Prior to Rural Free Delivery, those who lived in remote areas had to pick up their mail at a post office, often long distances from their homesteads. Sometimes people paid private carriers to deliver the mail. That began to change on October 1, 1880, as five men set out on horseback to deliver mail along a 10-mile route in West Virginia. Within a year, forty-four rural routes delivered mail in 29 states. Rural Free Delivery was abbreviated as RFD, with numbered routes as part of rural addresses.