Friday, March 28, 2025
He took it one step at a time
This hiker pioneered traversing the entire Appalachian Trail
In 1951, a 24-year-old Gene Espy hiked the Appalachian Trail — the second person to accomplish that feat.
“I had one goal — to see God in nature,” he said.
But before he took that 2,000-mile-long walk, Espy worked for the Post Office Department — the predecessor to USPS — in the late 1940s while he was in college.
He was a substitute carrier at the Cordele, GA, Post Office during the summers, and at Christmastime, he’d deliver Special Delivery letters on his bicycle.
Now 98, the retired aeronautical engineer has a history of trailblazing.
At 16, he completed a 740-mile endurance ride on his bicycle, and he later rode a motorcycle up Georgia’s Stone Mountain, the largest slab of exposed granite in North America.
“He made his own water skis, built his own sailboat, and explored caves all throughout the Southeast,” said Eugenia Espy, his wife of 71 years.
After college, Espy turned his attention to hiking the then newly created Appalachian Trail. Vegetation was overgrown, trail markers were sparse and bushwhacking was a necessity.
“The trail wasn’t originally designed to be done in one shot, but he could create solutions to any type of adversity, and this gave him the courage to set out on that hike,” said Jane Gilsinger, Espy’s daughter.
During his hike, Espy paused for sunrises and sunsets, delighted in the wildflowers, and veered off on side trails so he wouldn’t miss anything noteworthy.
He would also periodically leave the trail to visit local Post Offices to mail postcards to family and to get supplies that he and his parents had sent ahead.
After completing the hike in 123 days, Espy mailed a postcard to his parents to let them know he had made it.
In 2008, Espy published an autobiography, “The Trail of My Life,” chronicling his adventures. He later was one of the first six people inducted into the Appalachian Trail Hall of Fame.
In February, he attended the dedication ceremony for the Postal Service’s new Appalachian Trail stamps in Dawsonville, GA.
“He became an icon of the Appalachian Trail, and it’s been that way ever since,” Gilsinger said.
History
‘What hath God wrought?’
The Post Office Department opened the first commercial telegraph on April 1, 1845
On April 1, 1845, the Post Office Department launched Samuel Morse’s telegraph into the wider world.
There were telegraphs in use before Morse’s invention, but they were optical, transmitting messages visually by way of relay towers. Their operation was limited to daylight hours and clear weather. Morse’s telegraph was electromagnetic, and messages could be sent around the clock — whatever the weather.
In 1843, Congress provided Morse with the funding to test the device’s “practicability and utility … under the direction of the Secretary of the Treasury.”
A telegraph line was built between Baltimore and Washington, DC, and in May 1844, it successfully tapped out its famous first message: “What hath God wrought?”
In March 1845, Congress moved the supervision of the telegraph under Postmaster General Cave Johnson, Morse became an employee of the Post Office Department, and on April 1, the Baltimore-Washington telegraph line was opened to the public.
Though priced at a deliberately low rate, it failed to gain much traction.
Once a fierce skeptic of the device, Johnson became a staunch supporter. He conceded that the revenues of the telegraph would never equal the expense for the Post Office, but by the end of 1845, the telegraph was “an agent vastly superior to any other ever devised by the genius of man for the diffusion of intelligence” and urged that it remain under government control.
The lack of a profit cooled Congress on funding further expansion, however. Morse and his associates struck a deal with Johnson to operate the telegraph in exchange for the profits, at no expense to the Post Office, and later made the same deal with the Magnetic Telegraph Co.
Within a few years, telegraph lines spanned the nation, and the technology caught on —especially with businesses.
The private sector controlled the telegraph network from then on — with one exception: During World War I, President Woodrow Wilson ordered them to be returned to the control of the postmaster general for a brief time.
The “History” column appears occasionally in Link.
People
They talk the talk — and walk the walk
Employees emphasize safety, a show goes on despite bad weather and a professor’s pic is showcased on a stamp
Employees at the Los Feliz, CA, Station are putting a new emphasis on safety.
Managers at the station, part of a Los Angeles neighborhood, recently invited local police detectives and firefighters to deliver presentations to employees, part of a fresh approach to workplace safety education.
Kathrine Kasilag, a USPS occupational health nurse administrator, also gave a talk on ergonomics.
The presentations were a hit with employees, who said they appreciated hearing from the experts.
“Nurse Katherine was a huge help and put a lot of things into perspective,” said Manbir Sumra, a city carrier assistant and safety ambassador.
“It made sense to make sure our posture is right and show us all the stress management tools and what we can do to prevent that because some people have driving routes — they have to get in and out. Some people are walking all the time, so it really helps them out.”
Quietly promoting USPS
It was a dark and snowy night, but two USPS employees didn’t let the February cold keep them from their self-appointed off-the-clock rounds in East Grand Rapids, MI.
For the past two years, Letter Carrier Michelle Nicholas and Eastown Station Manager Jordan Blanchard have visited with local elementary school children to share their love of the Postal Service.
This particular event was held at a library, where they read storybooks and taught children how to write and address letters.
Nicholas found the evening “rewarding,” and Blanchard was enthusiastic, too.
“The best part was the kids and their parents sending mail to loved ones,” Blanchard said, adding that the library purchased stamps and provided envelopes for the children to send valentines to parents and grandparents.
A ‘delightful’ surprise
In 2022, Kevin Luhman, a Penn State University professor of astronomy and astrophysics, took images of a nebula — a giant cloud of gas and dust in space where stars often form — in the Perseus constellation.
Three years later, that image graces the Postal Service’s new Star Cluster Priority Express Mail stamp.
Luhman told Penn State’s news website this month that he was “delighted” when he learned USPS would feature his image on a stamp.
“It’s not something that happens every day,” he said.
“People” appears regularly in Link. Got news to share? Email us.
News Quiz
Celebrating women’s history
Do you know what percentage of the USPS workforce is female?
“News Quiz” is a weekly feature that lets you test your knowledge of recent Link stories. The correct answers appear at the end.
1. What percentage of the Postal Service workforce is female?
a) 41 percent
b) 44 percent
c) 53 percent
d) 61 percent
2. True or false: USPS employees who’ve been threatened or believe they’re in a potentially unsafe situation that involves a co-worker, contractor, customer or manager should notify their immediate supervisor, the local threat assessment team and the Postal Inspection Service.
a) True
b) False
3. What did Mason City, IL, Letter Carrier Jayden Wise do after he discovered a customer who had fallen off a ladder?
a) He administered CPR.
b) He called 911 and stayed until paramedics arrived.
c) He called the customer’s daughter.
d) He set the customer’s broken leg.
4. Under the new USPS service standards, First-Class Mail delivery time will not exceed how many days?
a) Two
b) Three
c) Four
d) Five
5. A special dedication ceremony for the Allen Toussaint stamp was held in which Wisconsin city?
a) Madison
b) Milwaukee
c) Green Bay
d) Kenosha
Answers: 1) b. 2) a. 3) b. 4) d. 5) a.
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He took it one step at a time
This hiker pioneered traversing the entire Appalachian Trail
-
History
‘What hath God wrought?’
The Post Office Department opened the first commercial telegraph on April 1, 1845
-
People
They talk the talk — and walk the walk
Employees emphasize safety, a show goes on despite bad weather and a professor’s pic is showcased on a stamp
-
News Quiz
Celebrating women’s history
Do you know what percentage of the USPS workforce is female?