One of six panels from a West Palm Beach Post Office (1900) Florida State Archives |
By Jane Feehan
The Barefoot Mailman, a name applied collectively to the men who walked and rowed the rugged 136-mile round trip from Palm Beach to Miami, greatly improved mail delivery in the area during the late 1800s.
Through their efforts during the years 1885 to 1892, letters took a week to get from Jupiter to Miami along the barefoot route - much-shortened from the mail route used before 1885. The US Post Office operated a route from 1867 for two years before suspending the route.
Before that year, letters went through a 3,000 mile odyssey that could take up to two months to reach a delivery destination 68 miles away.
From Jupiter mail went by Indian River steamboat to the Titusville rail; by train to New York’s port; by steamer to Havana and then on a schooner to Miami.
The USPS Star Route 6451 was reactivated in 1884 with the first courier contract going to Lantana settler and future Dade County school superintendant, Edward Ruthven Bradley.
A statue near the Hillsboro Inlet commemorates these men. Carriers included Kentucky native James “Ed” Hamilton who had settled in Hypoluxo with two friends in 1885. He became a mail carrier in 1887 but disappeared a few months after beginning service, perhaps drowning or being attacked by alligators while trying to cross the inlet after his boat went missing.
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Sources: McGarry, Carmen Racine. Magnificent Mile: a History of Hillsboro Beach. Morriston: RitAmelia Press, 1997.
Hillsboro Lighthouse Preservation Society at hillsborolighthouse.org/bfmn.html
Tags:
Florida in the 1800s, mail service in early Florida, Hillsboro Inlet, USPS, Ed Hamilton