AIRMAIL

Charles F. Walsh

Letter carried in 1912 from Nutwood Park.

AIRMAIL. Hoping to set a new world altitude record in Dubuque, pioneer aviators Lincoln BEACHEY and Charles Walsh and their dismantled planes arrived in Dubuque in July 1912 on the ILLINOIS CENTRAL RAILROAD. After reassembling their planes at Nutwood Park, the two men did some racing, but rain prevented their record-setting event. (1)

History was to be made another way. Dubuque was the scene of one of the first twelve flights in the United States authorized by the Post Office Department to carry mail. A temporary postal station at Nutwood Park was established by Postmaster Herman Ternes. Joseph S. Stewart, Second Assistant Postmaster General wrote: (2)

    The postmaster of Dubuque, Iowa is hereby 
    authorized to dispatch mail on July 20 and 
    21, 1912, from substation on the aviation 
    grounds to the post office, Dubuque, Iowa, 
    one trip, one way each day, by aeroplane 
    service, number of the route 643,001.

The first three numbers identified the state where the flight was to take place. The last three numbers were assigned in the order granted. (3)

U.S. Air Mail First Flight Cover.

Two clerks at the postal station received mail for the flights and sold stamps and cards. To commemorate the event, a special postcard with the cancellation: "Aerial Mail Service, July 20th, 21st Dubuque, Iowa" were available. (4)

Walsh, commissioned for the flight, flew with a pouch of 1,500 pieces of mail to a field at 32nd and Jackson where he dropped the sack to the ground. Byron L. Sanborn, a mail messenger, carried the sack in a horse-drawn wagon to the downtown post office. (5)

Regular airmail service did not begin in Dubuque until 1950. (6) The first airmail in Dubuque landed at the Dubuque AIRPORT on Tuesday, September 26, 1950 at 9:13 a.m. aboard a Mid-Continent plane. Meeting the cargo was Edward T. Freeman, assistant general superintendent of the Air Mail service in Chicago; Edward Hoffman, Dubuque superintendent of mails; and Ray Briggs, assistant postmaster.

U.S. Air Mail First Flight Cover.

Commemorating the first airmail flight from Dubuque to Sioux City

1938 National Air Mail Week commemorative envelope

1938 National Air Mail Week commemorative envelope

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Source:

1. Kruse, Len. "First Airmail Flight in Iowa," Julien's Journal, July 1996, p. 50

2. Ibid.

3. "Here-Farjola," Online: http://www.rfrajola.com/pioneer/pioneer.pdf

4. Ibid.

5. Ibid.

6. Ibid., p. 51