SW152 Mail Without Fail: Seminole Agency Post Office Processed Parcels Despite Hostile Climate, Terrain, and Indians

A soldier of the Second Seminole War would have led an austere life at remote Army outposts in Florida. Among the few pleasures in his life might have been playing with a deck or cards or dice and getting square meals. What might have had the greatest impact on his morale, however, was the ability to receive and send mail to loved ones back home.

If he was stationed at Fort King, near present day Ocala, he might have sent his personal mail through the nearby Seminole Agency post office. How did it travel from there? Turns out, there was an intricate operation behind the postage for a soldier’s letter. In this episode, we’ll find out just how they did it.

Thomas Lera, a director of the Florida Postal Society, researches postal history from throughout the state of Florida. Postal history collects the envelopes, the history of the envelopes used, and the stamps and markings placed on them. Tom is co-editor of the book, Florida Postal History, 1763-1861. In researching that book, he discovered the Seminole Agency. Given its prominence in the era of Seminole removal, Tom decided to explore it it in more depth.

 

The Seminole Agency was based in Alachua County near Fort King, on the main military and post road connecting Micanopy and Tampa Bay. In August 1835, U.S. Army Private Kinsley Dalton, mail courier between Fort Brooke and Fort King, fell victim to a Seminole retaliatory attack. The Army continued to send mail, however, either on the Fort King road or via other trails or the sea around the Florida Peninsula. 

 

 

 

The Agency’s House was positioned on the northern edge of the reservation. The house included a scaled floor plan and frontal view. The building was spacious at over sixty feet square. It included four large meeting rooms, wide hallways, and large porches.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All Charts courtesy Tom Lera

Host Patrick Swan is a board member with the Seminole Wars Foundation. This podcast is recorded at the homestead of the Seminole Wars Foundation in Bushnell, Fla. 

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