The first issue of the Arkansas Gazette (Nov. 20, 1819) contains a list of people who needed to pick up their mail at Arkansas Post. At the top of the list is Stephen F. Austin, with three letters. The notice warns that mail not claimed after three months will be returned to the dead letters office. There is something charming about the inclusion of a Great Man on the list of delinquent recipients.

It seems to rein in history, bringing it back to the everyday, reminding us that though big events happen, history belongs to the passage of hours and days and seasons. History is enmeshed in duties like picking up the mail.

The postal notice is also a reminder that while the Austins became famous emigrants, they were not atypical; like many who settled in Arkansas or just passed through, they were educated frontiersmen connected to more settled lands by mail and mercantile interests.