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��THE GRANITE MONTHLY.
��time there were 1875 miles of post roads established in the United States. Now ihe aggregate length of routes, including all classes of service, would probably reach 350,000 miles, as the length at die close of the fiscal year ending June 30, iSSi, was 344,006 miles. In 1790 there were only seventy-five (75) post-offices. Now August 1, 1882, there are 46.405. The entire revenue from postages in ] 790 was less than sixteen thousand dollars. Now it aggregates upward of forty-two million dollars.
April 20, 1761, John Stavers, an Englishman by birth, and the proprie- tor ot noted hostelries in his day, com- menced running a stage between Ports- mouth and Boston. A curricle, or large stage chair, drawn by two horses and sufficiently wide to comfortably accommodate three persons, was the vehicle used, and is represented to have been the first regular stage line established in America. The journey was performed once a week. The conveyance started on Monday for Boston, and returning arrived at Ports- mouth on Friday. An advertisement announcing the enterprise reads : '• It w.ll be contrived to carry four persons beside the driver. In case only two persons go, they may be accommodated to carry things of bulk or value to make a third or fourth person." After one month's successful service, public notice was given "that five passengers would be carried," leaving Po'tsmouth on Tuesday, "and arrive back Saturday night."
In May, 1763, "The Portsmouth Fl) ing Stage Coach " with four or six horses, according to the condition of the roads, started from the " Karl of Halifax" Inn, kept by John Stavers, on Queen, now State street, near the easterly end, toward the Piscataqua river. The new "Earl of Halifax" hotel was first occupied about 1770, and was a commodious three storied wooden structure, situated on the cor- ner of Pitt (changed to Court), and Atkinson streets, and is now occupied as a tenement house. The stable, a
��very large and spacious building which sheltered the horses belonging to the " Flying Stage Coach," as well as those of travelers, is on the corner of Atkin- son and Jefferson stretts, and in the rear of the public house. The Inns had been respectively named, first "Earl of Halifax," and afterward "William Pitt," and had furnished comfortable quarters for Washington, Lafayette, Hancock, Gerry, Knox, Sullivan, Rutledge, Louis Phillippe, and many other illustrious personages. The driver attached to the "Fixing Stage Coach," was Bartholomew Sta- vers, undoubtedly the first regular stage driver north of Boston, if not in the country. He was a brother of John, and the father of the late Capt. William Stavers, who at the time of his death was a retired shipmaster ami a wealthy citizen of Portsmouth.
O.ie of the earliest mail pouches, if not the first in use on the route, and of not greater capacity than a common hand satchel, is preserved among the curiosities at the Ports- mouth Athenaeum.
Klcazer Russell, a great grandson of John Cult, the first President of the Province, who died April 5, i68r, at an advanced age, held several govern- ment positions. He died at Ports- mouth September 18. t 798, aged 78. At one time he was Naval Officer of the Port, and also the sole postmaster of the Piovince of New Hampshire, and was distinguished as the first post- master in the state. A'l letters address- ed to New Hampshire were deposited in his office, and remained there until sent for from other towns. Mr. Brewster, in his "Rambles" numbered forty-seven, gives quite an interesting account of this very precise and dig- nified public functionary, with "cock hat and wig, a light coat with full skirts, a long vest with pocket pads, light small clothes, with bright knee buckles, and more ponderous buckles on his shoes." For several years Portsmouth had the only post-office in the Province of New Hampshire, and Eleazer Russell filled most accepta-
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