Mailing May

One of the oddest parcel post packages ever sent was "mailed" from Grangeville to Lewiston, Idaho on February 19, 1914. The 48 1/2 pound package was just short of the 50 pound limit. The name of the package was May Pierstorff, four years old.

May's parents decided to send their daughter for a visit with her grandparents, but were reluctant to pay the train fare. There were no provisions in the parcel post regulations concerning sending a person through the mails, so they decided to "mail" their daughter.

A ticket would have cost her parents a full day’s pay. The postage, 53-cents in parcel post stamps, was attached to May's coat. He presented his daughter at the station post office as a package he's mailing to Lewiston. The good-natured postmaster checked May in as poultry ("biggest baby chick on record"), with cousin Leonard who worked in the mail car.

This little girl traveled the entire distance to Lewiston, 75 miles, in the train's mail compartment and was delivered to her grandmother's home.

A comment by “Johnny Cat” says, “I don't know about her, but if that happened to me as a kid, I would have loved every minute of it.” "A heartwarming period piece based on a true incident, lovingly told, " raved The New York Times Book Review.

May, born in 1908, passed away in 1987. A book is available, “Mailing May,” which tells the story of her trip.