For many years the National Grange and other organizations concerned with the welfare of rural residents advocated rural free delivery of mail. In October 1896, the Post Office Department introduced experimental rural delivery in West Virginia, and the service was favorably received. By June of the following year, forty-four routes were operating in twenty-nine states. On October 3, 1898, rural free delivery of mail began in Delaware with the formal establishment of a route originating in Harrington. Joseph G. Peckham was appointed carrier for the circuit at an annual salary of $300. The route was seventeen and one quarter miles long and served approximately 600 families. The establishment of rural free delivery led to the elimination of many small rural post offices; in 1902 alone, twenty-nine were closed in Delaware, and by 1938 some 23,000 offices had been discontinued throughout the United States since the introduction of rural delivery.