<P> Until the late 19th century, residents of rural areas had to either travel to a distant post office to pick up their mail, or else pay for delivery by a private carrier . Postmaster General John Wanamaker, owner of a major department store, was ardently in favor of Rural Free Delivery (RFD), with many thousands of Americans living in rural communities who wanted to send and receive retail orders inexpensively . However, the adoption of a nationwide RFD system had many opponents . Some were simply opposed to the cost of the service . Private express carriers thought inexpensive rural mail delivery would eliminate their business, and many town merchants worried the service would reduce farm families' weekly visits to town to obtain goods and merchandise, or that mail order merchants selling through catalogs, such as Sears, Roebuck and Company might present significant competition . </P> <P> Support for the introduction of a nationwide rural mail delivery service came from The National Grange of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry, the nation's oldest agricultural organization . </P> <P> Fayette County in east - central Indiana claims to be the birthplace of Rural Free Delivery . Milton Trusler, a leading farmer in the county, began advocating the idea in 1880; as the president of the Indiana Grange, he spoke to farmers statewide frequently over the following sixteen years . </P> <P> The Post Office Department first experimented with the idea of rural mail delivery on October 1, 1891 to determine the viability of RFD . They began with five routes covering ten miles, 33 years after free delivery in cities had begun . The first routes to receive RFD during its experimental phase were in Jefferson County, West Virginia, near Charles Town, Halltown, and Uvilla . </P>

Where did free rural mail delivery service begin in the us