Canvas Mail Bags

Often while growing up in Superior I would go to the Burlington Depot and watch the motor car trains come through town. The eastbound arrived at 9:15 a.m. and the westbound was through about 5:30 p.m.

The trains carried lots of express packages handled by the Railway Express Agency, a lot of cream cans and sacks of United States Mail. As the motor car trains paused at the depot, lots of stuff would be unloaded onto baggage carts. Other baggage carts with outgoing mail, empty cream cans and express shipments were loaded onto the train.

The mail was transported in large canvas sacks with “U. S. Mail” written on them. The sacks would have a lock on the top which only postal personnel had a key for to prevent tampering with the mail. Some of these canvas mail sacks are on display at the Rock Island Depot Museum in Fairbury.

Does the U. S. Postal Service still use the canvas bags? I’ll have to ask. My mail carrier in Lincoln uses plastic tote boxes to organize the mail for his route, but maybe the old canvas bags are still used when the mail comes to and leaves town. Those bags were heavy duty and lasted for many years before having to be replaced.