Ohio couple reportedly mailed eight-month-old son for 15 cents in 1913
Jesse and Mathilda Beagle used the US Postal Service's Parcel Post system to send their infant to a relative in Batavia.
In January 1913, Jesse and Mathilda Beagle of Ohio sent their eight-month-old son, James, to his grandmother's house via the US Postal Service, according to a report by the Times of India.
The couple paid 15 cents in postage for the infant, who weighed just under 11 pounds, and insured him for $50. The grandmother lived a few miles away in Batavia.
The Parcel Post service had been introduced on January 1, 1913, allowing Americans to mail packages weighing more than four pounds. Early regulations did not explicitly prohibit sending human beings, leading some parents to use the service to avoid train fares.
Historians at the Smithsonian's National Postal Museum have noted about seven cases of children being sent through the mail between 1913 and 1915.
In February 1914, six-year-old May Pierstorff travelled 73 miles in Idaho via railway mail. This incident led Postmaster General Albert S. Burleson to formally ban postal workers from accepting people as mail.
The last recorded instance occurred in August 1915, when three-year-old Maud Smith travelled 40 miles in Kentucky. This prompted an investigation by John Clark, superintendent of the Cincinnati division of the Railway Mail Service.