Anyone interested in the history of the dozens of communities in Chatham--some of which still exist and others which have long disappeared--will find information of interest in this postal history of the county. The document traces the history of post offices, noting name changes and the names of postmasters--useful information for genealogical research. Siler City, for example, was previously called Energy and Siler Station. Bear Creek was formerly Richmond, Bonlee was Causey, and Bennett was Boaz. People have wondered when the spelling of Pittsborough changed to Pittsboro. Well, the official post office name changed on 29 April 1893. The Stork post office was created in 1892 and discontinued in 1910. Silk Hope had a post office from 1882 to 1909. The Truth post office lasted from 1887 to 1930, when mail was sent to Merry Oaks.

The postal route map shown here shows only a small portion of the 140 post offices covered in the document, which is a project of the North Carolina Postal History Society. We thank them for this excellent resource!

https://www.ncpostalhistory.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/PostmarkCatalog_Chatham-County-20240817.pdf

There's no date on the map, but we are guessing that it was from the very early 1900s. Grove PO was discontinued in 1905 and is shown on this map, as is St Lawrence, which was discontinued in 1903.

#ChathamNCHistory #ChathamCountyNC #ChathamPostalHistory #PostOffices #Postmarks #Postmasters #NorthCarolinaPostalHistorySociety