808. Remember When You Could Mail Your Kids to Grandma

Once upon a time in a far off America, it became possible to mail your children to Grandma's if you had enough stamps. On New Years Day of 1913, the Post Office lifted the "four pound" restriction on the mailing of packages or "parcels." Therefore, after New Years a parcel could be mailed that did not exceed eleven pounds or 72 inches in length and girth combined! You could even insure your parcel, send it C.O.D. with the rate determined by the distance. This was later increased to 50 then 70 pounds and 130 inches in length and girth combined.

However, it didn't take long before Americans began to take advantage of unintended ambiguity of the new postal rules. Within just two weeks an under eleven pound baby by the name of James Beagle (Beauge) was checked at the rail station for delivery to his grandparent several miles away in Ohio. The cost was .15 in stamps! As soon as it hit the newspapers others fell in line to tryout the much cheaper way of transportation. A Pennsylvania couple mailed their daughter to nearby relatives for only .45 cents but took the precaution of insuring the child for $50. Soon the fad caught on and the postal clerks had their hands full!

Naturally, the government responded quickly in 1914 by ruling out any more mailing of human beings. The most well known of the traveling children was a young six-year old girl by the name of Charlotte May Pierstorff (1908-1987) who weighed in at 49 pounds! She was placed on a railroad car in Grangeville, Idaho, complete with .53 cents worth of stamps licked and placed onto her suitcase. Luckily, it was only 73 miles to Lewiston but in later years she became legendary in a children's story book under the name of "Mailing Mary" according to Nancy Pope of the National Postal Museum. Fortunately for young May she was accompanied an uncle who was a clerk for the railroad's mail service.

May was the daughter of John Elmer Pierstorff (1875-1953) and Sarah Charlotte Vennigerholz (1887-1944) and her father supported the family as a stock herder. May would marry Kay William Sipes (1901-1970), a WWI Marine Corps Veteran who passed away in 1970. Mailing May would join her husband in Lewis-Clark Memorial Cemetery in 1987.

But of all the children nationwide who were became parcels of the Post Office, the title of "the longest distance a child was mailed" belongs solely in the hands of none other than Pensacola, Florida! Even though outlawed in 1914, a young Pensacola mother by the name of Alma Ellen Caldwell (1890-1959) went down to the L&N freight office at 230 East Garden Street and purchased .15 cents worth of stamps. When the time came she loaded her six-year old daughter Edna Louise Naff (1908-1969) onto the train and mailed her 720 miles to her father John Tazwell Naff (1868-1963) in Christiansburg, Virginia. John had been born there in 1868 and would marry 14-year old Alma Ellen Caldwell on April 7, 1904.

John's father was William H. Naff (1845-1918) who married Mary Jane Lamps (1849-1931) in 1867 in Floyd County. William would serve the Confederacy as a private in Company "D" of the 5th Virginia Cavalry Regiment. He enlisted on 6-15-1863 at the Orange County Courthouse. His father was William H. Naff (1845-1918) who married Mary Jane Lamps (1849-1931) in 1867 in Floyd Co., Va. William would serve the Confederacy as a private in Company "D" of the 5th Virginia Cavalry after enlisting on 6-15-1863 at the Orange County Courthouse, Virginia. William would participate in the bloody battles of Brandy Station, Gettysburg, Bristoe, Mine Run, the Wilderness and Cold Harbor, as well as Early's Shenandoah Valley operations. The regiments last muster roll of March and April 1864 showed that William was AWOL.

Edna's mother Alma would split with her father before remarrying Cuyler Angus Frater in 1919, and Arthur William Meekins (1877-1947) in 1943. By 1950, Alma was living next door to Edna in Warrington. Edna and grown up to marry James Osborn Justice (1904-1978) on 2-27-1924 in Pensacola. Four years later they had called it quits and Edna would remarry in 1939 to Robert Frederick McKinney (1916-1980). Edna would pass away in 1969 and was buried at Barrancas Cemetery where Robert would join her in 1980. But sadly, Edna's notoriety would fade into obscurity with the passage of time and was soon forgotten entirely!