Wesleyville got its first post office in 1875. It was located in the Barrowclough house with Elijah Barrowclough as the post master. The Oughtred house would later be the location of the post office. The only legal distribution system at the time, the post office was of extreme importance to a community. It was the only means that was accessible to the remote areas of the colonies and facilitated long distance communication. As you will see, the development of the postal service was specifically linked with technology and population development. Both the development of roads, and the development of the railroad assisted in reducing the time required to deliver the mail.

There were two features of the operation which help significance to the colonies. The first was the use of layovers at major post offices, thus there were delays in places such as Kingston and Toronto where the mail was examined. The second feature was the policy of self-sufficiency. Thus those post offices which did not generate enough revenue faced closure. Thus post offices only extended as far as well established settlements.

Since after the American Revolution, the port for landing of mail from Great Britain was Halifax. Shipments would then travel westward through Quebec, Montreal, and Toronto to Queenstown. In 1810 a letter was sent to London noting that there were "368 miles in which neither horse nor carriage was available between Halifax and Quebec" as well as a lack of safety for travelling at night.

In the 1840's newspapers note that the Post Office has no authority or command to construct a road between Quebec and Halifax. After 1840, along with population growth and urban spread, secondary routes and additional offices were opened. For these new routes mail moved sometimes only once or twice a week.

Steamboats were utilised even before 1820 to provide regular and reliable service. But, it took a long time for mail to get where i

t needed to. In 1800 it took 26 days for a piece of mail from Halifax to reach Quebec. By 1812 the waiting period had been reduced to 14-15 days, in 1824 it was 13 days and seventeen hours and in the 1840's it was expected to take eleven days however difficult travelling condition such as those in the spring of 1843 could cause it to be extended, in that case to thirteen and a half days. The rest of the westward movement of mail was faster by 1824, it took mail from Quebec to Detroit nine days and twenty hours. That number was reduced to seven days in 1840. However one should be aware that seasonal variability was common and infrequent service meant longer periods between delivery.

In 1826 there began to be an express service in the United States.This service carried only letters and newspapers between commercial centres using relays of horses at 12-15 mile intervals. This system would also be installed along the American Postal route at Buffalo, Cleveland, and Detroit.

The railroad became an important technological advancement for postal service in 1839 when it linked Boston with the Connecticut river. The line would be extended to the Hudson River by Dec 1841. These ports were easily accessible to Canadian urban centres by 1841. Although the legality was questionable, for Canadians utilising the American postal system reduced the time for exchanging letters and provided economic advantages. For example after the completion of the railroad, it was less than 48 hours to send a letter from Boston to Montreal. In this way we can see why there was not a large development of trade or communication between the St. Lawrence Valley and the Maritimes. The St. Lawrence Valley made more communication with the American cities and the Maritimes communicated with New England.

Source: Goheen, Peter. Canadian Communications circa 1845. Geographical Review, Vol. 77, No. 1 (Jan., 1987), pp. 35-51