Details For Cover ID# 26455

2c violet Columbian Exposition postal entire (#U349) with horiz. pair 1890 small American Bank Note 4c dark brown (#222) tied by target cancels, paying 8c registration fee, with "Orphan's Home Tex. Mar 5" (1894) circular datestamp, to Floral Park, N.Y. Purple two-line "Missent (N.Y.-Reg. Div.) handstamp, purple "U 30 94" New York City arrival marking on back.

The Orphan's Home post office was located in Dallas County, Texas. It opened in February,1889 and was discontinued in February 1919. Information courtesy of Fred Ekenstam.

History of the addressee: In 1874 John Lewis Childs arrived in the area to work for C.L. Allen as a seed seller. After building his own seed and bulb business and starting America's first seed catalog business, Childs bought a great deal of land in the area. To promote his own business and the local horticultural industry, Childs named the local streets after flowers and renamed the area Floral Park. The expansion of the Floral Park Post Office and nearby village businesses are attributed solely to the success of Childs' business. When the local Post Office took the name Floral Park, the Long Island Rail Road followed suit by changing the name of the East Hinsdale station to Floral Park in 1888. Formerly part of the borough of Queens, Floral Park became part of the newly formed county of Nassau in 1898, and it was incorporated as a village in 1908. Childs served as the village's first president (mayor) starting that year.