The Locks of Rural Free Delivery

Reader Contribution by Richard Williams
Published on December 4, 2018
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As I relic hunt in Virginia’s historic Shenandoah Valley, I often recover discarded or lost items that teach me intriguing nuances about life in earlier days. The Valley’s rich agricultural heritage is documented in books, essays and journals, but many of the relics and artifacts that shed light on that history remain buried in the ground. Most of these items were often lost by a farmer plowing his field, a housewife hanging out wash or a child sleigh riding down a hill behind the farmhouse. Other items were simply discarded as they were worn out or broken beyond repair. The circumstances that led to these relics being buried in the ground are as varied as the items themselves.

As much as I love recovering these items, i.e., “the thrill of the hunt”, I love restoring and preserving them just as much. But then there’s the history behind such items. I’ve learned a wealth of information and history in just researching the various artifacts I pull from my native sod.

One such item is the R.F.D. lock shown in the image above. It’s a “postal padlock.” These are fairly common finds by relic hunters but they tell an interesting story of Rural Free Delivery (RFD) by the United States Post Office. Nancy Pope of the National Postal Museum writes this explanation: 

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