Wichita Stamp Club Newsletter Stamp Club Newsletter Vol. 77, No. 8 August 2009 9 Figure 3 The Blaker...

Wichita Stamp Club Newsletter

Vol. 77, No. 8, August 2009

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Don't Sweat the Small Stuff

More on the beauty of small covers.

Samuel Beckett

This article highlights a number of stamps commemorating the life of Samuel Beckett.

Missile Mail

The story of the first official mail delivered by missile.

Travel Kansas

A little of the postal history of Linn County, Kansas

Wichita Stamp Club Newsletter Vol. 77, No. 8 August 2009 2

DON’T SWEAT THE SMALL STUFF #6 by Neal E. Danielson

Does your mail box get cluttered with advertisements and utility bills contained in #6 ¾, #9 or #10

Window Envelopes? In this time of economic downturn maybe we should consider going back to the

Window Envelopes available during WWII, it would save our trees, cut down on waste, both for the

production of the envelope as well as its contents.

This ‗Small Stuff‘ is a commercial cover franked with a 1½ ¢ Martha Washington coil stamp (Scott

#840) and tied to the cover with a slogan cancellation from New York, N. Y. ‗Grand Central Annex’. The

commercial company is T.A.P.P.I., located at 122 E. 42nd

St, New York, N.Y. and postmarked in 1944. The

envelope measures 4 ¼ inches by 2 9/32 inches.

Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry or T.A.P.P.I., was founded in 1915 to provide a

forum for the professionals involved in the industry. In addition to pulp and paper, TAPPI includes some

allied areas of packaging (such as corrugated fiberboard, flexible packaging, lamination, adhesives, coatings

and extrusion). TAPPI is a registered not-for-profit, international (Non-Governmental Organization) whose

membership includes engineers, scientists, managers, academics and others involved in the areas of pulp,

paper, and packaging.

TAPPI evolved into the world‘s largest professional association serving the pulp, paper, converting and

packaging industries. TAPPI provides a peer-reviewed, scientific forum of quality for its members to gain

knowledge and networks to help them in their professional lives.


Belgium Scott #1780-n

First Day Cover by Colorano ―Silk‖ Scott #522

STAMPING ON SAMUEL BECKETT by Jeff Lough

Born in 1906 in Dublin, Samuel Beckett was a native of Ireland. This

native son and his work have been celebrated with several Irish stamps;

however, it was in France that Beckett wrote his great works and generally

lived. As a young man in Ireland Beckett was a protégé and friend of the

great James Joyce (Belgium Scott #1780-n) and (Ireland Scott #522). Both

writers wrote unusual, difficult, and greatly influential works.

Beckett developed and maintained a lifelong interest in the visual arts. He

has been considered a writer of the ‗40‘s to 60‘s movement labeled ―The

Theater of the Absurd‖ a phrase also applied to Eugene Ionesco, Jean Genet,

and Harold Pinter. These playwrights were influenced by Alfred Jarry, Pirandella, and such silent film greats

as Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin. The following piece from one of Beckett‘s prose works

demonstrates the profoundly minimalist, very small, deprived, and depraved universes that Beckett

repeatedly created:

“All known all white bare white body fixed one yard legs joined like sewn. Light heat white floor one

square yard never seen. White walls one yard by two white ceiling one square yard never seen.” From Ping

(1967)


Ireland Scott #309 Ireland Scott #418

France Scott #2038

Germany Scott #1549 Ireland Scott #623

While in Ireland he befriended the painter Jack B. Yeats1, a brother of the great Irish poet, William Butler

Yeats. Jack Yeats was celebrated on an Irish stamp (Ireland Scott #309) and has had one of his own works

released as a postage stamp (Ireland Scott #418 - ―The Shanachie.‖ Or storyteller).

Beckett was a struggling playwright and writer until after the

Second World War. He befriended and supported a noted French

painter before the war, Bram Van Velde2, whose work was later

celebrated on a French stamp (France, Scott #2038, issued in 1987)

Besides the influence of Joyce, the Yeats‘ family, and his

circle of friends in France, Beckett was also strongly influenced

by classical philosophers such as Herodotus and Schopenhauer

(Germany Scott #1549). As a preface to his only film script,

Film, Beckett quoted the 18th

century Irish philosopher and

cleric George Berkeley, in that ―Things exist only in so far as

they are perceived.‖ (Ireland Scott #623)


France Scott #1411

France Scott #1123

Ireland Scott #817

Ireland Scott #945

Ireland Scott #945

Ireland Scott #1578

Sweden Scott #2492

During the German occupation of France during

World War II Beckett was a member of the

underground resistance. After the war he was

awarded the Medal of the French Resistance and the

French War Cross, which are in turn celebrated on

French postage, (France Scott #1411 and France Scott

#1123, at right).3

Beckett‘s greatest work, Waiting for Godot,

played a major role in his winning the Nobel Prize in

Literature in 1969 and is commemorated with two

Irish stamps Scott #817 and Scott #945

A recent Irish/Swedish joint issue in 2004 also commemorates his life. The

issue by Ireland is the single Beckett stamp from a booklet (Ireland Scott

#1578) and the Sweden stamp is a booklet pane of four including Beckett plus

three other Nobel Prize winners in Literature—W. B. Yeats, winner in 1923;

G. B. Shaw, winner in 1925; S. Beckett, winner in 1969; and S. Heaney,

winner in 1995 ( Sweden Scott 2492).

Sources and References:

Bair, Deirdre. Samuel Beckett. A Biography. N.Y.: Harcourt

Brace Jovanovich, 1978.

Beckett. Samuel. Film. N.Y.: Grove Press, 1975.

Dukes, Gerry. Samuel Becket. Woodstock, N.Y.:The Overlook

Press, 2001.

1Bair, pp. 119 – 120.

2Dukes, pp. 66.

3Bair, pp. 319 -312.


Figure 1—Missile Mail Event Cover Postmarked one month later on Jul 8, 1959 from Mayport, Fla.

Figure 2

USS Submarine Barbero

Figure 3

Missile Mail Launch, 1959

MISSILE MAIL by Neal E. Danielson

The U. S. Post Office Department explored numerous avenues for delivering faster mail from the time

of its beginning. Runners, horseback riders, mules, burros, stagecoaches, mail boats, railroads, automobiles,

airplanes, rockets, and missiles were among those embraced by the Department. Most were considered new-

fangled, unworkable contraptions by many.

One technology still remains a part of the mail service history and that is missile mail. Figure 1 is an

event cover that commemorated the first official missile mail delivered by the U. S. Navy Regulus 1 cruise

missile to the U. S. Naval Station Mayport in Florida from the USS Submarine Barbero (Figure 2) in

international waters. The event cover shown was not on the Regulus 1, and is a reproduction used one month

later. It landed safely, radiation-free, at the Naval Station. Duration of the flight was only twenty-two

minutes. This 1959 ―missile mail‖ experiment employed a state-of-the-art guidance system, capable of

accurately delivering a 2800 kiloton thermonuclear weapon from 600 miles away.


The U. S. Post Office Department initiated this experimental endeavor on June 8, 1959, in a move

that the postal official heralded as ―of historic significance to the peoples of the entire world.‖ The Navy

submarine USS Barbero fired a guided missile carrying 3,000 letters at the Naval Auxiliary Air Station in

Mayport, Florida (Figure 3).

The Post Office Department officially established a branch post office on the USS Barbero and

delivered the mail to it before the submarine left Norfolk, Virginia. The mail consisted entirely of

commemorative postal covers addressed to President of the United States Dwight Eisenhower, other

government officials, the Postmasters General of all members of the Universal Postal Union, and so on.

They contained letters from United States Postmaster General Arthur E. Summerfield. Their postage (four

cents domestic, eight cents international) had been cancelled ―USS Barbero Jun 8 9:30am 1959‖ before the

submarine put to sea. In Mayport, the Regulus 1 was opened and the mail forwarded to the Jacksonville,

Florida, Post Office for further sorting and routing.

The missile‘s payload included a letter from President Dwight D. ―Ike‖ Eisenhower, which would bring

a large sum in today‘s market for such postal history. Postmaster General Arthur E. Summerfield was

quoted as saying: ―Before man reaches the moon, mail will be delivered within hours from New York to

California, to Britain, to India or Australia by guided missiles. We stand on the threshold of rocket mail.‖

History has proven the experiment as just another pioneering effort on the part of the Postal Service to

deliver mail. This however, did not stop future experiments using a propulsion system to deliver mail. Look

for Rocket Mail in upcoming issues of this Newsletter.

The USS Barbero ended her nuclear strategic deterrence patrols and returned to the Pacific for

decommissioning 30 June 1964. She was struck from the Naval Vessel Registry on 1 July 1964, prior to

being used as a target and sunk by USS Greenfish (SS-351) on 7 October 1964, off Pearl Harbor. (Note:

Cover in Figure 1 is postmarked July 8 rather than June 8 so is not one that traveled in the Missile).

Reference: U. S. Postal Service Website: http://www.usps.com/history/his2_75.htm

http://www.usps.com/history/his2_75.htm


Figure 1

Linn County, Kansas

Figure 2

Linn County, Kansas

Railroad map ca 1899

TRAVEL KANSAS — EAST TO WEST — NORTH TO SOUTH by Neal E. Danielson

Travel Kansas—Pleasanton located in Linn County, Kansas

(Figures 1 & 2).

Pleasanton is the second largest town in the County, located

along the St. Louis & San Francisco and the Missouri Pacific

Railroads, a short distance east of the County Seat of Mound City.

The town was started in the summer 1869, when it was determined

that the Kansas City, Fort Scott & Gulf Railroad was assured. No

town company was ever organized and the town site, which was

owned by several persons, seems to have been selected by common

consent as the best location for a settlement. The first town lot was sold in August, 1869 and by October

29, 1869 Pleasanton was incorporated.

By 1870 the town had grown and was organized as a

city of the third class, with D. W. Poak being elected as the

first mayor of the town. A hotel was built on Main Street by

John Butler; William E. Talbott started a general store; a

hardware store followed; Dr. Bender opened a drug store,

and other lines of business were introduced before the

railroad was completed to the town. Churches, such as

Presbyterians and Methodist were the beginning of several

denominations to be established in the town. A bank was

opened in 1870, and in 1881 the library association was

organized. One of the first industries of the town was a

steam flour mill, erected in the summer of 1869. The next

year a second mill was erected, and for some years

Pleasanton was a milling center.

Figure 3 is a Post Card, postmarked from Pleasanton, Kansas on October 28, 1910 showing the

Blaker Milling Co., Pleasanton, Kans.


Figure 3

The Blaker Milling Co., Pleasanton, Kans.

Postmarked Oct. 1910

Figure 4

Figure 5 Farmers Merchants Bank, Pleasanton, Kans.

The Post Office was originally established as Hillsborough in 1857 with Andrew G. Fridley as

Postmaster. It was changed to Potosi on November 8, 1859 with John B. Elsrode as Postmaster and finally

changed to Pleasanton on August 10 1869 with Charles T. Wheaton as Postmaster. When the card was

postmarked in 1910, J. Frank Smith was Postmaster (6/27/1903 to 1/20/1916). The postcard is franked with

a 1¢ Benjamin Franklin stamp (Scott #331).

Figure 4 is a cropped front of another postcard franked with a 1¢ Benjamin Franklin stamp (Scott #300)

and tied to the card with a shoe type CDS from Pleasanton, Kans. on Mar 31, 1907 with the postcard being

shown in Figure 5 depicting the Farmers Merchants Bank (as shown on the front of the building) and

apparently housed the Court House, as the writer of the card so notes. The care was mailed to a person

located in Longbeach, California.


Figure 6

Pleasanton Event Cover

The cover in Figure 6 is an Event Cover, commemorating the Battle of Mine Creek and Linn County

during the Civil War. The cover is franked with the 3¢ Kansas Territorial Centennial stamp (Scott #1061)

and a 1¢ Andrew Jackson stamp (Scott #1209) with both stamps tied to the cover with a shoe type killer

balloon cancel postmarked Pleasanton, Kans. Oct 25, 1964. The celebration was to commemorate several

major events that transpired in Kansas prior to and during the Civil War. Prior to the outbreak of the War,

Kansas became known as ―Bleeding Kansas‖ due to several battles between the pro-slave group, mostly

from Missouri, and the settlers in the State that wanted it to be a Free State. Linn County was home to the

original Kansas Jayhawkers, the site of the Marais des Cygnes Massacre, one of the triggers of the Civil War,

and the location of the only Civil War Battlefield in Kansas.

The most important and exciting incident that occurred in Linn County during the war was the Price

raid. On October 25, 1864, it is probable that the whole of that rebel General‘s command of 20-25 thousand

had entered Linn County. Prior to the 25th

small battles were encountered between Federal forces and the

rebels with the Federal forces falling back on several occasions. At daybreak on the 24th

General Pleasanton

came upon Price‘s rearguard, and firing commenced at the Marais des Cygnes and continued all day back

and forth. A second battle occurred at ―Round Mound,‖ where two of Price‘s Generals were captured (by a

16 year old Union Soldier). When the rebels reached Mine Creek, they made a stand, and here fought the

hardest battle of the day. During its continuance, Gen. Pleasanton‘s battery of 7-howitzers was stationed on

―Round Mound,‖ on which now stands the Pleasanton High School, and dropped shells into the ranks of the

rebels. The battle resulted in about 500 prisoners and about 100 rebels killed. The battle continued on into

Missouri and eventually Price‘s rebel army lost most of their artillery with 150 killed and 1,500 taken as

prisoner.

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