Trending
Editorial Note: This column is continued from Aug. 11.
The Villard Post Office was located in the northwest quarter of Section 4 of Villard Township, T. 154 N and R. 77 W. Emma Nichols had a patent for the southwest quarter of Section 4.
Several years later, in the summer of 1891, Copeland mournfully commented on the passing of Emma, who had passed away in Bismarck, in June of that year, in the columns of the Washburn Leader, a newspaper he had started in Washburn, after he had left Villard late in 1889. On the front page of the Washburn Leader for Saturday, June 27, 1891, he had written, Emma was "a lady possessed of many rare virtues: self-reliant, patient and industrious, and beloved by all who were familiarly acquainted with her. Her demise will leave a void in the hearts of her relatives and friends that TIME alone can close."
The Burlington Postmaster application form that James Johnson was filling out in late 1883 also asked questions about existing post offices along the intended mail route, as well as how often mail would be delivered. In the case of Burlington, its post office would become part of the Jamestown to Villard mail route, Number 35,267. The distance from Villard to Burlington was 55 miles, which meant that mail route Number 35,267 would have to be extended by 55 miles to include Burlington. Mail delivery was to be once a week.
Burlington became part of the Mouse River Valley route in February 1884. Two McHenry County post offices quickly followed suit - Pendroy in May and Newport in September. Both of these post offices became part of route Number 35,301. The eastern end of the route was Grand Harbor in Ransom County and the western end was Burlington.
Mail services were scheduled for once a week. Pendroy was ten miles southwest of Villard and 45 miles east of Burlington. The last post office to link up with this mail route in 1884, in December, was Mouse River. It was on the Villard to Burlington route, Number 35,409. This Mouse River post office was twenty miles northwest of Pendroy and 18 miles southeast of Burlington. Mail was also scheduled for one delivery a week. This post office was closed in September 1886.
But it reopened under a new name, Logan, in April, 1887. The locations were the same - the southwest quarter of Section 30 in New Prairie Township, T.154 N and R. 81 W - and the postmaster was the same, Robert Davidson. Go figure! It seems that the present-day town of Logan was never associated with the operations of the Logan post office of 1887, although those two sites are not very far apart as the crow flies. The town of Logan lies in the
northeast quarter of Section 24 in Sundre Township, T. 154 N and R. 82 W.
Only one post office was added to the Mouse River Valley route in 1885. This was St. Carl, which joined up in January. The postmaster was Olaf Larson. The route extended from Villard to Burlington and had the familiar route number No. 35,409.
The first mail contractor was Benjamin Reed of McHenry County, who delivered mail once a week. The St. Carl post office lay ten miles southeast of Burlington and 35 miles west of Pendroy. Olaf estimated that his post office would be serving around 75 people in the opening months of 1885.
Three post offices were added to the system in 1886, the most important of which was Towner. When it was added in December, 1886, there was already a railroad in town - the Manitoba Road - and Postmaster Robert McComb said the post office was situated just two blocks south of the railroad tracks. The route Towner was put in began in Minnewaukan and ended at Villard. This route was numbered 35,318.
McComb estimated that around 100 people lived in Towner and about 500 lived in the region to be served by his post office. Mail deliveries were now increased to twice a week, and the mail contractor was Ador Jevnager of McHenry County.
When Minot became a member of this mail system two months later, in February, 1887, Ador Jevnager was listed as the mail contractor - although Minot Postmaster Patrick McNamara had used the name 'Adolph' instead of 'Ador' on his post office application in January, 1887. This route was numbered 35,326. It started in Villard and ended in Burlington. Jevnager was expected to deliver mail twice a week beginning in early 1887. Although many have written that this mail delivery route was terminated in 1887 with the arrival of the Manitoba Road in the Mouse River region, several notices in the Villard Leader newspaper show that Jevnager was making deliveries to Minot and Burlington as late as November, 1889, during the first weeks of statehood.
In November, 1888, the Leader reported that Jevnager had resumed deliveries to Burlington in the middle of that month. When Ador Jevnager wed Kerstie Hestness on Friday, November 15, 1889, Copeland nicely dubbed him "the ever-genial contractor on the Towner and Burlington mail route." (The two notices from the Villard Leader cited above are found on the fourth pages of the issues for Saturday, November 24, 1888, and Saturday, November 23, 1889.)
Perhaps Ador's marriage to Kerstie was a turning point in his life - putting an end to his mail-carrying days and ushering in a more settled, family-centered existence?
M.L. Berg of Minot enjoys researching local history.