What was your father's name in full and profession? - Edward Tudor,
educated at Philadelphia as Physician, Surgeon and Dentist.
What was your grandfather's name and profession? - Elihu Tudor, Physician
and Surgeon, - generally wrote it Edward, as he disliked the name of
Elihu.
When and where was he born? - Feb. 1733, Windsor, Conn.
When and where did he die? - East Windsor, Conn., 1826.
Was he Surgeon on Gen. Wolfe's staff's at Quebec in 1759? - He was.
How do you know that your grandfather Tudor attended upon Gen. Wolfe when
he was wounded on the 13th Sept., 1759, at Quebec? - I have often heard my
grand father relate the circumstances and other interesting reminiscences
of the General.
What is the history or tradition as you have it that Gen. Wolfe gave your
grandfather his pistols? - The history he (my grandfather) gave was only,
that they were given him at the death of Gen. Wolfe.
Describe them - They are rifle breech-loaders, London maker, Flint Locks,
silver mounted, with English coat of arms on butt; the sash was cut up;
Dr. Strong has a piece; it is stained.
Have you them in your possession? - My son, Dr. Edward Strong, of Crown
Point, N. Y., has them.
Have you the sash worn by Surgeon Tudor at the time the General was
killed? - The sash was three yards long, Crimson silk. It was Gen. Wolfe's
sash given to my grandfather.
What is said of stains of blood upon it from the wound that caused Wolfe's
death? - It was rent with the shot, and stained with his blood.
MRS. SARAH TUDOR STRONG.
THE POST OFFICE.
"In a recent issue of the Journal des Trois Rivieres appeared a
somewhat interesting paper on the Canadian postal system. From this paper
we learn that on the cession of this country to Great Britain a regular
mail courier was established between the cities of Montreal and Quebec.
The celebrated Benjamin Franklin was the Deputy Postmaster General for the
English colonies from 1750 to 1774. In 1776 this functionary, while giving
evidence before a committee of the British Parliament, stated that, as a
rule, the mail courier kept the route by the water highways, seldom
penetrating into the interior. From his evidence, also, we learn that the
mail communication between Quebec and Montreal was not more frequent than
once a month. For not having established intermediate post-offices between
the two towns, Franklin alleged the great distance between the settlers on
the banks of the St. Lawrence, the isolation of the Canadian villages, and
the excessive difficulty of intercommunication in his day. The fact is,
however, that Benjamin Franklin was a great enemy to Canadian prosperity,
and always looked with aversion upon the people of the newly-acquired
colony. In 1774, war having broken out between the mother-country and the
English colonies, Franklin was deprived of his office, and Mr. Hugh
Finlay, a subordinate of the great republican philosopher, was appointed
Deputy Postmaster General for Canada. Mr. Finlay had been given great
proofs of capacity under the previous regime, and being a man of
very high character and probity, he was armed with large discretionary
powers to put the mail system of Canada on a better footing, and to make
its operations more extended and regular. Until 1790, there were added but
two intermediate post-offices between Quebec and Montreal; in the year
following, offices were opened at Three Rivers and Berthier. Every month,
however, a mail messenger was sent by way of Halifax to England. At this
date the local mail betwixt Quebec and Halifax was bi-weekly in summer,
and once a week in winter; the local mail between Quebec and Montreal had
increased to twice a week. In 1800, Mr. Hugh Finlay was succeeded in
office by Mr. George Heriot. This gentleman, being also commissioned as
Deputy Postmaster General for New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, as well as
for the two Canadas, had to oversee the service throughout all these
provinces and to visit them from time to time. In the four first years of
his administration he opened but one new post-office in Lower Canada, and
five in the Upper Province. Matters progressed slowly enough until 1816,
when Mr. David Sutherland succeeded Mr. Heriot. In 1817 be opened six
additional offices of delivery in Lower Canada which made the total number
of offices in operation thirteen. Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island
were placed under the management of independent offices, and in that year
the mails were still expedited but weekly to New Brunswick. In 1824, Mr.
Sutherland was succeeded by Mr. Thomas Allen Stayner, and it was in this
year that New Brunswick was endowed with an independent postal department.
Mr. Stayner administered his important office for the space of twenty-
seven years, with great zeal and giving entire satisfaction to the public.
He greatly increased the number of local offices, and inaugurated many of
the reforms which have since developed into that vast and safe system of
communication with which our people are so familiar. On the 6th of April,
1851, the Canadian Mail Department was transferred from the Imperial to
Provincial control, the first Postmaster General being the Hon. John
Morris. Some idea of the progress made from 1760 to 1851, a period of
ninety years, may be obtained by contrasting the department under Benjamin
Franklin and that over which Mr. Morris was called to preside. The
courier, who made monthly journeys on horseback between the military posts
of Quebec and Montreal, and whose safe arrival at either of those then
distant cities would no doubt cause the utmost satisfaction to the King's
lieges, male and female, had been replaced by the steamboat and soon would
be by the railway; and the two primitive post offices of Canada had
expanded into a network of 601 local offices, transmitting among them
letters to the number of 2,132,000 annually. In 1861 these figures had
attained to 1775 offices, and the number of letters transmitted to
9,400,000; in addition to a weekly line of ocean mail steamers to Europe,
over 1200 miles of railway doing mail service from one end of Canada to
the other, and a magnificent network of telegraphic wire supplementing the
postal system.
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