When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
DISCLAIMER
This description has been created to the best of our ability, and mayoccasionally contain errors. You are purchasing the exact item shown in thephotos. Please review all pictures carefully, as they serve as the primarydescription of the item\'s current condition, features, and details.
A crisp May 1894 circular datestamp of WHITEAKER, OREGON — a tiny Marion County office on Beaver Creek that existed only from 1880 to 1903 — carrying a 2¢ Columbian Exposition stamp on a business cover addressed to the San Francisco coffee and spice house of A. Schilling & Co.
1. Postal Markings & Operational Analysis
The Format: A small white commercial envelope, approximately 5 x 3 inches, addressed in a fine steel-pen hand and franked at upper right with a single 2¢ brown-violet Columbian Exposition stamp (the \"Landing of Columbus\" design, Scott 231) from the 1893 commemorative series. The envelope is intact and opened, with no enclosure present.
The Origin Postmark: A clean, fully legible black circular datestamp reads WHITEAKER at the top, OREG. at the bottom, with MAY 29 1894 across the center. The strike is struck clear of the address and sits in open space at upper left, exactly where a collector wants it. The stamp itself carries only a light, incompletely struck killer, so the Columbian shows the design almost unobscured.
Postal Rates & Law: The 2¢ franking pays the standard domestic first-class letter rate in force in 1894. The rate had been cut from 3¢ to 2¢ per half ounce effective 1 October 1883, and the weight unit was then increased to a full ounce effective 1 July 1885 — so from mid-1885 onward a single ordinary letter of up to one ounce travelled anywhere in the United States for 2¢, regardless of distance. A letter from rural Oregon to San Francisco therefore needed exactly the 2¢ paid here.
Payment Status: Fully prepaid by adhesive. There are no due, forwarding or auxiliary markings.
Transit & Receiving Marks: The reverse carries two strikes. The clearer of the two is a San Francisco carrier-station receiving mark reading in part SAN FRANCISCO, CAL. / STA. D / REC\'D / MAY 31 / 94 with a time code — a two-day run from a small Willamette Valley country office to a city delivery station in San Francisco. A second circular strike alongside it, partly over the envelope flap, reads REC\'D with what appears to be an Oregon town name and a MAY 3[0] 94 date, consistent with an intermediate Oregon handling office on the route down the valley.
The Destination Address: Transcribed as written:
A Schilling & Co.
San Francisco,
Calif.
2. Historical Significance
The Post Office: Whiteaker was a short-lived country office in Marion County, Oregon. Published Oregon post office reference work (Helbock, Oregon Post Offices 1847-1982, as summarized by the Willamette Heritage Center) records it as established 4 May 1880 and discontinued 31 July 1903, with mail then forwarded to Shaw; the office stood about three miles north of Sublimity and five miles east of Shaw, with George W. Hunt, a local storekeeper, as its first postmaster. The name honors John Whiteaker, Oregon\'s first state governor and later a U.S. Representative from the state. With a working life of only twenty-three years and a service population measured in farm families, Whiteaker strikes are not easily found, and this cover falls comfortably inside that window.
The Addressee: A. Schilling & Company was founded in San Francisco in 1881 by German emigrants August Schilling and George F. Volkmann, and processed coffee, tea, baking powder, spices and extracts; the firm remained in business until it was acquired by McCormick & Company in 1947. Schilling had come to San Francisco around 1870 and began his career at J. A. Folger & Company before striking out under his own name. A letter from a Willamette Valley farming hamlet to this house in 1894 is a small, concrete piece of the trade network that tied rural Oregon to the Bay Area wholesale houses — almost certainly an order, remittance or account letter, though no enclosure survives to confirm it.
The Stamp: The 2¢ Columbian was issued for the 1893 World\'s Columbian Exposition in Chicago and became the workhorse commemorative of the mid-1890s; seeing one used from a hamlet post office that would be gone within a decade is what gives this piece its appeal.
3. Transcription
There is no letter or docketing beyond the address, which is transcribed in Section 1 above.
ABOUT ELECTRO ANTIQUES
At Electro Antiques, we are dedicated to rescuing, rediscovering, andrestoring this history of electronics and computing, reviving andpreserving it for future generations.
We also specialize in signs, advertising, and some ephemera.
All of our items are genuine, vintage or antique items, unless they areotherwise noted as a reproduction.
We want you to be absolutely happy with your purchase.
PAYMENT
Payment must be made within three (3) calendar days of sale close.
Non-paying buyer Cases are automatically opened after 7 days ofnon-payment.
SHIPPING
We ship via USPS on most items.
We only ship to confirmed U.S. addresses, or international through\'s international shipment program.
Please message us through the platform if any of your purchasesarrive damaged, or you have any questions about our items we havelisted.
CUSTOMER SERVICE
Please message us through \'s message system.
