The Steven C. Walske Collection of Hawaiian Postal History continued...

ONE OF TWO FULL COVERS AND ONE PIECE ADDRESSED TO THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS WITH MISSIONARY STAMPS PAYING POSTAGE ON INBOUND MAIL. ALL THREE ARE ADDRESSED IN THE SAME HAND TO MARIA WHITNEY POGUE, THE SISTER OF POSTMASTER HENRY M. WHITNEY. THE OTHER COVER HAS DEFECTIVE STAMPS, LEAVING THIS AS THE FINEST INBOUND HAWAIIAN MISSIONARY COVER.

Maria Kapule Whitney Pogue was born at Waimea, Kauai, on October 19, 1820, the first daughter born to missionaries on the islands. Her parents were the Reverend Samuel and Mercy Partridge Whitney, and her younger brother was Henry M. Whitney, Hawaii’s first postmaster. Maria was educated in the U.S. and returned to Hawaii in 1843 to serve as an educator. In 1848 she married the Reverend John Fawcett Pogue, and the couple had four children. In 1851 they moved from Kauai to Maui, where Reverend Pogue served as principal of the Lahainaluna seminary. He died in 1877, and in 1882 Maria and her family relocated to California. She died in Santa Clara on April 20, 1900, and this cover was first photographed by Henry J. Crocker in 1901.

Efforts to locate information identifying the sender’s identity have been unsuccessful, but the distinctive writing creates the potential to find a match. The other full cover to Maria Pogue (2-IICOV- 75, illustrated in Meyer-Harris book, p. 56) has a New-York [month] 5” circular datestamp, but the month cannot be read. It was at one time part of the Atherton collection in the Honolulu Academy of the Arts. The 5c Missionary and 3c 1851 stamps on the ex-Atherton cover are partly peeled off. The piece (2-I-PCE-65) has a 5c Missionary with red crayon X” cancel and pen-cancelled 3c 1851 pair. On each Pogue cover or piece the 3c stamps pay the U.S. postage. The 5c Missionary stamps might have been affixed by Postmaster Whitney in Honolulu to indicate to the Lahaina postmaster that no Hawaiian postage was due, as a courtesy to his sister. An alternative theory is that the sender in the U.S. affixed the Missionary stamps, which is supported by the stamps’ relative positions, with the U.S. stamps aligned along the right edge of the envelope.

The Pogue covers do not have letter enclosures or markings to help determine the year of mailing, so we must use other evidence to reach a reasonable conclusion. The Auburn, Massachusetts, postmark has the date Dec. 21,” but not the year. The earliest recorded date for the 3c 1851 from Plate 3 is January 15, 1852, and this pair shows plate wear, which indicates a later use. New York mail to Hawaii dated in late December and the first week of January travelled via Panama and San Francisco, and usually reached Honolulu in mid to late February. This December 21 cover followed the same timetable. Assuming it was sent from Massachusetts in December 1852, it was carried on the USMSC Georgia, which departed New York on January 5, 1853, and arrived in Aspinwall on January 14. After crossing the isthmus, it was carried on the PMSC Oregon, which departed Panama on January 20 and arrived in San Francisco on February 5. The American bark Pathfinder departed San Francisco on February 12 and arrived in Honolulu on February 27 with the New York mail of January 5. The only Hawaiian stamps available in February 1853 were the Missionaries.

Illustrated and discussed in Gregory Hawaii Foreign Mails to 1870 (Figure 15-74). Ex Henry J. Crocker, Alfred H. Caspary, David Golden and Guido Craveri/Tito Giamporcaro.

Siegel Census No. 2-I-COV-67. Gregory Census No. 5c-4. With 1994 Philatelic Foundation certificate.

For an introduction to the Hawaiian Missionaries: http://siegelauctions.com/2013/1045/Missionaries.pdf (Image)

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ONE OF THE FINEST OF THE EIGHT AVAILABLE COVERS BEARING A SINGLE 5-CENT HAWAIIAN MISSIONARY STAMP AND ONE OF TWO RECORDED MISSIONARY COVERS WITH A FORWARDER’S HANDSTAMPED MARKING.

Ten 5c Missionary covers are recorded in our census and the Gregory census. Included in this total are the Dawson 2c/5c cover and the 5c cover acquired by the Smithsonian National Postal Museum in the Honolulu Advertiser sale, leaving eight 5c covers for collectors. Of the 28 recorded intact Missionary covers, only two were handstamped by forwarders: the Porter & Ogden cover (ex Honolulu Advertiser, offered in the 2013 Rarities of the World sale) and the G. D. Gilman cover offered here. This is the only recorded example of this G. D. Gilman” handstamp.

Gorham D. Gilman (1822-1909) was a prominent Hawaiian businessman who returned to the U.S. in 1862 and served as Hawaiian Consul in Boston. After applying the forwarder marking, Gilman mailed this cover at Lahaina. It was datestamped at Honolulu on October 4 (1852), the same day as the Dawson cover and a 13c Missionary cover (3-I-COV-142). All of the October 4 mail was probably carried from Honolulu to San Francisco on the Mary A. Jones, which cleared customs on October 4, 1852 (The Friend, October 8), and sailed the following day. The ship arrived in San Francisco on October 26, after a reported journey of 21 days (Daily Alta California, October 27).

According to the Daily Alta California (October 27, 1852), the PMSC Northerner and California were brought down from Benecia in newly painted” condition on October 26 and 27, respectively. The Northerner was scheduled to depart on Saturday, October 30, and the California on Monday, November 1. This and the 13c Missionary cover with the October 4 Honolulu datestamp have San Francisco November 1 datestamps, whereas the Dawson cover with the U.S. 3c 1851 pair has an October 27 San Francisco datestamp. The two Missionary covers without U.S. stamps affixed required an extra step to account for U.S. postage and the ship letter fee. After making the necessary accounting entries, they were datestamped and bagged for the Panama departure. The November 1 date was inserted into the San Francisco datestamp to correspond with the sailing of the California, but the actual application of the marking could have occurred days earlier.

The California arrived on November 16. All of the mail was carried across the isthmus to Aspinwall, and from there it left on the U.S. Mail Steamship Company’s Georgia, which departed Aspinwall on November 18 and arrived in New York on November 28, after stopping at Kingston, Jamaica. According to the Weekly Herald report, the Georgia arrived in New York with the largest load of California gold ever transported. The Georgia was under the command of the famous American naval officer, Admiral David Dixon Porter, who at the time held the rank of lieutenant and worked as a civilian for the U.S. Mail Steamship Company.

Ex George H. Worthington (pencil code 3/15/93 Scott Auction UHN SS”), Alfred F. Lichtenstein, Frank Godden, Emmerson C. Krug, Adm. Frederic R. Harris, Charles F. Meroni, David Golden, Guido Craveri, Tito Giamporcaro and Lake Shore.” Red Kohler” handstamp at bottom right.

Siegel Census No. 2-I-COV-70. Gregory Census No. 5c-3 (Figure 19-10). With 1994 Philatelic Foundation certificate.

For an introduction to the Hawaiian Missionaries: http://siegelauctions.com/2013/1045/Missionaries.pdf (Image)

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THE UNIQUE RECORDING EXAMPLE OF THE U.S. POSTAGE PAID" MARKING ON A MISSIONARY STAMP AND ONE OF THE MOST OUTSTANDING HAWAIIAN MISSIONARY COVERS FROM A POSTAL HISTORIAN’S PERSPECTIVE.

The red oval U.S./POSTAGE PAID” handstamp was used infrequently in 1852 and 1853 on outbound mail from Honolulu to the United States, as evidenced by this cover, the stampless cover to Russia (Honolulu Advertiser collection, Siegel Sale 769, lot 2136), a newspaper wrapper (Gregory Fig. 18-1) and the pair of 1853 13c Kamehameha III stamps off cover (Golden collection, Siegel Sale 1009, lot 225). In 1859 the device was altered by removing the U.S.” and was used exclusively to cancel Numeral Issues on inter-island mail at the Honolulu post office. Prior to the discovery of this cover by Floyd W. Fitzpatrick, circa 1951, the oval marking was not known to exist on the Missionaries.

The addressee, Charles Finney Gulick, was born in Honolulu on April 10, 1834, and died at the young age of 20 on January 18, 1854, in Glen Haven, New York. The docketing at the left side of the envelope reads, Recd from Mr. Wilcox June 15th/52. Written on board the Esther May.” The sender of this cover was the Reverend Abner Wilcox, a teacher in charge of the Waioli Select School. He visited the United States with his son in 1851 and returned to Kauai on April 4, 1852.

The letter in this cover (no longer present) was evidently written en route to Hawaii aboard the American ship Esther May, which left from Boston on November 14, 1851, and sailed around Cape Horn. Upon arrival at Honolulu, Reverend Wilcox stamped and mailed the cover. It was carried to San Francisco on the American brig Noble, which departed on April 27, 1852, and arrived on May 15 in San Francisco. From there it was carried on the PMSC Oregon, which departed on May 16 and arrived in Panama on June 1. After crossing the isthmus, it was carried from Aspinwall on the USMSC Illinois, which departed on June 4 and arrived in New York on June 12. Another cover from this mail is offered in lot 16.

Illustrated shortly after its discovery and for the first time in Covers (June 1951). Ex Floyd W. Fitzpatrick, Honolulu Advertiser and George J. Kramer.

Siegel Census No. 3-I-COV-140. Gregory Census No. 13c '51-4 (Figure 15-25). With 1995 Philatelic Foundation certificate.

For an introduction to the Hawaiian Missionaries: http://siegelauctions.com/2013/1045/Missionaries.pdf (Image)

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A SPECTACULAR HAWAIIAN MISSIONARY COVER ADDRESSED TO FIDELIA FISKE, WHO WAS ONE OF THE FIRST MISSIONARIES TO WORK AMONG THE NESTORIANS IN PERSIA. APART FROM THE UNIQUE DAWSON COVER, THIS MIXED-FRANKING COVER TO PERSIA IS ARGUABLY THE MOST IMPORTANT HAWAIIAN MISSIONARY COVER EXTANT. IT IS THE ONLY MIXED-FRANKING MISSIONARY COVER ADDRESSED TO A COUNTRY OTHER THAN THE UNITED STATES OR HAWAII. ONLY ONE OTHER MISSIONARY COVER TO PERSIA IS RECORDED, AND IT HAS NO UNITED STATES STAMPS.

The postage rate that applied to this November 1854 letter was 5c Hawaiian, 6c U.S. postage and 2c ship letter fee. The Missionaries had been superseded by the Kamehameha III issue, but the two issues were used concurrently. The short-lived practice of applying U.S. stamps (6c postage) over the 13c Hawaiian stamp was likely intended to avoid confusion over whether or not U.S. postage had been prepaid. The postmaster in Honolulu affixed the U.S. stamps to cover up the Hawaiian postage, and the letter was postmarked in San Francisco without applying a Ship” or rate mark. The 2c ship fee was credited to San Francisco in the regular accounting. Fred Gregory records eight paste-over frankings: two with the 1853 Kamehameha III Issue and two with 13c Missionary stamps.

This letter was part of a group discovered in May 1938 in a sea chest in the basement of a library in Shelburne, Massachusetts, which was sold to Spencer Anderson.

Ex Adm. Frederic R. Harris, Maurice Burrus, Hon. J. William Middendorf II, Philip G. Rust, Leonard Kapiloff, Stanley M. Piller and Guido Craveri/Tito Giamporcaro.

Siegel Census No. 4-II-COV-197. Gregory Census No. 13c '52-9 (Figure 15-65). With 1963 and 1993 Philatelic Foundation certificates.

For an introduction to the Hawaiian Missionaries: http://siegelauctions.com/2013/1045/Missionaries.pdf

For additional information about the voyage of this cover: http://siegelauctions.com/2013/1045/Persia.pdf (Image)

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A SPECTACULAR EXAMPLE OF THE 13-CENT H.I. & U.S. POSTAGE” MISSIONARY STAMP TIED BY THE RED HONOLULU DATESTAMP AND POSTMARKED IN RED AT SAN FRANCISCO. ONE OF THE MOST VISUALLY APPEALING OF THE 28 RECORDED INTACT HAWAIIAN MISSIONARY COVERS. THIS IS THE EARLIEST RECORDED USE OF THE H.I. & U.S. POSTAGE” MISSIONARY, OF WHICH NINE COVERS ARE RECORDED, INCLUDING TWO HELD IN MUSEUM COLLECTIONS.

This cover was carried to San Francisco on the American brig Noble, which departed on April 27, 1852, and arrived on May 15 in San Francisco. From there it was carried on the PMSC Oregon, which departed on May 16 and arrived in Panama on June 1. After crossing the isthmus, it was carried from Aspinwall on the USMSC Illinois, which departed on June 4 and arrived in New York on June 12. Another cover from this mail is offered in lot 14.

There are nine covers with the 13c H.I. & U.S. Postage” Missionary stamp, including one in the Smithsonian National Postal Museum (4-II-COV-193, ex Honolulu Advertiser) and another in the Reichspost Museum, leaving seven in collectors’ hands. Four of the nine recorded covers have stamps tied by the red Honolulu datestamp, including one to Persia (4-I-COV-191, ex Honolulu Advertiser) and one that was illustrated in Life magazine in 1954, but has not been seen in decades (4-I-COV-192). The two remaining covers with the 13c H.I. & U.S. Postage” Missionary stamp tied by a red datestamp are the cover to Warren Goodale (4-II-COV-189, ex Aall and Twigg-Smith, Siegel Sale 931, lot 4009) and the cover offered here. The stamps on both of these covers have been repaired with pieces added.

Ex Adm. Frederic R. Harris, Marc Haas and George J. Kramer.

Siegel Census No. 4-I-COV-190. Gregory Census No. 13c '53-1 (Figure 15-31). With 2003 Philatelic Foundation certificate.

For an introduction to the Hawaiian Missionaries: http://siegelauctions.com/2013/1045/Missionaries.pdf (Image)

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