The Gowrie Post Office

Gowrie had a post office and early on it was located in the same building as the offices and printing establishment of the Gowrie News. Armanis F. Patton owned and ran the paper and I think he was also the postmaster. He probably got the position as a patronage plum during the Coolidge and Hoover Republican years — at any rate he lost it after Roosevelt was elected.

My father took the test for being the postmaster after he lost his job at the bank during the Depression, but I think he placed only third and did not get the job. Besides he was or had been registered as a Republican.

The individual who got the appointment was Mrs. Lundvick, the wife of the doctor that my mother had for some of the births of us older children, but whom she abandoned later on. Mrs. Lundvick must have had the correct political orientation though, as I recall, she placed first in the examination. Why did she compete for the position? Was it because her husband was losing out professionally as a doctor?: Rumor had it that he had a problem with alcohol.

Gowrie did not have mail delivery within the town — either you had a mailbox and the mail was put into it and you had to walk to the post office to get it (but it was there to be had even thought the post office hours were over) or the mail was delivered over the counter. Either way though you had to walk downtown to get one’s mail and I recall that such an excursion was a daily occurrence at my grandmother’s. For us my father would naturally pick up the mail while he was at town for his work at the bank. Our box was number 4, I always wondered how we got such a low number and who had the numbers 1, 2 and 3.

The post office had one little window that opened up when someone was in the post office to provide stamps and other service. The rest of it was taken up with the usual counter for writing on, with the ubiquitous scrawly ink pens of the times and the array of mailboxes.

Rural mail deliver was of course free and I remember this was commented on favorably after our move to the farm. Some Gowrie residents on the edge of town were, I think, occasionally successful in getting themselves included on a rural route so they did not need to go to the post office to get their mail.

Gowrie had two rural delivery routes and my impression was that there was usually considerable competition for them. If nothing else they did furnish a dependable sure income. When we were on the farm our carrier was Liljegren — he never did seem unduly prosperous to me but he certainly had a living. Duane Anderson (of the Leader Store Andersons) was a carrier in the time after the war. He had been in the service and this may have given him an edge to get the position. In time he married and was living with his family in what had been Nellie Scott’s residence — this was after my parents moved back into town. He always seemed sort of a dour individual, perhaps his economic outlook had been clouded by the failure of his father’s business. The Andersons had always been staunch Lutherans and Duane took refuge in the religion I think in response to the emotional and financial problems he doubtless experienced.

The father of Vincent’s wife Jean was also a rural mail carrier. He was a veteran of World War I and when he quit farming he got the carrier job. I recall the first time I ever saw him. He had been farming to the east of the Peterson farm over in the vicinity of Burnside and had rented a farm west of Gowrie. He came driving a tractor along the road in front of the Peterson farmstead, as part of transferring his equipment to his new location. The tractor was pulling a wagon or something laden with various items, but the only clear recollection I have is of his John Deere tractor. Why we were aware of his passing I don’t know — perhaps the mail had just come and we were out to get it so we were standing by the mailbox. I have the vague memory that he asked for a drink of water. I even have the vague impression that some of the Peters children were along — it thus may have been the first meeting between Vincent and Jean.