Robert A. Siegel Auction Galleries, Inc.

VERY FINE APPEARANCE. THE FAMOUS AND UNIQUE McMILLAN'S DISPATCH STAMP -- ISSUED IN CHICAGO IN 1855 AND TO THIS DAY THE ONLY EXAMPLE EVER DISCOVERED. THE QUINTESSENTIAL "PRIMITIVE" AND ONE OF THE RAREST STAMPS IN THE WORLD.

The simple typeset stamp listed in Scott as 100L1 conveys no information other than the title of the post, "McMillan's Dispatch." Before the stamp was ever located, its origin, denomination, year of issue and the history of the post were revealed by the late Clarence W. Hennan of Chicago. In 1937, Hennan located and published an advertisement from the Chicago Daily Democratic Press (Feb. 26, 1855), announcing the establishment of McMillan's Dispatch. A copy of the advertisement is reproduced here. Upon reading Hennan's article, a midwestern philatelist who owned the stamp (believing it was a bogus post) sent the McMillan's to Dr. Hennan, who immediately acquired it for his Chicago collection and notified the Scott Catalogue editors of the discovery. Since 1940, the photo provided by Hennan has appeared above the Scott listing for 100L1.

The post was owned by William McMillan at 43-1/2 Randolph Street in Chicago. McMillan advertised the establishment of "McMillan's City Despatch Post" and noted that "Boxes will be placed at different stations throughout the city." There were two daily city delivery times, 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. Mail for the post office would be taken at 9 a.m., 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. Prepaid letters were delivered for 1c (mandatory on letters to the post office), and unpaid letters were charged 2c collect. Limits in the area covered are specified in the ad. Lastly, McMillan states "Stamps can be obtained at all box Stations, and at the Principal office..."

According to Henry E. Abt's series on Chicago posts (American Philatelist, June 1957-January 1958), McMillan may have been the first to establish a local post in Chicago. At the time, the city's growth had outpaced the post office's ability to provide mail service. Drawing on Gager and Co.'s Chicago Directory, Abt tells us that McMillan came to Chicago from Pennsylvania in 1849. In November 1853 he was a druggist at 48 Randolph Street, diagonally across from the future location of the City Despatch Post office. Sizing up McMillan's advertised 1c and 2c rates and allowance for unpaid deliveries, Abt felt that the business was doomed from the start, because McMillan could not be profitable at these rates, nor was it practical to allow letters to be sent without prepayment. Indeed, with publication of Fergus' 1855-56 directory, McMillan is listed as a clerk in the City Recorder's office. Further evidence of the post's short life is the great rarity of McMillan's stamps and handstamped covers. Following in McMillan's footsteps were Bronson & Forbes, Robert J. Moody, the Stiles family and others who operated local posts in Chicago, usually for brief periods.

Another contributing factor to the rarity of Chicago local-post material in general is the Great Fire of 1871, which destroyed more than 1,000 city blocks, including 20,000 buildings. The inferno undoubtedly wiped out a large part of the philatelic legacy left by Chicago's local posts in the 1850's and 1860's.

Illustrated in the Abt series (American Philatelist, October 1957, p. 30). Ex Hennan. (Image)