and explore the many aspects of New Jersey postal history.

The society produces a quarterly award winning journal in electronic and hard copy format, which publishes articles on a variety of subjects relating to this theme. Join the Society and receive NJPHS Journal.

May 2020 Issue of the NJPH Journal ON THE ROAD TO LOGG GAOL….. The History of Johnsonburg by Jean R. Walton

Along the Johnsonburg-Allamuchy Road (County Route 612) is an historic marker – much like Benjamin Franklin’s post road mileposts – which tells the traveler he is approaching Logg Gaol. The sign alongside indicates the stone was erected in 1754. Why would Logg Gaol have warranted such a marker, on what today is a back road? The sign explains that Logg Gaol was the original county seat of Sussex County. Logg Gaol became today’s Johnsonburg in Warren County, one of today’s “forgotten New Jersey towns.” But it once was an important crossroads and a mail center. This article explains its former stature. ........Read more

February 2020 Issue of the NJPH Journal The Birth of New Jersey’s Post By Vernon R. Morris, Jr., MD

New to philately and first noted by Roland Cipolla, is a 1721 cover to New York, Figure 1, with manuscript 6d in the upper right corner, Figure 2. The internal dateline revealed a very early September 27, 1721 date, Figure 3. The letter is handwritten from Sherowesbury, 1 Figure 4. Manuscript 6d was indeed consistent with Crown post rates during 1721. Although no provincial colony of origin had been cited, important collateral information about the addressee, sender, and postal zone may be very helpful for that determination. ........Read more

November 2019 Issue of the NJPH Journal USS NEW JERSEY (BB 62) ~ FROM PHILADELPHIA TO CAMDEN: A Retrospective of 80 Years. Part I: World War II, First Commissioning By Captain Lawrence B. Brennan, US Navy (Retired)
Eighty years ago, the United States Navy ordered Battleship Number 62, ultimately to be named USS New Jersey, to be built at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard.3 Today, that ship is moored across the Delaware River at Camden, New Jersey as a Museum Ship. During the intervening nearly 50 years, ........Read more

August 2019 Issue of the NJPH Journal

Jersey Homesteads: A New Deal Community’s Postal History
by Robert G. Rose

During the depths of the Great Depression of the 1930’s, a planned community known as Jersey Homesteads was established in what was then a largely rural area in Monmouth County, New Jersey with the financial support of the federal government. Jersey Homesteads was one of 99 New Deal communities established during the depression. ........Read more

May 2019 Issue of the NJPH Journal PER THE MORRIS POST: Hibernia Furnace to New York City in 1774 by Tim O’Connor

The William Alexander archive in the New York Historical Society houses many letters from the pre-revolutionary and wartime eras. During an exploration of that archive I encountered two letters from Hibernia Furnace in Morris County, New Jersey which bore interesting superscriptions. They are the topic of this report.....Read more

February 2019 Issue of the NJPH Journal AN 1811 HAND DELIVERED PIECE OF POSTAL HISTORY by James Wardell

The recent acquisition of an 1811 letter from a Toronto antiques dealer has sent me down a rabbit hole of research, trying to uncover historical ties to this 207-year-old piece of paper. Initially the usual Google searches uncovered very little, but a connection to the New Jersey Postal History Society has proven very fruitful. Strictly speaking, since this letter was sent by favor and did not travel through the postal system, this article cannot be called a work of postal history. But it is certainly an example of social history, and a link to a past long gone, with connections to the present day....Read more...

November 2018 Issue of the NJPH Journal NEW JERSEY’S MOST VALUABLE COVER by Robert G. Rose

The recent auction of a portion of the famed William H. Gross collection included the most valuable cover in all of New Jersey postal history.1 Illustrated below is the cover on which is affixed a 4¢ brown imperforate stamp with Schermack Type III perforations, Scott 314A. Against a pre-sale estimate of $100-150,000 it sold for a hammer price of $130,000 plus an 18% buyer’s fee of $23,400 for a record total of $153,400.... Read more.....

August 2018 Issue of the NJPH Journal A.C. ROESSLER, A JERSEY LEGEND by John Lupia

Albert Charles Roessler, Jr. (1883-1952), 140 South Parkway, East Orange, New Jersey, coin and stamp dealer, began trading as a stamp dealer in Denver. Roessler was both a stamp and coin collector and dealer. His coin business lasted over thirty years. His stamp business was extraordinary and novel, introducing a myriad of artistic illustrations for stamps....Read more.....

May 2018 Issue of the NJPH Journal NEW JERSEY'S PIONEER AIR MAIL FLIGHTS by Robert G. Rose.

Within a decade of the Wright Brothers first flight of an airplane at Kitty Hawk in 1903, aviation advanced quickly. Beginning in 1910, mail was authorized to be carried on flights at aviation meets, exhibitions and demonstrations. In 1911, Congress appropriated $50,000 in order to officially sanction a series of aerial mail trials. By 1912, the Post Office had authorized 31 flights for short-haul experimental air mail delivery in 16 different states.... Read more.....

February 2018 Issue of the NJPH Journal POST OFFICE PAYMENTS FOR TRANSPORTATION OF THE MAILS by Don Bowe. Three interesting items in my collection are checks which were used for payment of transportation of the mails and associated expenses. They are from three different dates, May 26,1856, Sept. 17, 1859, and February 25, 1861. It is an opportunity to see the differences. All are checks written on the Post Office Department, and all say “Transportation of the Mails” at left. Presumably they drew on funds in the Post Office’s own vaults – note no banking firm is mentioned. The first, from 1856, has a picture of George Washington at top center.... Read more.....

November 2017 Issue of the NJPH Journal A COVER & LETTER FROM HENRY C. KELSEY - LEADER OF THE KELSEY RING by Andy Kupersmit This cover and accompanying original enclosures are full of clues to an earlier time and place, as a little research will show. The enclosures are a four-page letter on official government stationery and a fifth page hastily written and included in the envelope, all in the hand of Henry C. Kelsey, leader of the Kelsey Ring. The Kelsey Ring ran state Democratic politics for the final three decades of the 19th Century. The Ring chose the party’s candidates for governor, U.S. Senate and a host of lesser offices, and wrote the party Read more.....

August 2017 Issue of the NJPH Journal THE STORY OF THE MORRIS & ESSEX RAILROAD by Don Bowe First, a bit of New Jersey Railroad history…Colonel John Stevens is without a doubt the father of railroading in New Jersey, if not in this country. As early as 1809, he demonstrated the use of steam engines on a ferry, the Juliana, which ran between New York and Hoboken, and on ocean-going vessels. He watched with interest the development of a locomotive as early as 1803 by a Cornishman in Great Britain, followed by a locomotive designed by George Stephenson in 1814. In 1812, Stevens wrote a treatise entitled Documents tending to prove the superior advantages of railways and steam carriages over canal navigation. Read more.....

May 2017 Issue of the NJPH Journal COMMEMORATING THE 100TH ANNIVERSARY OF WORLD WAR I IN NEW JERSEY CANCELS by Robert G. Rose The Centennial of what was once called the “Great War” is marked by the 100th anniversary of the United States entry on April 6, 1917, in what we now remember as World War I. Because New Jersey’s location on the east coast provided easy access for the movement of troops and war supplies to the Western Front, the State became the home to a number of military installations in support of the war effort. Post offices were established at several of these locations. This article

provides a survey of the postmarks that were applied to the mails at these United States Army camps and hospitals in New Jersey during WW I. Read more.....

February 2017 Issue of the NJPH Journal ADDITION TO THE SOUTHARD CORRESPONDENCE: “RASCALITY IN BRAZIL” by Andy Kupersmit

From July 2001 to February 2014, the name Samuel Southard appears in several issues of the New Jersey Postal History Society Journal. That can now be extended to February 2017. This cover came to light when a collection of New Brunswick (and New Jersey in general) was recently sold. This cover is addressed to Hon. Samuel Southard as Secretary of the Navy, Washington, D.C. It has a red “New Brunswick Jul. 19” cds and a matching red “FREE” handstamp at top right, and is datelined “New Brunswick July 19th (18)27” Read more......

November 2016 Issue of the NJPH Journal OVER THERE! A JERSEY CITY DOUGHBOY'S JOURNEY TO FRANCE AND HOME by John A. Trosky

Over the next two years America will remember those who fought and died “Over There” as we honor those who served during this centennial remembrance of US involvement in World War I. The Great War, the War To End All Wars, just the names conjure images of doughboys going over the top, Black Jack Pershing, Liberty Bonds and the untold slaughter of men by artillery barrage and machine guns amid the stalemate in the trenches on the Western Front in France. Read more.....

August 2016 Issue of the NJPH Journal MAIL SENT ABROAD FROM MORRIS COUNTY: PART I by Don Chafetz. A prepaid cover at the new 12¢ rate sent to Mrs. or Admiral Radford in the United Kingdom from Morristown, New Jersey in December 1869. Admiral William Radford was promoted to Rear Admiral in 1866 and commanded the US European Squadron from 1869 to 1870. His wife was Mary Elizabeth Lovell and the Radford family resided in Morristown for many years. Read more.....

May 2016 Issue of the NJPH Journal POSTAL CARDS and HIRAM E. DEATS

by Larry T. Nix I became aware of Hiram E. Deats (1870-1963), the famous New Jersey philatelist and collector and member of the American Philatelic Society Hall of Fame, through my interest in postal items related to libraries. Deats had a number of significant connections with philatelic and non-philatelic libraries. In going through thousands of dealer covers and searching eBay for library related items I kept coming across postal items related to Deats... Read more.....

February 2016 Issue of the NJPH Journal THE FIRST U.S. WARSHIP SUNK ON 7 DECEMBER 1941: NEW JERSEY-BUILT BATTLESHIP, USS OKLAHOMA (BB 37)1 by Captain Lawrence B. Brennan, U.S. Navy (Retired). Member, NJPHS USS Oklahoma (BB 37) was built by New York Shipbuilding in Camden, New Jersey. She was the first U.S. warship sunk in the Pacific during World War II and was violently destroyed with massive loss of life. She was struck on the port side by as many as nine aircraft-launched torpedoes, and capsized within 12 minutes. The battleship sank at Pearl Harbor... Read more.....

November 2015 Issue of the NJPH Journal THE HISTORY OF THE BATSTO POST OFFICE by Arne Englund The cover shown in Figure 1 is the first reported example of the stampless-era Batsto, NJ CDS. At NOJEX in 2013 I asked one of the cover dealers if he had any New Jersey covers, and he replied that he only had a few, which he’d just acquired. This cover was on the top of the small stack, where it stayed for all of about two seconds(!)... Read more.....

August 2015 Issue of the NJPH Journal STRAIGHT LINE POST MARKS OF NJ: LAWRENCEVILLE by Robert G. Rose....The U.S. Philatelic Classics Society is in the process of completing an update of the American Stampless Cover Catalog, which was last revised in 1997. That project has been supported by the New Jersey Postal History Society, whose members have... Read more.....

May 2015 Issue of the NJPH Journal LINCOLN FUNERAL TRAIN PASSES THROUGH NEW JERSEY by Jean Walton The Civil War ended on April 9, 1865, and only one week later, our 16th President was dead from an assassin’s bullet. This mourning cover for Lincoln....Read more.....

February 2015 Issue of the NJPH Journal SHORT-LIVED NEW JERSEY POST OFFICES By Arne Englund New Jersey has had over 900 name-different post offices over the course of time. Of these, however, 124 were in operation for only a year or less. Another 28 operated for less than two years...Read more.....

November 2014 Issue of the NJPH Journal N.J. LOCAL POSTS: BAYONNE CITY DISPATCH By Larry Lyons This is the third of a series of articles on New Jersey’s local stamps. Local Posts were established as early as the 1840’s by enterprising private individuals and companies who carried letters within city limits – including to and from Post Offices.... Read more.....

August 2014 Issue of the NJPH Journal AN EARLY BURLINGTON POSTMARKED COVER By Ed & Jean Siskin Burlington, New Jersey was founded by two Quaker groups in 1677, five years earlier than Philadelphia. It was a planned community and the original draft map of the town prepared in 1678, contains many of the same street names that exist today.... Read more.....

May 2014 Issue of the NJPH Journal NEW JERSEY’S NEGATIVE LETTERED STAMPLESS POSTMARKS by Robert G. Rose During the period that domestic stampless mail was permitted ending in 1855, two New Jersey post offices employed negative lettered handstamped postmarks. As a branch of postal history known as “marcophily,” these markings are avidly collected for their eye-catching

appearance... Read more.....

February 2014 Issue of the NJPH Journal BRIDGETON FORERUNNER, 1694 By Ed & Jean Siskin The excellent articles on the Bridgeton Post Office and its postmasters by Doug D’Avino started with its first United States post office in 1792. As a prequel to those articles, it is worth discussing a letter from the Bridgeton area a century earlier.... Read more.....

November 2013 Issue of the NJPH Journal JERSEY CITY AND THE BEGINNING OF BIG TOBACCO By John A. Trosky P. Lorillard & Company, one of the most iconic names in the tobacco industry in America, had its beginnings in the New York City area in the mid 17th century. The company was founded by Pierre Abraham Lorillard, a French Huguenot, in the year 1760. Its small beginnings... Read more.....

August 2013 Issue of the NJPH Journal UNOFFICIAL REGISTRATION OF NEW JERSEY STAMPLESS COVERS By James W. Milgram, M.D.

From November 1, 1845 to June 30, 1855 there was an unofficial type of Registration of valuable letters at most post offices within the United States. The first marking is the large blue “R” applied on receipt at Philadelphia beginning in 1845... Read more.....

May 2013 Issue of the NJPH Journal STAGE OPERATIONS AND THE MAILS IN NEW JERSEY© By Steven M. Roth (© 2013. Steven M. Roth) Prior to the Revolutionary War, major travel in the American colonies was restricted for the most part to the... Read more.....

February 2013 Issue of the NJPH Journal INTENDED FOR THE GRAF ZEPPELIN BUT CARRIED BY STEAMER? A 1929 Jersey City Transatlantic Airmail to Basel Switzerland by John Trosky The first decades of the 20th century saw the dawn of a new age in mail transport, airmail. By the late 1920s... Read more.....

November 2012 Issue of the NJPH Journal LEGISLATIVE FRANKS OF NEW JERSEY by Ed & Jean Siskin The franking privilege is the right to send and or receive mail free from postage... Read more.....

August 2012 Issue of the NJPH Journal HADLEY AIR FIELD, NEW BRUNSWICK. NEW JERSEY by Jim Walker Early air mail service in the New York area used an assortment of air fields on Long Island. Hazlehurst Field was the one in use at the commencement of Transcontinental Air Mail Service in 1924 and was deemed inadequate due to smoke from city industries and ocean fog... Read more.....

May 2012 Issue of the NJPH Journal FIVE CENT 1856 STAMP ON COVERS FROM NEW JERSEY by Robert G. Rose Have you ever fantasized, as have I, of forming a collection of United States classic stamps used on covers from New Jersey? If so, the task to put such a collection together would be a real challenge....Read more.....

February 2012 Issue of the NJPH Journal A WONDERFUL REVOLUTIONARY LETTER by Ed and Jean Sisken In the Oct-Nov 1988 issue of La Posta, Tom Clarke wrote an article about a wonderful Revolutionary War cover he had. Dated February 16, 1777, from New Brunswick, New Jersey...Read more.....

November 2011 Issue of the NJPH Journal NEW JERSEY CIVIL WAR COVERS - WYMAN THE WIZARD! If you were to conduct a detailed review of the 190 Civil War patriotic covers illustrated in NJPH whole nos. issues 100 and 117, or the online exhibit of covers shown at NOJEX, you can begin to see the emergence of some interesting patterns among the covers. An obvious pattern is that there are several different correspondences represented in the illustrated covers... Read more.....

August 2011 Issue of the NJPH Journal New Elizabeth, NJ Marking ELIZABETHTOWN STAMPLESS POSTMARK ALTERED TO READ “ELIZABETH”! This newly-discovered Elizabeth postmark falls at the time the name was changed from Elizabethtown to Elizabeth, and a new handstamp was created from an existing Elizabeth-town postmark... Read more.....

May 2011 Issue of the NJPH Journal CIVIL WAR PATRIOTIC COVERS FROM NEW JERSEY. The cover below is dated Mar. 10 from Bloomsbury, NJ to West Liberty, Ohio, with the imprint of S.C. Rickards, Stationers, 102 Nassau Street, N.Y., and shows one of the rare New Jersey Civil War patriotic images... Read more.....

February 2011 Issue of the NJPH Journal A FOLDED LETTER IN ART - WAS IT FROM NEW JERSEY? This painting by Jacques-Louis David, painted in 1821, shows two Bonaparte princesses reading a stampless folded letter from their father, Joseph Bonaparte, brother of Napoleon. Was it written to them from New Jersey? Read more.....

November 2010 Issue of the NJPH Journal REVOLUTIONARY WAR COVER The cover of our most recent journal features this Revolutionary item, from Don Chafetz’s prize-winning exhibit of Morris County Mail Service, 1760 to 1850... Read more.....

August 2010 Issue of the NJPH Journal NEW JERSEY ILLUSTRATED LETTER SHEETS These items were made popular by the nice ones that exist from the California Gold Rush days, and those used during the Civil War, where they depicted contemporary scenes at the top of the letter sheet, the rest of which was then used to write a letter. Earliest examples usually included an attached sheet and were used as stampless folded letters. Later ones were more like letterheads, and were sent enclosed in envelopes... Read more.....

May 2010 Issue of the NJPH Journal CELEBRATES THE 100TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA! Treasure Island Scout Camp occupies a fifty-seven acre island in the Delaware River between Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The camp is operated by the Cradle of Liberty Council (formerly the Philadelphia Council), Boy Scouts of America... Read more.....

February 2010 Issue of the NJPH Journal 1995 COVER OF THE AIRCRAFT CARRIER USS KITTY HAWK, the last of the conventionally-powered US aircraft carriers, decommissioned in 2009. This great ship served almost 50 years in service of her country... Read more.....

November 2009 Issue of the NJPH Journal Holiday Greetings from Viet Nam Just before Christmas of 1971, a GI-produced Christmas card was distributed to the troops of the 101st Airborne for them to send home. A hand-made envelope served to carry it home to New Jersey. As it was late in December, member Jim Walker used a U.S. air mail stamp instead of the usual free frank available to soldiers in combat... Read more.....

August 2009 Issue of the NJPH Journal featuring a a Graf Zeppelin cover. L127 First Trip to the USA in 1928. Special credit to John Trosky for this nice article! WEB-SITE SPECIAL: an addendum to this article with additional information on an originating 1928 LZ-127 cover from Len Peck! Read more.....

May 2009 Issue of the NJPH Journal featuring a DPO cover from Maurer, New Jersey. A pretty little letter sheet invitation from a local hotel in Maurer (now part of Perth Amboy, Middlesex County), NJ turned up at the Garfield-Perry Show in Cleveland, in JWF (Jim Faber’s) stock. Used in 1905, it is from a community that literally does not exist anymore. The location is now the site of a large “tank farm” belonging to Chevron.... Read more.....

February 2009 Issue of the NJPH Journal featuring a cameo campaign cover. A December 15, Hoboken, NJ postmarked Embossed Cameo Campaign Envelope produced by William Eaves was offered this March by Robert A. Siegel Auctions featuring a beardless Abe Lincoln. Only a few examples are known. This Hoboken, New Jersey cover hammered on March 25, 2009 for $2600.00 before the 15% buyers premium! Read more.....

November 2008 Issue of the NJPH Journal featuring a cover of seasonal greeting. A RFD ”Season’s Greetings” post card, canceled December 24, 1915 with a Pittstown, NJ postmark, sent by the carrier on Route 2 out of Pittstown to the people along his route. Special thanks to Member Jim Walker for sharing this cover... Read more.....

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