Julia Shafer, Knoxville's Intrepid Mail Carrier

A caricature depicting Julia Shafer delivering the mail amid a winter storm, drawn by Melvin Barclay and published in "The Baltimore Sun" in 1912.

The March 24, 1912, edition of The Baltimore Sun carried the headline “Snowdrifts do not daunt this girl mail carrier” and an article telling the story of Julia Shafer. This native of the Burkittsville area drew quite a bit of attention from the press in the early years of her career as one of the first female mail carriers to serve a rural delivery route in the United States.

Julia May Shafer was born on September 14, 1885, to Thomas Koontz Shafer and his wife, Elizabeth (Karn) Shafer. Her family resided on the farm of Thomas’ father, Hamilton Josephus Shafer, along Catholic Church Road between Burkittsville and Petersville.
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Julia’s family had several connections that led her to a career with the postal service. Her father, Thomas, was one of the first appointed rural delivery carriers in Frederick County, serving the Knoxville route, which was one of the longest in the state. At the age of 14, Julia began working as her father’s substitute. Her uncle, William Z. Main, who was married to Thomas Shafer’s sister Delphina, was the postmaster of Knoxville from 1898 until his death in 1914.

The original Knoxville Post Office (from the Brunswick History Commission)

In a story of her career published by Brunswick’s Blade Times newspaper in March 1959, Julia related that after a couple of years working as her father’s substitute, she decided she would go to Baltimore in search of a job. Soon after, her father sent a letter expressing his desire to step down from his carrier position and encouraging her to consider applying for it. Thomas wrote “if you want the job, if the work is honorable, and if you feel you are fitted for it, go ahead and try to get it. You are well and strong. You know you can handle this work as well as any man.” Perhaps to lend a little more encouragement, Thomas offered to continue as his daughter’s substitute should she take the position.
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Julia Shafer decided to go for the job, which first required that she pass a civil service examination. She later recalled that not only was she the only woman to take the exam on her appointed day, but she was also the only one in her cohort who passed. In 1904, the now 18-year-old Julia Shafer began her official appointment as the mail carrier on the Knoxville Rural Delivery Route.

Julia Shafer in 1911 from "The News"

​Traveling by horse and buggy, Julia’s mail route covered an extensive area and served as many as 600 patrons. She picked up her mail from the Knoxville Post Office and embarked on the route at 8 or 9 o’clock in the morning, heading northeast up today’s Route 180 towards Petersville and going as far as Olive School. She would then deliver to homes between Petersville and Brunswick before turning north to head towards Burkittsville. Her route took her past her family’s farm where she would stop to have lunch and change out her horse before continuing on the return leg of the route back to Knoxville by evening. Her total route, with all the side paths and farm lanes that she traversed, totaled 25 miles each day. 

An article in Frederick’s The News from December 1911 noted that since she had started the job, Julia Shafer had “traveled over 60,000 miles, worn out three buggies, killed two horses, and she adds ‘herself nearly.’ But no one would believe it by the active manner in which she distributes and collects the mail during all seasons of the year.”
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Having been interviewed a few times by various newspapers due to the curiosity at a female mail carrier, Julia Shafer’s sense of humor is preserved in her recounting of adventures along her delivery route. In a 1912 interview with The Baltimore Sun, Julia quipped “I have lots of trouble with pigs, cows, and the like. Frequently, I pass through barnyards, and in spite of all I can do, pigs and cows get out and I can’t get them back. I have often tried to head them off, but invariable they outrun me.” In another article from The News, she recalled “one winter I was almost put in jail for cutting down a man’s new post fence in order to get through the snow drift.”

A 1930 aerial view of Knoxville, showing about a third of the territory covered by Julia Shafer's delivery route.

​Many of her stories involved the difficulties of completing her route during bad winter storms. During the winter of 1912, she became trapped in a drift that was “as deep as the horse was high” and she paid a local farmer $0.25 to spend half the day digging out her horse and buggy. Two years later during a winter storm in February 1914, Julia became trapped in another drift and this time, her horse fell and broke the singletree, disabling her buggy and leaving her no option but to put the mail pouch on her horse and walk beside it back to Knoxville. In the bitterest weather, Julia recalled “her kindhearted and thoughtful patrons who often had hot food and drinks waiting for her as well as bricks heating on the kitchen stove for her to put under her feet in the sleigh.” 

From "The Baltimore Sun," February 20, 1914

Julia was particularly fond of her horse Charlie. “I drove him for more than 20 years,” she recounted to the Blade Times in 1959: “I always kept two horses at the same time so one wouldn’t have to go the whole distance in one day.” Her tenure on the Knoxville route saw the transition to automobiles, about which Julia commented “In later years after the roads were paved, I drove a car, of course; and after that it seemed I was always getting stuck in the snow or mud. Many’s the time I’ve had to get pulled out – much oftener than with the horses.”

Julia Shafer from "The Blade Times," March 19, 1959

In December 1933, Julia Shafer retired from her mail route after thirty years of service. The Blade Times announced her retirement and wrote “throughout the long period of service, she was very faithful in the performance of her duty, weather and road conditions failing to prevent her from serving the patrons of her route.” After her retirement, the Knoxville route was consolidated with Weverton’s delivery route, a move that set a precedent for the future inclusion of most of southern Pleasant Valley in Washington County being part of the Knoxville postal district after the creation of Zip Codes in the 1960s.

After her retirement from the postal service, Julia Shafer ran a roadside hotel and service station between Knoxville and Weverton known as the Mountain View Inn. She and her business partner, James Harrison, ran the inn until 1949. Julia Shafer passed away at the age of 75 in January 1961. She is buried at Burkittsville Union Cemetery.