History buffs in Gloucester have turned up a decades-old mystery involving the U.S Postal Service.
As amateur sleuth E.J. Lefavour posted on the GoodMorningGloucester blog over the weekend, a correspondent named H. Grimsland of Chicago mailed a First Day of Issue Roosevelt Memorial envelope and 1-cent stamps to Mrs. S.E. Lawrence of 123 Leonard St. in Gloucester on July 26, 1945.
That may not seem too remarkable — but the envelope only arrived in Annisquam last week, more than 65 years later, according to Lefavour.
"It had traveled to Gloucester, England, and God only knows where else over the past almost 66 years, but it finally made it to its destination," Lefavour wrote. "Mrs. Lawrence is long gone, so the mailman gave the envelope to Tom O'Keefe who is the curator of the Annisquam Historical Society, and he loaned it to me to share with all of you. The mail must go through!"
According to Lefavour, postal officials had issued a 1-cent stamp commemorating President Franklin D. Roosevelt in Hyde Park, N.Y., the second in a series of four stamps issued in memory of the then-recently deceased president.
Each stamp showed an oval portrait of Roosevelt to the left plus a scene of an important place associated with his life. The 1-cent issue showed Roosevelt's house in Hyde Park, N.Y.
Lefavour noted that the postage rate in 1945 was 3 cents.
In an e-mail Monday, Lefavour said Henry Grimsland was born in Risor, Norway, on Jan. 16, 1889, and died in Chicago, Ill., on Jan. l3, 1957, just three days short of his 68th birthday.
Brought to the United States when 8 months old and educated in the public schools of Chicago, he worked as an engraver and became interested in first-day covers during the Depression, when his firm, The Artcraft Engraving Co., needed additional work, she said.
He produced his first cachet for the Peace Commemorative stamp, issued at Newburgh, N.Y., on April 19, 1933, and made one or more cachets for each United States stamp produced until the American Chemical Society stamp issued in New York City on Sept. 4, 1951, Lefavour wrote.
"Since the calling card of Mr. Grimsland was inside the envelope addressed to Mrs. Lawrence, I now wonder if he was a friend (or maybe secret lover) of Mrs. Lawrence," Lefavour wrote. "Is there more to this story than the already amazing one of an envelope traveling for 66 years to reach a destination? We'll probably never know, but it does give the imagination something to play with."
Postal Service regional spokesman Dennis Tarmey said the envelope had been retrieved Monday and would be held to "see if someone steps forward" to claim it — say, for instance, a Lawrence family member.
For now, there is only "speculation" about where the piece of mail had been for so long, he said.
"That's what it is to us, a mystery," Tarmey said.
Francis X. Quinn can be reached at 978-283-7000 x3455 or fquinn@gloucestertimes.com.
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