Langlade County, Wisconsin - Chapter 27, 1922

Chapter 27

Mail was carried through Eastern Langlade County over the old Lake Superior Trail twenty years before the location of the first Post Office. This was long before Langlade County was organized as the County of New, and when it was a vast wilderness stretching north to Lac Vieux Desert, and the State Line region known as part of Oconto County. Before the government survey in 1860, there was a mail station in section 17, Township 33, Range 13 East, of the present limits of Langlade County. This statement is substantiated by the U. S. field notes of Langlade County.

Building, now known as the Fidelity Bank Building on Fifth Avenue, W. H. Dawley, acting as Postmaster from August 20, 1885 to August 17, 1889. In 1889, the Post Office was moved to the same frame building as used in 1885, W. H. Blinn, acting as Postmaster from August, 1889 to April 23, 1893. The Post Office remained there until 1897, when it was moved to the frame structure south of the Fidelity Bank Building on the west side of Clermont Street. From April 24, 1893 to June 30, 1897, P. J. Millard acted as Postmaster. P. J. Millard was succeeded by Fred W. Kiefer.

The .Antigo Post Office

The first Post Office was established in the old log store of Neils Anderson, three years after the arrival of F. A. Deleglise in Antigo. The system of caring for mail then was much different than it is today, when Postmaster, Postal Clerk, Rural Carriers, City Carriers, Parcel Post Departments, Money Order Departments, Postal Savings Departments and Stamp Departments labor incessantly from day to day.

Neils Anderson was officially selected as the first Postmaster on April 1, 1879, and served until August 17, 1882. On August 18, 1882, Henry Smith was appointed Postmaster, and at that time the Post Office was moved to the frame building of Henry Smith, where he conducted a drug store at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Superior Street. This frame structure served as federal headquarters until 1885, when the Postoffice was moved to the west room of the Dawley who served from July 1, 1897 to July 20, 1901. The Post Office was then moved to the MoUe Building on F'ifth Ave., Edward Cleary serving as Postmaster from July 21, 1901 to July 30, 1910. From August 1, 1910 to Feb. 23, 1915, Richard Koebke acted as Postmaster. On Feb. 24, 1915, Richard Koebke was succeeded by Edward Cody, who is still serving. The site of the present Post Office was purchased from the Antigo Canning Co., June 30, 1911, for $8,250.00. The Post Office building was erected in 1915 at a cost of $60,- 000.00, by W. D. Lovewell, Minneapolis, Minnesota. F. W. Thomas was superintendent. Sydney Chaplin acted as government superintendent of construction. Edward Cody was the first Postmaster and property custodian of the new federal building.

in excess of $10,000.00. There were then three districts and the city was served by the following, the first mail carriers : Emmon J. Badger, Roy G. Lyons and Fred C. Brooks.

Rural Free Delivery was commenced November 1, 1893, with three routes in the county. The first carriers of these routes were: A. B. Hanks, George H. Hoffman and William Case. The rural mail service lished throughout the world and has met with growing sentiment everywhere in the United States, was established in Antigo in June, 1911. The first year's receipts were $415.90. Gene Palmer, a mail carrier, was the first depositor.

Mail was carried from Wausau to Springbrook by private carriers before July, 18S0, when the first government contract was let. John Doerish operated the has proven a great service to the Langlade County farmers and the isolated communities springing up in the more remote sections of the county. It has put the settler, living in the sparsely settled regions, in constant touch with the outside world, bringing to his door pictorial news, the metropolitan daily newspaper, election returns almost instantaneously and has been an unsurpassed convenience to the farmer.

The Star Routes, with the exception cf the Antigo to Elton and return route, have been abandoned. Rural Free Delivery meant the discontinuance of many old post offices within the boundary of the county as it eliminated their necessity.

Edward Cody, the present Postmaster, is assisted by the following: P. J. Millard, Assistant Postmaster and O. C. Bardwell, Miss Lily Ladwig, Glen Millard, F. A. Kolerus, Walter A. Betters and William Kuhr.

The rural mail carriers are: Martin Fishback on Route No. 1, William McGregor on Route No. 2, John Feller on Route No. 3, S. B. Kendall on Route No. 4, and Frank Ferdon on Route No. 5.

The estimates and proposals for the erection of the Antigo Post Office were made during the terms of former Congressmen E. A. Morse and Thomas F. Konop, of the now Ninth Wisconsin Congressional Distrcit.