Anamosa - A Reminiscence 1838 - 1988

never locked.
Because of changes in the town's names, the first
post office listed under "Anamosa", opened in
November of 1847, although it is known that mail was
getting through to residents of the town site and
surrounding territory well before that date.We found
Anamosa‘s post office was the east half of the building
on the southwest corner of the intersection of Main and
Booth streets. For many years. Stoughton's Rexall
Drug Store occupied the west half and Anamosa
Superdrug recently moved out of that building. The
present post office building was first occupied in 1941
after construction that started in 1940.
Until fairly recently, post offices were placed in one of
four classes that were determined by the receipts of the
office. By 1887 Anamosa had advanced from 4th-class
to 3rd-class. The postmaster's salary was $125 a month
— a princely sum in those days — while the one clerk
drew S 16.66 a month. Five years later the salaries were
unchanged. The clerk. however, enjoyed Civil Service
protection from capricious firing. After Garfield (the
president, not the cat) was assassinated in 1881 by a
disappointed seeker of a Federal job. the Civil Service
system of selecting employees was adopted in 1883.
Jobs were given to those scoring well on written tests
and a nearly permanent Federal work force was —
sometimes for better or worse — placed in office.
May 1, 1900, Rural Free Delivery started serving the
farms. H.J. Boyer, with C.H. Preston as substitute,
became Anamosa‘s first rural carrier at a salary of $400
a year. January 1, 1902, William G. Ruhl Sr.. and
Charles Theodore Myrick, both at $500 a year, began
service on routes two and three. William G. Ruhl Jr..
was the substitute for both routes. By 1906, Anamosa
was the starting point for five rural routes and had four
routes as late as 1926, when improved cars and roads
foreshadowed the cut to today's three routes. By 1904.
Anamosa‘s post office had soared to the vertiginous
heights of a 2nd-class oflice and. in 1952, entered the
Olympian ranks of Ist-class.
Dentists. lawyers and Ph.D. holders avidly sought
such positions at a salary of $5,370 a year.
Prior to 1938, postmasters were appointed for terms
of years and could be summarily removed when their
terms expired. Appointments were practically always
purely political plums going to supporters of the party
in control of the White House. However, the Ramspeck-
O'Mahoney Act of 1938 put postmasters under Civil
Service protection that required there be just cause for
their removal.
That law was tested in 1953 when the Republicans —
after 20 years of wandering in a desert unwatered by
Federal patronage jobs — came to power following
President Eisenhower's November, 1952 victory that
included control of both Houses of Congress.
Republican county chairmen and precinct workers
clamored for repeal of Ramspeck-O'Mahoney that
would give them a chance to reward either themselves
— or some other party worker and contributor — with
postmasterships from the rock bound lobster pot to
smog-kissed Disneyland. The president and secretary
of the postmasters‘ organization called on Postmaster
General Arthur E. Summerfield and with figures.
flattery and flummery convinced him that attrition
through retirements. resignations, removals for just
cause. and deaths. there would be enough
postmasterships available to keep Republican faithful
from mutiny.
Summerfield, who had been Ike's campaign
manager, agreed. The collective sigh of relief from
America's postmasters — of whom 99.99 per cent were
rabid Democrats — registered 7.8 on the Richter Scale.
When John F. Kennedy became president in 1961, it
was well established that incumbent postmasters
would continue to serve, but new appointments. as
they did under Eisenhower, would require political
clearance.
By the time Richard Nixon took office in 1969, most
Congressmen. on both sides of the aisle, had decided
that they no longer wished to be the persons who had
the say-so on postmaster appointments. As one
Congressman put it, "Where you have twenty
applicants and only one job. after you fill the job, you
have nineteen enemies and one ingrate."
Consequently, a system was devised to take the politics
out of the picture. As a matter of fact, after the
reorganization that removed the Postmaster General
from the President's Cabinet and created the U.S.
Postal Service from the old Post Oflice Department, a
political recommendation was a kiss of death for an
applicant.
During the time postmasters were chosen on the
basis of party loyalty, the assistant postmasters were of
prime importance to any well-run office. Among others.
there were: B.I. McLaughlin, Pete Robertson, Maurice
Neville and Art Stanaway.
Following is a chronological list of persons who have
been in charge of the Anamosa Post Office. What
happened to Richard G. Hunt is lost history, but he
served only one month and sixteen days. Columbus C.
Rockwell was the first post master: appointed
November 11, 1847. The post masters who followed
and their dates of appointment were: Charles L.D.
Crockwell, May 9, 1849; Joseph A. Hunt, April, 28.
1853; Linus Osborn, December 10, 1853: Samuel A.
Cunningham, April 7, 1854; Richard G. Hunt, August
8, 1856: Henry A. Shaffer, September 24, 1856;
Jonathan H. Show, March 5, 1858; Amos H. Peaslee.
December 9, 1858, Nathan G. Sales, October 6, 1860:
Horace C. Metcalf, March 29, 1861; Richard McDaniel,
March 20, 1866; Harlen Hallenbeck, July 26. 1866:
Charles W. Coe, April 20. 1869; William B. Fish.
January 24, I881: Newton S. Noble, April 5. 1887:
Elihu J. Wood, April 30, 1890. Edward C. Holt, April
17, 1894; Charles H. Anderson, March 22, 1898: Jasper
H. Ramsey, June 23, 1910: Maurice Fay, August 19,
1914; Arthur L. Remley, Acting Postmaster, September
1, 1923, appointed postmaster, December, 19, 1923:
Charles J. Cash, Jr.. June 1. 1936, Mrs. Hazel L. Cash,
Acting Postmaster, June 9, 1942: Charles J. Cash, Jr..
October 31. 1945; Buster Davenport, Acting
Postmaster, February 7, 1953, appointed postmaster.
August 16.1954; Maurice J. Neville, Officer-In-Charge,
August 15. 1969, appointed postmaster, March 6.
I971; Joseph C. Ironside, Officer-In-Charge, January 4,
I977: David L. Morrissey. July I6, 1977: William J.
Milne, Officer-In-Charge, July 10, 1978: Donald L.
Appleby. Officer-In-Charge, November 22, 1978. Dennis
Hansen, present Anamosa postmaster, was appointed
April 7. 1979.