Oshawa’s Early Postal Service

This was originally written by the Oshawa Historical Society as a Historical Information Sheet

Prior to 1850, it was necessary for settlers to go to the general store for postal services as there were no stand alone post offices.  Stage coaches and sleighs delivered the mail to the store and picked up any outgoing mail.  Trans-Atlantic mail delivery was started in 1840 when Samuel Cunard was contracted with the Admiralty to provide two trips monthly each way between Liverpool and Canada.  Mail reached Quebec from Liverpool in 18 days and from Quebec was sent to the regional centres.  In 1854 the first Post Office on rails was established.  Clerks were on board the trains sorting mail between communities in Southern Ontario.

The first post office in the area was opened in the general store operated by John and William Warren in Hamar’s Corners (now Whitby) in 1824.  Stage coaches would stop to pick up and deliver mail during their run from Kingston to York (Toronto). In 1827 Donald Campbell obtained consent from the Postmaster General to have mail carried between Hamar’s Corners and Beaverton.  Kenneth Campbell was appointed postmaster and made the trip once every two weeks.

Edward Skae’s checkered store

In 1842 Edward Skae, owner of a general store located on the southeast corner of King and Simcoe Streets, made application to the legislature for a post office. John Hilliard Cameron, representing Skae’s Corners as part of the Home District in parliament, replied that a name other than “Corners” must be chosen for the post office as there were already too many place names containing corners.  Oshawa was chosen and Edward Skae became the first postmaster on October 6, 1842. According to the Ontario Reformer, May 19, 1905, Mr. Glenney opened the first mail bag brought to Oshawa.  It contained 4 letters, 2 British Colonists and one Examiner and from the east, and 2 Montreal Gazettes.  By 1844 Oshawa had post every day. After the opening of the Grand Trunk Railway in 1856, mail was no longer carried by stage coach.  Mr. John Bone drove the last stage coach with mail into Oshawa.

Oshawa Post Office when it was located on King Street East, 1903; OM Thomas Bouckley Collection A985.41.49

In 1907 Oshawa’s first official stand alone post office was opened on the northeast corner of Ontario Street and King Street East.  Custom offices were located on the second floor of the building and the third floor was a flat for the caretaker. The central post office remained at 40 King Street East until a new building was opened at 47 Simcoe Street South in 1954-1955.  The original Romanesque Revival style post office was demolished in 1957.

 List of Postmasters in the Nineteenth Century:

Name	Appointment	Vacancy	Reason
Edward Skae	1842-10-06
*Gavin Burns	1853	1861-01-07	Death
David Smith	1861-01-01	1862-04-26	Resignation
Fraser Keller	1862-05-01	1866-10-24	Resignation
David Smith	1867-04-01	1877-11-07	Death
James Carmichael	1877-11-01	Jun-03	Death

* In 1851, authority for postal administration was transferred from the Imperial Government to the Province of Ontario.  Information prior to 1853 is not available through Canada Post Archives.

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References:

Post Office file – Oshawa Museum Archival Collection

Details, published by Canada Post, April-June 2001

Postcard Educational Kit – Oshawa Museum

Oshawa’s Post Office

By Heather Snowdon, Durham College Journalism Student

When Bryan Jacula was ten years old his parents, Mary Nee Rudka and Michael Jacula, owned a store. Located on King Street and Westmount Avenue in Oshawa, it was a sub post office, which means it was a post office as well as a general store. Now in his fifties, Jacula still lives in Oshawa.

“It’s been so long since I’ve thought about that store,” says Jacula.

It was 1835 when Edward Skae came to Oshawa. Back then it wasn’t known as Oshawa, the town was small and was just starting to grow. Skae was well liked by residents and the town became known as Skae’s Corners.

As Skae’s Corners grew, there was a need for a post office and in 1842 Skae sent in an application to Home District in parliament, a form of government at the time, asking for one.

In the 1800s, it was common for residents to go to general stores to pick up mail. Many small towns didn’t have stand-alone post offices. Sub post offices, located in general stores, were the norm.

To avoid confusion, parliament told him he could have a post office if Skae’s Corners changed its name since there were too many towns in the area with the name ‘corner’.

The townspeople held a meeting and many wealthy residents in Skae’s Corners were in attendance, Moody Farewell was one of them. He was a farmer and large hotel owner in Oshawa. Legend has it he asked his Indigenous friends what the name of the town was and they told him it was called Oshawa.

Another legend says Farewell was angry with the First Nations for coming to the meeting and there was a confrontation between them. Jennifer Weymark, archivist at the Oshawa Museum, says one of the legends is likely true.

The Indigenous named the town Oshawa, which was translated from Ojibwa, an Algonquian language, means to portage or to take the canoe out of the water and go over land. Other translations include the crossing of the stream where the canoe was exchanged for the trail.

Skae opened Oshawa’s first post office in 1845, known as a sub post office, because it was located in his general store. He became Oshawa’s first post master. Skae was post master for three years, following his death at the age of 44.

In the 1800s, mail was delivered by sleighs and stage coaches, which are horse drawn carriages. Before that, men on horseback delivered mail from Kingston to Toronto on what we now know as Highway 2 or King Street. It took 18 days for mail to reach Quebec from Pickering, Ontario. Lake Ontario became a lifeline to early settlers who used it as their only means of transportation, and in 1822 settlers began to establish themselves along Highway 2.

It wasn’t until the 1850s that Canada would start the Trans-Atlantic mail delivery and in 1856 Canada opened the Grand Trunk Railway and mail was no longer carried by stagecoaches or on horseback.

The closure of Skae’s post office sparked a change in Oshawa. In 1872, a new sub post office was opened on King Street.

As Oshawa continued to grow, there was a need for a larger post office.

Location of the former Post Office at 40 King Street East

In 1907, Oshawa acquired its first stand-alone post office, located on 40 King St. E. It was running until 1950, when the City of Oshawa decided to sell it.

A fire in 1955 left no one to bid on the property and in 1957, the first stand-alone post office was demolished and left Oshawa forever. The actual whereabouts of Oshawa’s first sub post office, in Skae’s General Store is unknown. Myths surrounding its location suggest the building was put on the corner of King and Queen Street in 1825.

According to an archival article, written in 1949, by Oshawa’s Daily Times Gazette, was torn down for a grocery store in the early 1950s.

There was a demand for a post office in Oshawa after the closure of the 40 King Street’s post office in 1950. In March 1951, the Jacula family opened a sub post office in their convenience store, located at 399 King St. W.

“It was a tight fit, putting the post office in the convenience store,” says Jacula.

According to an article provided by Eva Saether, local history and genealogy librarian at the Oshawa Public Library, in 1950 two residents living on Church and William Street in Oshawa were asked to vacate their homes for a new post office. In 1952, the new stand-alone post office was built. But it was only temporary.

Many postal closures happened in 1986. In Oshawa, there were 5,955 rural and urban post offices. By the 1990s, there were 93 urban and 1,442 rural post office closures, leaving 14,000 workers in the postal services without jobs. From 1989 to 1992, 2,250 rural post offices closed and there were 153 urban closures from 1992 to 1993. Canada Post fired an average of 47 workers per month in 1992.

Canada Post was planning to shut down public post offices by 1996, saying it would make sense economically to have one public post office.

A new post office was opened at 47 Simcoe St. S. in 1954. This building is still being used today, and this location is the implemented plan from Canada Post. In Oshawa, there is now only one public post office.

Bryan Jacula says his parents were adamant about the importance of having a post office in Oshawa.

“I’m glad we were a part of it,” says Jacula.

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The land where we stand is the traditional territory of the Mississaugas of Scugog Island First Nation.

Durham College‘s newspaper, The Chronicle, launches a new feature series called The Land Where We Stand, about the hidden stories that shape our region.

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