By Dennis Sadowski
Every now and then a piece of postal history with an interesting local connection finds its way home. One such mail piece promotes a product developed by Martin Webster Pond, a Connecticut native who made Elyria his home for all but a few years from 1825 until his death in 1897 at 83.
Pond’s product: the tug buckle, a device that allows for a horse harness to be quickly released from a saddle.
An image of the buckle Pond perfected appears on an amber-colored envelope his company sent to prospective customers. An enclosure probably provided product details and pricing.
The particular cover, which I recently obtained, was mailed from Elyria on April 14, probably in 1869, to Middletown, New York. It is franked with a 2-cent stamp from the 1869 pictorial series showing a rider on a horse carrying mail.
Even though the postmark does not indicate a year, we can offer an educated guess because the pictorials were in use for about a year starting in March 1869.
The 2-cent rate applied to drop letters, meaning a letter was dropped at a local post office to be picked up by the addressee rather than delivered to a specific location.
Pond spent more than three decades in saddlery and harness making in the mid-19th century.
He arrived in Elyria at age 11 from his native Harwinton, Connecticut, in 1825 with his older sister Lydia and her husband, Ezra S. Adams, whom she had just married. Lydia and Martin’s grandfather was a soldier under Gen. George Washington in the Revolutionary War. Their father was Roswell Pond, born in 1772, and their mother was Hannah Webster, born in 1778. The couple had five other children, records show.
“History of Lorain County, Ohio” by William Brothers, published in 1879, recounts how Lydia “prevailed” upon her parents to let the young couple bring Martin with them to the Connecticut Western Reserve. Their long journey by horse and wagon lasted from April to July 1, 1825.
Adams opened a saddlery and harness-making shop while young Pond enrolled in classes. Pond became an apprentice under his brother-in-law after completing schooling.
In 1835 Pond, then 21, left Elyria “for the purpose of perfecting himself in the art of saddle-making, in which he took great pride,” Brothers wrote. Over two years Pond worked in Cleveland, Detroit and Wheeling, Virginia (before West Virginia became a state), but ill health led him back to Elyria. Recovering, Pond worked at his craft with various business partners until 1852.
In June 1852, doctors advised Pond to move to California, likely for health reasons. He traveled by ship to Nicaragua and faced a three-week delay during which he contracted “Panama fever.” Whether from yellow fever, malaria or dysentery, Pond arrived in San Francisco in poor health 66 days after leaving Elyria.
Pond eventually recovered and worked in mining in Nevada City, California, near Sacramento. His venture west was short. By June 1853 Pond returned to Elyria, where he reestablished a partnership in the saddlery and the harness business.
Tragedy struck in March 1858 when a fire engulfed the Mansion House and jumped to Pond’s adjoining building, destroying his business. By January 1859 Pond rebuilt his operation. In 1862 he invented the tug buckle, a much sought-after product and the subject of his mail advertisement.
The entrepreneur focused his business on producing the buckle until 1870, when he patented a harness pad and began manufacturing it.
Outside of business, Pond was an active Mason, holding several leadership positions. He was instrumental in establishing what were known at the time as union schools that taught various trades.
Pond died Oct. 25, 1897, at age 83. He is buried at Ridgelawn Cemetery with his wife Eliza, brother Frank and mother.
Lydia, who died in 1889, and Ezra, who died in 1847, also are buried at Ridgelawn.
The 1869 pictorials had a short life after meeting with disdain from the mailing public, which disliked the small square format as well as the subjects shown. While three stamps in the series depicted famous Americans, the pictorials also showed a locomotive, a steamship, an eagle and shield, Columbus’ landing in the Americas and signing of the Declaration of Independence.
Feeling the heat, postal officials introduced newly designed stamps beginning in 1870 featuring that old favorite: male Americans.
Club meeting
The September meeting of the Black River Stamp Club is at 5 p.m., Wednesday at the Lorain Public Library’s North Ridgeville Branch. The meeting is open to all.
Dennis Sadowski can be reached at sadowski.dennis@gmail.com.