Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 22, Number 83, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 July 1901 — WOMEN CARRY U. S. MAIL. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

WOMEN CARRY U. S. MAIL.

Men Couldn’t Do It» So They Have the Contracts. The determination and nerve of a woman have come to the rescue of the postal authorities in supplying a carrier for the United States mail on the star route between Sterling and Milledgeville, 111. Mrs. Frank Giffrow, of Sterling, has taken the as driver of the mall wagon and stage which makes the trip daily, a drive of thirty miles. The contract for carrying the mall over the route was let some time ago to Chester A. Call, of Algona, la., and it has been an elephant on his hands. A Sterling liveryman was engaged as driver, but gave it up, and then a firm of blacksmiths undertook to deliver the mail for Mr. Call. They lost over a hundred dollars in three months, owing to accidents and lack of business on the stage which carries the mail. Several drivers were hired for short terms, each finally becoming disgusted and quitting. Then Mrs. Giffrow came to the rescue and made a contract to deliver the mail for a year for $420, Contractor Call paying her that price at a loss of S9O to himself on the contract. On her first trip Mrs. Giffrow carried a large quantity of ice cream to supply a lodge banquet at Milledgeville. She has secured a spirited team and new wagon and will make an effort to build up the passenger business, which was once considerable. She has the privilege of carrying all sorts of merchandise, and has already arranged to deliver milk for a dairyman, but she refused to carry a jug of whisky to Milledgeville. The people of Sterling, Jordan, Coleta, and Milledgeville, the line of her route, are confident of her success where so many others have failed. Mrs. Giffrow’s husband is a carpenter and she lias several children, all old enough to attend school while she is making her trips. The Milledgeville star route is one of the few remaining stage routes in this section of the country and has a history of fascinating interest. In early days the old stage route from Freeport to Rock Island was infested by the “prairie bandits,” the band of murders and robbers that was broken up by Detective Bonney and the “Regulators” of the early ’3os. It was along this route that Bonney took the murderers of Colonel Davenport to Rock Island, holding pistols to their heads as the bandits rode up to the stage and preventing the rescue of the prisoners.

It was along this route that the “untlerground railroad” of ante-bellum days ran, and the old stage brought disguised slaves to the homes of Ivory Colcord and other Abolitionists in the region of Coleta. After the war there were several murders along the line between Milledgeville and Sterling, the last one being the killing of George Kauffman four years ago, of whose murderers the officers and detectives have never been able to find the slightest clew. The country now is thickly settled, substantial farm houses and occasional churches and schools line the route, but the road is beset with many difficulties. The spring freshets swell the Elkhorn Creek into a raging torrent, sometimes sweeping men and horses from the road to meet death in the stream. Through Jordan Township a graveled road goes over the hills, and the descent to the plains of Genesee is made on the perilous slope of the “Big Mound,” where, in the winter, treacherous snow banks hide the gullies and where accidents are common the year around. Another Sterling woman. Miss Ethel Wahl, sister of Deputy Sheriff Frauk Wahl, has been engaged as substitute carrier for the three rural free delivery mall routes out of Sterling, and has covered one of the routes successfully. Special Agent Charles Lyun, who has charge of the rural free delivery routes in the Central States, awarded the position to Miss Wahl personally, expressing the utmost confidence in woman mail carriers, who, he said, bad been tried in other places and had tended to the business better, bad covered the routes more speedily and with fewer mistakes and complaints than the men.

WOMEN MAIL CARRIERS.