September 22, 2000 ‘Rural roots’: Mail service in the townships

Norman Coutts, the early mailman on R.R.#1 Powassan in front of the Livingstone home on the fourth concession in Chisholm Township in 1917.

From the early days of settlement, before telephones, radios and newspapers, mail was the main way friends, families and businesses communicated.

Because of the rough roads, there were many local post offices established so that people could get their mail easier, often while picking up supplies. When rural mail delivery came in the mid-1910s some of the post offices disappeared.

Like the rural schools discussed last week, the mail story is one of change. Like last week, I will look at mail delivery in my neck of the woods where I have seen and heard about the evolution first hand.

Mail delivery in Chisholm Township and area was typical of the service throughout the north. There was a post office at Kells from 1888-1917, where one of the earliest groups of settlers gathered, and at Genessee Rapids nearby in the Mick General Store from 1909-1916. Both died when some rural delivery was started in the 1910s. The Wasing post office, on the same concession road but further to the east, was opened in 1913 and lasted until 1949.

The hamlet of Chiswick on the 10th concession got a post office in 1895 that lasted until 1959. A post office called Alderdale was established on the 12th concession and was relocated to the new community that developed around the station on the new CNR line through Chisholm in 1915. The post office, in this community that later became known as Alderdale, remained in the general store there until 1969.

When the lumber village of Fossmill developed in the south-east corner of the township on the CNR line in 1925, a post office soon followed. It lasted until the village died in the late 1940s. People in the north end of Chisholm got their mail in Astorville, just over the boundary line in East Ferris Township. There are no post offices in Chisholm today.

Powassan and Astorville provide over the counter service, and all mail is delivered to mail boxes at the side of the road by contract deliverers. R.R. #1 Powassan serves the south end of Chisholm and R.R. #4 Powassan the middle of Chisholm, both out of Powassan, and the north end is served by R.R. #1 out of Astorville.

Penny postcards popular

The mailmen (and they were men in those days) travelled their route six days a week, regardless of the weather. My neighbour, Joe Livingstone, has a 1917 picture of his mailman in front of his house on the 4th concession. The mailman is Norman Coutts (1887-1938).

When cars became available, Norman replaced "Dude" and "Chief" without hesitation. Much of the land in the photograph had gone back to forest.

Besides delivering the mail, mailmen also picked up mail and often made change for people along the way as a favour. Some made deliveries of various sorts, as a favour or for a fee, to customers.

The mailmen were on tendered contracts and several maintained them for years. Earl Purdon from Powassan, who died in 1998, delivered the mail in central Chisholm for 45 years and became a part of the daily life of the township.

Earl was also a Justice of the Peace for twenty-two years, and also owned and ran a school bus line. He recorded some of his mail delivery experiences in a profile in the new Chisholm history book due out this month. His wife, Pat, continues to deliver the mail, and Pat and her old pickup are a common sight in Chisholm five days a week.

Another long term mailman is Francis Young of Powassan, who delivered the mail for forty two years starting in 1943. His rout (RR#2 Powassan) ran from Powassan to Commanda along the Alsace Road, a forty mile round trip.
 

Francis Young (on the right) with his horses, in the early days of his forty-two year career as a mailman on R.R.#2 Powassan. Francis also served fourteen years as a Councillor and seven years as Reeve in South Himsworth. His brother Connie (on the left) served five consecutive terms as a councillor in Chisholm.

In the early days he did the trip by horse and buggy (see photo). When they began to plough the roads part way he kept the horses at his father's farm on the Alsace Road and drove there delivering the mail on the way, and then harnessed the horses to complete the trip.

Francis astutely developed a delivery service to go along with the mail, and took supplies both ways every day. He regularly brought recently butchered beef to Powassan butcher shops, along with live veal stock.

Over the years and hundreds of thousands of miles and winter weather, he never ceased to enjoy the work, making many friends along the way.

Fran's wife Mabel (Keall), who with Fran recently celebrated sixty years of marriage, worked in the post office part-time for twenty-five years, and for several years full-time.

After retirement, Francis recorded his life in a diary that makes fascinating reading. For example, one of the most entertaining was the story of the testy elderly woman who Fran transported to the train for a month's vacation. She blithely told him to give her sixteen cats away because she had no one to feed them. He did, rather casually, by leaving the back of his truck open on the trip to town, and at each stop he caught a glimpse of one or two choosing a new location to live.

Unfortunately, when the woman returned, she found all sixteen cats back on her doorstep, and Fran had to deal with her anger until she realized that it was good to have her cats back.

The mail is something we take for granted, but there are hard working and dedicated people at Canada Post who quietly and cheerfully get the job done behind the scenes.

I want to take the opportunity to thank Pat Aro the Postmaster at Powassan, and Rose Mercier the Postmaster in Astorville and their staffs, for their efforts on our behalf.