This is the earliest known Trappe postmark which reads Trappe Md. Dec. twenty something- the last digit is not readable, but fortunately the letter is dated Dec. 25, 1856 which establishes the date. This was only nine years after the U.S. Post Office authorized the first regularly issued stamps in 1847. Trappe had gotten a post office in 1813, but early letters did not use stamps. They were called stampless covers and the receiver not the sender paid the postage which was written by hand in the upper right corner: see item #728 for an example of a stampless cover sent from Trappe and #727 for some stampless covers sent to Trappe (note the different spellings of Trappe). There were other towns named Trappe in Maryland then, but there is no question that this letter was sent from the Talbot Co. Trappe because it mentions Easton and Oxford.
Transcript of the 1856 Trappe letter:
addressed to Mr. J. Leeds Tilghman/U.S. Coast Survey/ Wilmington, N.C."
"Home Xmas 1856
My dear Son,
On this day of festivity when so many of our domestic circle are gathered together, I cannot feel that I have completed the annual greeting to my children without giving to the absent a Father's blessing and telling you how very much we miss you at home.
Tench is also absent, being detained in Easton by the sickness of Miss Amy Cox who had a dangerous attack of coup.
I was so fortunate as to get back from Balt on Monday and avoid the snow Storm on Tuesday- The boat reached Oxford yesterday & today the road is filled with waggons hauling goods to Easton- Good for the R.R.
Remember my beloved child that if we would escape the certain fate of those who know the right & still the wrong pursuit- if we would join those whom we loved so well on earth we must obey the commandment which our savior has given us to eat his body & drink his blood in remembrances of him; and confirmation & the sacrament will give us a strength which we cannot have of ourselves- God bless you my dear son- Write to me all about yourself and your situation-yr affectionate father T. Tilghman
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