When parents used postal service to mail children: The bizarre practice and why did it stop

May 13, 2026 - 00:11

In an age of next-day delivery and drone drops, it is easy to complain about the speed of modern shipping. But a century ago, the United States Postal Service offered a service that makes today's convenience seem tame: they occasionally delivered children.

Between 1913 and the early 1920s, a handful of families used parcel post to ship their kids across the country. The practice sounds like a bizarre joke, but it was real. The key was the postal rate. In 1913, the USPS introduced parcel post, allowing packages up to 11 pounds. Parents quickly realized that their small children weighed less than that. Since the service was cheap and reliable, some saw it as a practical alternative to buying a train ticket.

The most famous case involved a little boy named May Pierstorff. In 1914, her parents in Idaho wanted to send her to her grandmother's house, 73 miles away. They bought 53 cents worth of stamps, pinned them to her coat, and handed her to the mail carrier. She traveled in the train's mail car and was delivered safely.

Other cases followed. Children were shipped with tags around their necks, often accompanied by a note for the postman. One postal worker in Ohio reportedly delivered a baby in a mail sack.

So why did it stop? Postal regulations quickly caught up. After a few high-profile incidents, the Postmaster General issued a strict ban on mailing human beings. The official rule stated that children could not be shipped as parcels, though they could still travel with a mail carrier if they had a valid train ticket. The practice faded as train travel became cheaper and safer, and as the novelty of putting a stamp on a toddler wore off. Today, the stories remain a strange footnote in postal history, a reminder of a time when the mailman really did deliver anything.