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Ken Stach will present on “Western Expresses,” private companies that carried mail west of the Mississippi River as an adjunct to, or sometimes in competition with, the US Post Office of the day. These companies operated from roughly 1849 through the 1890s, but their heyday was in the 1850s and 1860s. Ken will cover the various types of markings used by the companies, their routes, and key operating information.

Ken Stach began his life-long philatelic career like many other young boys in the US back in the 1960’s, by collecting stamps beginning about age five. His eyes were opened to postal history when a philatelic mentor of his from Alabama gifted him a few Dakota Territorial covers in 1977. He has avidly collected Dakota postal history since, has been president of the Dakota Postal History Society since 2004, and has acted as editor of their journal “The Dakota Collector” since 2008.

Ken branched out into collecting Western Expresses in 2004, became editor of the Western Cover Society’s “Western Express” in 2007, and has helped provide updates and edits to the various editions of Oscar Thomas’ landmark two-volume set “The Western Express Companies, 1850-1890.”

In addition to collecting Dakota material and Western Expresses, Ken has a collection of presidential free franks. He has authored over 120 postal history articles in various publications, has authored or co-authored two books on postal history, and has given dozens of presentations on the subject.

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