Vermilion County, Illinois - Chapter 36: The Postoffice in Danville, 1911

Danville became a postoffice in 1828 and Amos Williams, the man who seemed to have all the offices in the township at one time, was the first postmaster. He kept the postoffice at his residence in the south part of town. Mails were received twice a week from Vincennes, and twice a week from the east. The mail route south went from Danville to Georgetown, thence west to a postoffice that was kept for a while at the point which afterward became the Josiah Sandusky farm, thence south to Paris, in Edgar County, and on to Vincennes.

With a change in the administration of the government, a change in postmasters necessarily followed. I. R. Moore was appointed the second postmaster, and removed the office to a store on Main street, the south side near Walnut street. Josiah Alexander was next postmaster for a while, and after him Col. Othniel Gilbert was appointed. Col. Gilbert moved the postoffice to the Pennsylvania House. In all these wanderings of the postoffice it was not without its misfortunes, or rather its means of participating in the misfortunes of others. While it was housed in the Pennsylvania House, Mr. Cassady mailed $1,000 to a firm in Cincinnati with whom he was transacting some land business. It never reached its destination. There was a man boarding at the Pennsylvania House who had no visible means of getting his living. He disappeared about this time and suspicion was directed to him, but the crime was never proven. Alexander Chesley was the next postmaster, and he took the office to a little building on West Main street. Soon H. G. Boyce followed him. He moved the office further west on Main street to the corner of Walnut street. While there the postoffice was robbed of small sums, but the thief was discovered through the means of decoy letters, and sent to the penitentiary.

In 1861 Rev. Kingsbury was appointed postmaster and moved the office to the old Presbyterian church. Here another robbery was perpetrated. A man by the name of Smith, who was a music teacher and well respected in the community, was Rev. Kingsbury's assistant, and fully trusted in the office. As the thefts were discovered, suspicion turned so strongly to him that Dr. Fithian and Mr. Kingsbury took him one side and searched him, and found some of the missing property in his boots. He was put under arrest, but was bailed out and left the country. However, he did not cover his tracks, and was found in Iowa, where he was a very prominent person. He was teaching a singing school and had so thoroughly won the confidence of the people that they could not believe he was other than honest, but followed him to the train loudly expressing their grief in what they thought his misfortune. He was brought back here and convicted and sent to the penitentiary. William Morgan followed Rev. Kingsbury as postmaster and had the office on the south side of the public square. Col. McKibben succeeded William Morgan and died while in office. He kept the office in a store on Vermilion street near the ^Etna House. Samuel Fairchild was the next postmaster. He was followed by C. W. Gregory who was followed by W. R. Jewell. Mr. Jewell has 'been postmaster ever since with the exception of the time covered by the administration of President Cleveland.