POSTAL SERVICE IN DUTCHESS COUNTY - revisited William P. McDermott Since last year when the summary of Dutchess County post offices appeared in the yearbook (1) additional information has been obtained. Some new information and a few corrections of the previously published information will be noted in the following paragraphs. By the way, in last year's work page 107 & 108 were inadvertently transposed. Simply changing the numbers of these pages will result in a smoother reading of the text. New information shows the existence of a post office at Washington Hollow at an earlier date. The ledger on file at the National Archives lists a post office at "Hollow" in 1813 with William Germond serving as postmaster. (2) About 1818 the name was changed to Washington Hollow with Luther Gay serving as postmaster from 1818-1828. The name "Hollow" does not appear again after 1818. Therefore, the initial listing for Washington Hollow should be revised to 1813 to make last year's list correct. In addition there is an interesting wrinkle in all of this which intrudes itself in 1817. "Hartsville" is listed in 1817 as a post office with William Sharpsteen serving as postmaster. It is also noted as a probable location of a post office by Spafford. (3) A notation in the post office ledger indicates Hartsville was changed to Hollow on 3/25/1818. (4) This implies a round trip from Hollow in 1813 for one or two years to Hartsville for a year or so and back to Hollow again. But it now appears that separate post offices existed in Hartsville and Washington Hollow. A notation in the National Archives source (5) suggests that "Hollow" and "Hartsville" may have been alternate locations about 18171818. The 1819 Postal Directory (6) lists "Hartsville or Hollow." Hartsville does not appear again in available sources (7,8) until "Hartsburgh" is listed on 6/4/1828. (9) And in 1836 there was a post office listing at "Hart's village" (10) and "Hartsville" (11). In summary, Washington Hollow appears to have had a post office continuously from 1813 with a name change from "Hollow." A post office may have existed at Hart's village under the name of Hartsville as early as 1813. Perhaps it operated intermittently until about 1819-1820. Its next appearance in 1828 probably establishes it as a post office on a more continuous basis. More recent information shows that Bengal (Bangall) should be deleted from the list presented last year. In fact, Bengal was a post office but in Ontario County. Later its name was changed to Vienna. (12) Three changes in dates are listed as follows: Milan New Hamburg Wappingers Creek
from 1811 to 1816 from 1826 to 1828 from 1810 to 1809
In last year's work Fishkill was noted as a post office during the Revolution. A page from Benjamin Franklin's post office ledger is included here to show some of the transactions between Franklin's office and Fishkill in 1777 & 1778. (13) The postmaster, Samuel Loudon, was the printer of the 33
