Yes, you read that right — there was a time when children were literally mailed through the post.
The story begins in 1913, when the United States Postal Service decided to raise the maximum parcel weight from 4 pounds to 50 pounds. It was a simple logistical adjustment that quietly opened the floodgates to all sorts of unusual deliveries — from live animals and farm produce to, astonishingly, small children.
Between 1913 and 1915, at least seven children were officially “mailed” within the United States. The practice was not malicious or reckless; it was, bizarrely enough, entirely legal at the time. The parents would attach postage stamps to their child’s clothing, hand them over to a trusted mail carrier, and rely on the postal system’s famed reliability to complete the “delivery.”
One of the earliest recorded cases occurred in Glen Este, Ohio, where parents mailed their ten-pound baby boy to his grandmother, who lived barely a mile away in the nearby town of Batavia. The total cost? A mere 15 cents, far cheaper than a train ticket.
Another famous case followed a year later, in 1914. A five-year-old girl named May Pierstorff was “posted” from her home in Idaho to her grandmother’s house several towns away. Her parents couldn’t afford a train ticket, so they placed stamps worth 53 cents on her coat and arranged for her to ride with the mail train. She arrived safe and smiling — delivered personally by the mail clerk.
According to Nancy Pope, historian at the U.S. National Postal Museum, postage fees at the time were much cheaper than train fares. But beyond economics, there was also something charmingly human about the trust between families and their local postal carriers — many of whom were long-time neighbors or even relatives.
By 1915, however, the Postal Service officially banned the shipment of children after public outcry and rising safety concerns. Still, the episode remains a legendary footnote in postal folklore — a reminder of an era when the mailman wasn’t just a messenger, but part of the family.
On World Post Day this October, the world salutes a service that has evolved from heartwarming oddities like mailing children to futuristic feats like drone-powered deliveries — proof that innovation never stops at the post office.
