Postal Date: July 25, 1837
<p>Scott Catalog Number of Postage Stamp: Postmark and Manuscript Cancellation
Collection: Steven R. Shook
Remark: This is a manuscript cancel with a 10¢ rate sent from the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Porter County in Valparaiso, Indiana, on July 25, 1837, to the Sheriff of St. Joseph County, Indiana. The letter was then turned, postmarked August 10, 1837, at South Bend, and addressed back to the Clerk of the Porter County Circuit Court.
</p><p>The post office at Valparaiso commenced operation on January 19, 1837, after being renamed (original name was Portersville). This cover is dated July 25, 1837, and is the earliest known cover to exist from the Valparaiso post office.
</p><p>V. A. Ross and Art Hadley's book Indiana Post Offices, published in 1993 by the Indiana Postal History Society, lists no known manuscript cancels from Valparaiso, and record the earliest known cover as bearing an 1841 hand stamp.
</p><p>SENDER:
Clerk of Porter County Circuit Court
Valparaiso, Ind
</p><p>RECIPIENT:
Sheriff of St. Joseph County
South Bend
Ia.
</p><p>MESSAGE:
State of Indiana
Porter County} SS
The State of Indiana To the Sheriff of St. Joseph County Greeting
</p><p>You are hereby commanded to Summon Jacob Rector, if he may be found in your bailiwick, so that he personally be and appear before the Judge of the Porter Circuit Court on the first of the Term next to be holden in the Court House, in the Town of Valparaiso, on the fourth Monday and twenty third day of October next to testify on behalf of the Defendant in a certain cause therein pending, wherein William Carmack is plaintiff and John Saylor is Defendant, and of this he may not fail at his peril.
</p><p>And have You then there this writ.
</p><p>Witness George W. Turner Clerk of said court on this 20th day of July 1837.
</p><p>G. W. Turner Clk
</p><p>Served on Jacob Rector personally on the 9th August 1837 Returned on the 1837
</p><p>Shff Fees
Mileage 43 m 2.40/Sen 37/ $2.77
S. S. Catrell Shff of St. Jo. Co.
</p>
Copyright 2018. Some rights reserved. The associated text may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior written permission of Steven R. Shook.
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