Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 September 1891 — OLD-TIME POSTMASTERS. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

OLD-TIME POSTMASTERS.

Men Who Have Grown Gray in the Sorvfce of Uncle flam. . , The New York Tribune of recent date made the statement that a movement was on foot to secure a pension

,for Postmaster Touis Purdy, who is 93 years old and who had held the office at Shrub Oak, N. Y., since 1841. The Tribune claimed for Mr. Purdy the distinction of being ’the oldest postmaster, in years of continuous service, in the country.

This provoked a denial from the friends of Sidney E. Palmer, who claims to outrank Mr. Purdy about two months as postmaster of the little town of Gerry, Chautauqua County, N. Y., having been appointed July 29, 1841. This would make his term of years as postmaster fifty. As if fifty years were not sufficient length of time for one individual to handle the mails for the public, the fact is established that Ferdinand G. Kelley, who resigned a few weeks ago as postmaster at Centerville, Mass., was appointed in 1839, only a few months previous to the appointment of Woodbridge Clifford as postmaster of North Edgecomb, Me. Messrs. Clifford and Kelley then enthusiastically claimed the distinction of being the oldest postmasters in the country, but it remained for Boswell Beardsley, of North Lansing, N. Y., to leave the field ten years in the rear, for the records establish beyond any doubt that Mr. Beardsley had been postmaster of his borough since June 18, 1829, having been sixty-two years a postmaster, despite the fickleness of political fate. Postmaster Beardsley is too modest to allow himself to be talked about in the newspapers, and has declined to A MWI * V. S' < -

furnish any information as to his political or religious antecedents, any facts regarding his personal appearance or the color of his hirsute adornment.. Postmaster Kelley is 73 years of age, a country

JOHN DIMMICK.

merchant, and has held the offices of Clerk and Treasurer for forty years, being re-elected for twenty-six years without opposition. He has also been justice of the peace since 1843, and director and Vice President of a bank since 1865. In'politics Mr. Kelley is a liberal Republican and in religion a Unitarian.

Postmaster Sidney E. Palmer, of Gerry, N. Y., is 80 years of age, a native American and a merchant. He has been a member of the Legislature and held minor offices. He was in turn a Whig, a Knownothing and a Republican, and voted for the elder Harrison and his grandson. Mr. Palmer is a Universalist in religion, and has been for fifty years. The oldest postmaster in Illinois is Robert Marshall, who was appointed to the office of Maple Grove, in Ed-

wards County, in 1856. His office is a small crossroadsdelivery and furnishes mail to about three dojen families. Mr. Marshall writes that in order to Ssecure the establishment of his office the neighbors were compelled

to pool and pay S7O damages, which were claimed by men owning land along the proposed mail route. Mail is received at the office tri-weekly on horseback. “My salary,” writes Mr. Marshall, “does not exceed sl2 to sl6 a year.” Mr. Marshall is a native Englishman, 79 years of age, and in politics was first a Whig and later a Democrat. He is a member of the Christian (Campbellite) Church. Illinois has a few other Postmasters who have seen many years of continuous service. William Hight, of Wetang, Pulaski County, has handled mails since the 6th of December, 1856. Austin James, of Mitchie, Monroe County, outranks Wash H. Morse, of Gilmer, Lake County, about twenty days, both having been appointed in 1859. The oldest postmaster in Michigan is Maurice Topping of Plainfield. He was appointed postmaster by Franklin Pierce April 1, 1853, is a Deomcrat in politics and a fr?e thinker in religion. He seems to be a sort of king among men in his native town, for he has held numerous offices, is a leader in both Masonry and Oddfellowship, manages two grist-mills, a country store and an implement <le"ot The oldest postmaster in Wisconsin is John Diniua K a Democrat, who has reigned coainuously since July 1, 1856, at Pilot Knob. He is 84 years of age and a member of the Methodist Church. He says that his office is very small, and the mod startling events in his long career have beet the arrival, twice a week, of the mails, on horsebick.

David Beck, of Beck’s Mills, Washington County, Indiana, has been postmaster since 1858, and John H. Trueblood of Scranton has served only a year less. In staid old Massachusetts most of the postmasters’ commissions date back to the ’so’s. In Senator Hoar’s

county of Worcester there are four postmasters who have been holding office since the ’4o’s. In this connection it might be remarked that the oldest postmistress in the country holds forth in Senator Hoar's bailiwick. This lady is Miss

Martha E. Stone, of North Oxford, who, blushing for her age, confesses

thirty-four years of official career. Connecticut has a postmaster of the euphonies title of Sam Fuller, who has handed out mail at Mansfield since Sept. 14, 1851. He has a good second with a good old New England name in the person of Alvin Tweed, at North Stamford, who came into the office Dec. 15, 1852. All through New England, from Maine to Rhode Island, with her two dozen offices, we find the same ’political principle of long tenure permeating official life. Matt P. Nichols, at Reed’s Ferry, N. H., reads his title clear to forty-two years’ service as Postmaster. In the States of Indiana and Illinois, where political battles are waged with relentless fervor and where party success seems to depend upon the proper and punctual distribution of spoils, the number of veteran postmasters is necessarily small. There are not to exceed a dozen postmasters in Illinois whose commisions antedate the’Bo’s, while in Indiana the official guillotine seems to have spared very few of the hoary heads to relate the reminiscences with which good old New England so fairly teems. In Gen. Clarkson’s State of lowa there are several postmasters whose commissions date back to the ’6o’s, but they are probably in possession of such insignificant incomes that they have never been the envy of Democrats who reveled in a temporary lease of power a few years ago. In fact, it will be observed that most of the veteran postmasters of the country do not realize incomes which are very tempting, else the material for this article might not have been had.

F. O. KEGLEY.

ROBERT MARSHALL.

MAURICK TOPPING.