Rural Free Delivery begins

Westminster
October 6, 1896

Four letter carriers, including Joshua Corbin and his horse “Harry”, begin free daily delivery of the mail from Westminster to the rest of Carroll County. They are the first government-sponsored “guinea pigs” to test Rural Free Delivery county-wide in the U.S.


Corbin delivers about 30 pieces of mail a day. He and his colleagues are so successful that U.S. Post Office makes RFD official in 1899.

For More Information

Smithsonian National Postal Museum 

Historical Society of Carroll County 

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