Pugh Post Office
In the latter half of the 19th century, use of the U.S. Post Office mail service was becoming more popular, and populations were growing everywhere, including in Somerset County. The U.S. Post Office Department (now the U.S. Postal Service) had to expand to meet increasing needs. Since patrons had to travel to their local Post Office to send or retrieve their mail, the Post Office Department opened small Post Offices in between larger existing Post Offices to better service their rural patrons.
In Somerset County, some of the new Post Offices (and the date they opened) were Pine Hill (1861), Glencoe (1869), Boone (1882), Downey (1885), Fort Hill (1885), and Seanor (1892). Often these Post Offices were located in an existing establishment, such as a country store or tavern. A small room, or maybe just a counter, was dedicated to Post Office business. For convenience, the establishment owner might have also served as the Postmaster.
One of Somerset County's new Post Offices opened between Somerset and Shanksville, near the Pugh homestead at Sheep Ridge. The Pugh Post Office came into existance on March 8, 1883. Shown below is the letter dated March 21, 1883, which was sent to the Post Master at Shanksville notifying him of the creation of the Pugh Post Office. The first Postmaster in 1883 is William H. Coleman. In 1894, Samuel P. Yoder was appointed Postmaster of Pugh, where he operated a grocery store in connection with the Post Office. Samuel resigned from being Postmaster on Jan. 14, 1905.
The exact location of Yoder's store and the Pugh Post Office is unknown, but it would have been near the intersection of Stutzmantown Road and Sheep Ridge Road in Stonycreek Township, see the map below. There were not enough residents clustered together at that place to call it a village, but the geographical location might have been called Pugh before the Post Office opened. What is known for sure is that the Post Office put Pugh on the map. Below is a 1912 map of Somerset County which shows Pugh between Somerset and Shanksville. The 1914 U.S. Geological Survey map of this area does not show Pugh, so it's use as a place name was dying out by then. While the Pugh Post Office existed, people born in the area serviced by the Pugh Post Office were said to be born in Pugh, Pa.
After the turn of the century, the advent of motorized vehicles gave the Post Office Department better and more efficient means of providing service from the larger Post Offices to the areas served by the rural Post Offices. Rural Free Delivery was generally adopted in 1902. The need for the small rural Post Offices declined as the Post Office Department improved it's means and methods for delivering mail directly to patrons' homes. Many small Post Offices were soon closed.
Downey and Boone closed in 1907, Pine Hill closed in 1918, Glencoe lasted until 1984, and Seanor finally closed in 2004.
Fort Hill has managed to stay open to the present day (ZIP code 15540). Some of these Post Offices have managed to last
so long because Somerset County still is mostly rural with modest population growth over the last century (county
population growth was only about 57% from 1900 to 2010). Larger Post Offices have not yet "swallowed up" some of the
smaller facilities. Pugh Post Office closed Jan. 14, 1905, coinciding with the resignation of Postmaster Samuel Yoder.
| Shanksville Postmaster is notified of the establishment of the Pugh Post Office. |
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| Location of Pugh along Stutzmantown Road in Stonycreek Township, and the probable location of the Pugh Post Office. Also shows the location of the old Pugh Cemetery. |
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| Pugh (highlighted in green) between Somerset and Shanksville on this 1912 map of Somerset County. |
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| Back to the Pugh Family of Somerset County home page. |
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