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Sale 101: The Westpex Sale

Table of Contents

Arizona Expresses - Arizona & N.M. to Tucson and Tombstone Stage Line

Lot 647    

"From the Miner Office/via Dukes Express", manuscript express endorsement at top right on cover to Charles City, Iowa, entered mails bearing pen canceled 3¢ rose (65) and matching "Wilmington Cal, Aug 22 - 64" postmark, pencil "Free" notation at left; small stamp flaws, some edge wear and reduced slightly at right, Very Fine and rare.
Estimate    $5,000 - 7,500.

THE ONLY RECORDED COVER CARRIED BY L. DUKES & CO.'S EXPRESS.

L. Dukes was a Jewish sutler who served the Fort Mojave garrison beginning in 1863. When the steamships did not make it upriver to the fort with supplies, Duke's store was very popular among the soldiers. Expanding his entrepreneurial activities, he decided to go into the express business. He chose to take the Mojave Road northwest out of Prescott to Fort Mojave.

As advertised in the July 20, 1864 Arizona Miner, L. Dukes and Co. Express was planned to leave Prescott about the 1st and 16th and Mojave on the 10th and 25th of the month. At Fort Mojave, Dukes Express would connect with a government express assigned to carry the mail across the Mojave Desert and on to Los Angeles. The ad named Rev. H.W. Read, Postmaster as the Prescott agent for Dukes. One of the first private express companies within Arizona Territory carrying letters and other mail, L. Dukes & Co. operated from July 26, 1864 until a U.S. Mail Contract began on March 1, 1865 after which service was discontinued.

The sender of this cover was Tisdale Hand, editor of the
Arizona Miner, back to his future wife Mary D. Cheney in Iowa.

References: "Tisdale Hand, L. Dukes, and Prescott's Dukes Express cover" by Marjory J. Sente, The Roadrunner, Vol. 35, No. 3, August 2020, pp. 8-10.

Realized: $3,250

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