It was 125 Years Ago Today ...

Today is a significant day in postal history.  On October 11, 1887, the most infamous of the 11 “Barefoot Mailmen” --- James Edward “Ed” Hamilton ---vanished while swimming in the Hillsboro Inlet near Pompano Beach.  That was  125 years ago! 

With no railroad or regular ship service, a letter from Miami to Jupiter took six to eight weeks via Key West, Havana, and New York.  Between 1885 and 1893, pioneers traveled the 136 miles between Palm Beach and Key Biscayne. They traveled 56 miles in small boats and the remaining 80 on foot, walking at the ocean’s edge.  In late 1892 the first county road from Lantana to Lemon City was completed. The following year the U.S. Postal Service did not renew the "Barefoot Mailman's" contract.
Historians believe Hamilton, on what would be his last run, arrived at the inlet and found his boat gone, apparently stolen. The presumption is the determined mailman tried to swim and drowned ... or was eaten by alligators.
The Barefoot Mailman is memorialized in the town seal of Hypoluxo, a historical marker at Boca Raton’s Spanish River Park, and a statue of Hamilton near the spot where he died. A six-panel mural painted by Connecticut artist Steven Dohanos in the late 1930s is in the lobby of the West Palm Beach Main Office at 3200 Summit Blvd.

Special thanks to West Palm Beach Customer Relations Coordinator LuAnn Warner for photographing the artwork to share with us.