Dr. Charles J. DiComo, President of the Philatelic Society of Lancaster County and the Empire State Postal History Society takes us on a five month journey of a Baptist Missionary cover mailed in 1856 from Warren, Ohio to Farther India (Hindostan or British India) today’s Arakan, Myanmar.
When the letter arrived after a multi-month journey, the receipt Reverend Alfred Satterlee “was not there”. The cover then made the long trip back to the United States, arriving in Boston many month later in 1857.
The challenge with this cover is if one can determine the rates and routes. the cover is postmarked with over 20 cancellations and manuscript markings from its trip from the United States to Great Britain, then Egypt to India, to Father India and then back to the U.S. The answer as you follow Charles’ diagnosis, is yes. He was able to reveal the cancels and rates and the entire trip, even determining the sailing or steam vessels the cover transited. Charles also reveals a tragic aspect to the story, that of the Reverend Satterlee and his wife and child. You do not want to miss this tale.