Petach Tiqva was founded in 1878 by religious pioneers from Europe, who were led by Yehoshua Stampfer, Yoel Moshe Salomon and others who built the first houses there. It was the first modern Jewish agricultural settlement in Ottoman Palestine. Undaunted, the settlers purchased a modest area from the village of Mulabbis, near the source of the Yarkon River. Their purchase was located in what was a malarial swamp, they had to evacuate when the malaria spread, founding the town of Yehud near the Arabic village Yehudiyya about 20 kilometers to the south. With the financial help of Baron Edmond de Rothschild they were able to drain the swamps sufficiently to be able to move back in 1883, joined by immigrants of the First Aliyah, and later the Second Aliyah. During World War I, Petah Tiqva served as a refugee town for residents of Tel Aviv and Jaffa, following their exile by the Ottoman authorities. Postal connections went daily to the Austrian post office in Jaffa. At first, the messenger service was run by Mr. Treibisch, and Mrs. Feiga-Mina delivered the mail. For each piece of mail, she collected a 14-para delivery fee, which she shared with Treibisch. In 1909, the secretary of the colony, Isaac Goldenhirsch, introduced a special local stamp which was sold for 14 para. It was supposed to be affixed to mail for delivery within the district area of the Austrian post office in Jaffa. The stamp was produced in tri-color print, orange, green and black, on white chalky paper. Because of the intervention and protests by the local Turkish authorities, the sale of stamps had to be stopped after about a year’s usage. A Turkish post office operated in Petach Tiqva as from 1910.