Rutherford County War Savings Stamps Sales in WWI
By Matthew M. Peek, Military Collection Archivist, State Archives of North Carolina
Rutherford County, NC, has a long post office history, having been the home to the first post office in western North Carolina in 1798. As Europe was struggling through World War I and the entrance of the United States was imminent, the United States Treasury Department, supported strongly by the United States Post Office Department, began issuing $5.00 war savings stamps and 25¢ Thrift stamps (which were used to accumulate the money necessary to buy the war savings certificate stamp for those with fewer financial resources).
These stamps could eventually be redeemed for Treasury certificates or war bonds. The United States Treasury Department issued its first war savings stamps in late 1917. The first stamp was a 25-cent thrift stamp issued on December 1, 1917. The $5.00 green War Savings Certificate stamp, featuring an engraved portrait of George Washington, was issued on November 17, 1917, for use in 1918.
National campaigns were begun to sell two billion dollars-worth of war savings stamps to help pay for the costs of the U.S. fighting WWI. The estimated cost for the U.S. involvement in WWI would be around 20 billion dollars as of 1920 [over 334 billion dollars as of a 2011 federal report]. The Treasury Department set up a War Savings Organization, using the Treasury’s Federal Reserve Districts and began marketing the thrift savings stamps widely.
The U.S. Post Office was a major sales point for the savings stamps. Since post offices already purchased and distributed postal stamps for sale, it was seen as a small step to add the selling of war savings stamps and thrift stamps to their role. The main post offices for each county served as the central supply point for local post office branches in the county. Local post offices would also delivery war savings stamps for purchase to home addresses, making the system one of the early mobile delivery schemes by the federal government for wartime programs.
The last war savings stamp was issued on December 21, 1920 — over two years since the end of WWI. It was a $5.00 stamp printed in orange on green unwatermarked paper, and featured a portrait of Abraham Lincoln. The stamp was issued for the 1921 series, marking the sale of war savings stamps lasting over three years during the WWI era. Since the war had been over for so long, few of these stamps were purchased as Americans were returning to normal life, and had redeemed their wartime stamps to use for purchasing everyday materials.
By January 1, 1919, Benjamin Franklin Dalton was named as the acting postmaster of the Rutherfordton Post Office, which served as the central Post Office for Rutherford County, for a seven-month period. Dalton had just finished time serving in the U.S. Army stateside, having been discharged in early December 1918. His responsibility was to fulfill orders by the local county post office branches for war savings stamps and thrift stamps to be sold. Dalton also was responsible for receiving stamp sales reports, and receiving the funds from the sales for transfer to the Treasury Department. Information on the postmaster before and after Dalton is unclear. Dalton would not remain in the position long, as he died on June 23, 1921, at the age of 31.
Rutherford County WSS Records
The Rutherford County Post Offices WSS Records collection is composed of receipts, requisitions, invoices, and miscellaneous documents, from U.S. Post Office branches throughout Rutherford County, NC, for the sale of War Savings Stamps (WSS) and thrift stamps during World War I. The records cover from January 1918 to January 1920 (with date gaps). These records are only a small number of those that existed during the war, but are what was included in a tied bundle of Post Office records from an unidentified owner with a connection to the Rutherfordton Post Office during WWI.
The same receipts, requisitions, and invoice forms used to order regular postal stamps as were used to record the orders and sales of WSS. Some of the records only document regular stamp orders and sales, but these are still from the time period of WWI.
The records document the WSS operations between the central Rutherfordton Post Office and post offices around the county, which included: Avondale, Bostic, Chimney Rock, Cliffside, Ellenboro, Forest City, Gilkey, Harris, Henrietta, Hollis, Ruth, Spindale, Thermal City, and Union Mills.
You can learn more from this small number of records documenting the operations of a War Savings Stamps sales program by local post offices in a Western North Carolina county by exploring the Rutherford County Post Offices WSS Records (WWI 179) in the WWI Papers of the Military Collection at the State Archives of North Carolina.
Resources
- Much of the information taken for this historical note came from the research paper “Postal and Treasury Savings Stamp Systems: The War Years,” by Harry K. Charles Jr., published through the Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum, viewed online at https://postalmuseum.si.edu/sites/default/files/charles-blount_symposium_paper.pdf
- Rutherford County Post Offices WSS Records, WWI 179, WWI Papers, Military Collection, State Archives of North Carolina, Raleigh, N.C.
