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Ypsilanti District Library Clerk Jerome Drummond takes us back again to Ypsilanti in its earliest years. Settlers traveling west had crossed the country, but still needed news from their homes on the East Coast. To boost plans of westward expansion, the federal government created the United States Postal Office to help share information.

If, however, information was to rise above the level of hearsay, letters alone would not be sufficient. The government allowed special low postal rates for newspapers at the same moment that newspapers were undergoing a transformation that would bring their price down to the man in the street.

In this episode, we’ll examine some aspects of this institution and note the similarities and differences between then and now. We’ll also discuss this through a local lens by examining the careers of two Ypsilantians: Charles Woodruff and Charles Pattison.

More about our podcast speaker
Jerome Drummond is a Circulation Clerk with the Ypsilanti District Library, working out of the Michigan Avenue branch. He’s also a member of the Ypsilanti Historical Society and the Genealogical Society of Washtenaw County.
Photograph of Charles Pattison
Charles Pattison. Source:  Ypsilanti Historical Society
Photograph of Charles Pattison

Charles Woodruff. Source:  Ypsilanti Historical Society