The first real air mail service in the United States was carried out, believe it or not, by a balloon. On Jan. 9, 1793, our nation's first president, George Washington, sent a private letter from his office in Philadelphia to be carried to a personal friend in Deptford, N.J. Records show that the first scheduled mail deliveries of any kind to Bulloch County were made by the "Birdville" mail route riders, who traversed the Wiregrass on their dangerous and difficult journey once a week in the 1800s. This mail service was replaced by the Savannah-to-Augusta stagecoach, whose runs carried mail to Statesboro several days a week.