Meet the nation’s first postmaster: The genius who started the U.S. Postal Service 250 years ago

Even before it declared its independence from Great Britain, the United States established the Postal Service on 26 July 1775. Carl Van Doren said of the person chosen to be the first Postmaster General “sometimes, with his marvelous range, in spite of his personal tang, he seems to have been more than any single man: a harmonious human multitude.”

The person he was referring to was Benjamin Franklin. He was perhaps one of the most intriguing Founding Fathers, not only for his personal life but also for his numerous accomplishments as a jack of all trades.

Printer, writer, scientist, inventor, civic leader, diplomat, statesman and postal pioneer

Franklin was born on 17 January 1706 in Boston, Massachusetts. He only attended school until age 10 when he went to work in his father’s candle shop. Two years later he became an apprentice to his brother James, who was a printer and who started the New England Courant.

While that education would serve him well for the rest of his life, his brother was a tyrant and abusive, so he ran away at age 17. He relocated to Philadelphia where he found work as a printer. A few years later he had his own print shop and then purchased The Pennsylvania Gazette.

He was tapped to be the postmaster of Philadelphia for the British Crown Post in 1737, which while it didn’t pay much, it helped his newspaper. That’s because the previous postmaster, who printed a rival newspaper, wouldn’t let Franklin’s travel by mail.

He made several reforms like letting all newspapers travel by mail for a price and letting customers pay a penny to carriers to deliver mail that didn’t have to go through a post office. Those in turn helped the North American British Crown Post turn a profit for the first time in 1760. However, he lost his post in 1774 for being deemed too sympathetic to the colonies who were chaffing at imperial dominance.

His prior experience and success in the position made him an excellent candidate to become the first Postmaster General of the US Postal Service upon its creation by the Second Continental Congress, in which he took part, on 26 July 1775.

However, the following year in November he left for France on a diplomatic mission to secure that nation’s support in the colonies’ fight against the British leaving his son-in-law in charge.

He was successful in that endeavor, and he was also part of the delegation that negotiated and secured the peace with Great Britain in 1783.

Among his other achievements was helping draft the Declaration of Independence and taking part in the 1787 Constitutional Convention. He was also an avid inventor developing the lightning rod, bifocal glasses and the Franklin stove to name just a few.

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