by Thomas Keesling

y Rediscovering a Philatelic Hoard article was written in 2001 and published in the April 2002 American Philatelist. In the years that followed, I did some research on some of the material mentioned in the article. I discovered that a couple of Dads 19th century postal history items were rare and others were previously unknown to the Indiana Postal History Society (IPHS) members. So, I wrote a few articles for the IPHS newsletter to share those discoveries. I also learned that the 1890 2-cent carmine Washington stamps, although quite common, were printed with numerous varieties that some collectors avidly seek. And, I learned that the incredibly common 2-cent Washington cut squares came from business envelopes that were printed with a surprising
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number of variations. Many of these variations had been identified in the 1950s. A list of these was published in the 2001 United Postal Stationery Society catalog of 19th century postal stationery. However, as I began to look at the thousands of cut squares, I discovered varieties that had not been included in that published list. I also gathered some data regarding the origins of those cut squares. The original article is presented here along with an addendum containing additional images of material we didnt include in the original article. Also, I didnt have a suitable map in 2001. The detailed map in the addendum (page 6) shows Union City along with west central Ohio and east central Indiana. It may be of particular interest to local history buffs.

This map is a composite created from two Rand, McNally & Company state maps. These maps were published in the companys 1889 Enlarged Business Atlas and Shippers Guide. This composite map seemed like an excellent way to show where Union City was situated geographically. Also, the

railroads are marked and identified. The counties are outlined in yellow, making them easy to identify. Union City is split by the state line and I have circled it to make it easier to find. Several of the communities that are referenced in the article and listed in the table on page 7 are on this map.

I have had more time to investigate some aspects of the wooden boxs contents since writing the original article. For example, I developed the two lists below. As I noted in the article, mail was arriving at Union City from all across the country. However, much of that mail originated from nearby Indiana and Ohio communities. These lists show the communities in those two states that I have been able to identify by examining the cut square cancellations. Many of these communities can be found on the map on page 6. I may be able to add another community or two to these lists. For example, the cut square shown in the upper right-hand corner on page 11 is from Ohio, but the town name is incomplete. Given the positioning of the EST letters within the date stamp, the name is probably no more than six letters long. With a little effort, this may be an easy one to identify and add to the Ohio list.

In addition to the two lists, I have included here a few scanned images of cut squares. These and many others were the basis for the development of the aforementioned lists and are presented on the following pages. Page 8 displays examples from Ohio while pages 9 and 10 display examples from Indiana. Most of the cut squares with legible dates were postmarked in 1892, indicating that most of this material was collected in that year. As I mentioned on page 4 of the article, some of the larger cut squares include portions of Union City business names. These names were part of the mailing addresses on the envelopes and they identify some of the recipients. Examples are displayed on page 11. Some are easy to decipher; others will require some work. Unfortunately, there arent very many of these examples and these are some of the best that I have to work with.

Regional cities and towns with identifiable cancels

Indiana
Anderson Bluffton Converse Decatur Dunkirk Elwood Farmland Fort Wayne Frankfort Gas City Jonesborough Hartford City Indianapolis Lafayette Logansport Montpelier Monticello Muncie Parker Portland Peru Redkey Richmond Rushville Terre Haute Union City Wabash Winchester

Ohio
Arcanum Bellfontaine Bucyrus Celina Cincinnati Cleveland Columbus Dayton Delphos Findlay Fremont Greenville Kenton Lima Mansfield North Star Piqua St. Marys St. Paris Sidney Toledo Uhrichsville Urbana Van Wert

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Very few of the cut squares show any evidence of the addressee, but here are a few of the exceptions. 11