As I work on my current novel, I am mired again in the vagaries of the mail system in 1850-51. I wrote a post on this topic when I was working on Now I’m Found, in which letters between the characters provided many of the plot’s turning points.
In my current novel, two sisters write letters to each other. One of these letters affects the plot, though the letters also provide my female protagonist with an opportunity to vent her feelings about the strange Oregon wilderness in which she finds herself.
As I wrote in my earlier post, the telegraph was not yet available in 1850 for instant (or at least relatively quick) communications between distant points in the West. It is well known that the trans-continental telegraph was completed in 1861, which permitted rapid communications between the settled United States and San Francisco.
There was a shorter telegraph line completed between Portland, Oregon, and Oregon City in 1855. But that did little good to speed communications to and from the East. It wasn’t until March 1864 that the telegraph line from California to Portland was finished, thus enabling communication across the nation to San Francisco and then north to Oregon within minutes.
Even then, the line was not reliable. Fallen trees could break the telegraph line for as long as ten days at a time until repairs could be made.
Wood engraving depiction of the construction of the first transcontinental telegraph, with a Pony Express rider passing below.
For a detailed description of the development of the telegraph in Oregon, see “Communication Pioneering in Oregon,” by E. D. Smith, Jr., Oregon Historical Quarterly, Vol. 39, No. 4 (Dec. 1938), pp. 352-371.
My novel takes place between October 1850 and October 1851. At that time, letters were the only form of communication, and those took two to three months to get from the East to Oregon—if all went well. It wasn’t unusual for letters to take six months or longer to get to Oregon.
This leads to a rather disjointed conversation between my protagonist in Oregon and her sister in Ohio. Many things happen to my character in Oregon, events which she wants to share with her sister, but cannot.
When have you been unable to communicate with someone you loved?
