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Encyclopedia Dubuque

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POSTAL SERVICE

From Encyclopedia Dubuque
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Commemorations have been celebrated with special mailings. Photo courtesy: Bob Reding

POSTAL SERVICE. Iowa's first post office, Dubuque Mines, was organized on May 27, 1833, within the jurisdiction of Jo Daviess County, Illinois. When Iowa was opened for white settlement on June 1, 1833, the first mail was delivered by horseback by George Ord Karrick. Milo H. Prentice, the postmaster, hand-stamped "Dubuque Mines Mic.T" (Michigan Territory) on letters mailed in Dubuque.

The first POST OFFICE in Dubuque was located on Main Street between Third and Fourth STREETS in the store of Milo H. Prentice, appointed the first postmaster in 1833. Jurisdiction over Dubuque came under the Territory of Michigan on June 28, 1834.

This period in Dubuque postal history lasted until the area fell under the control of the Wisconsin Territory from July 4, 1836, to July 3, 1838. Mail service expanded in 1836 when George Wallace JONES began a mail route with steamboats on the MISSISSIPPI RIVER. Before Jones began the business, mail took six months to reach the East. The new system reduced delivery to about one month. There were several CANCELS used on letters mailed during this time. Guy Morrison became the postmaster.

During the period Iowa was part of the Wisconsin Territory, the post office location moved to 7th and Iowa Street. It shared a building with the DUBUQUE VISITOR, which was operated by John KING, the postmaster. In 1837 the post office name was changed from Dubuque’s Mines to Dubuque.

Stampless letter circa 1839
Contents

In February, 1838, the citizens held a public meeting to devise ways and means to improve the mail service. A committee was appointed to petition Congress to afford additional mail facilities. This included: 1. A tri-weekly, four-horse, post coach route from Dubuque to Milwaukee,; 2. a weekly horse route to the center of Delaware county; 3. a weekly horse mail from Dubuque to the Cedar River settlement ; 4. an improvement of the mails between Dubuque and Chicago and between Dubuque and St. Louis.

The Dubuque Custom House and Post Office was located at 9th and Locust streets.

From 1849 until 1857, during the time the Globe Building served as the Dubuque post office, letters could be carried 3,000 for three cents with additional miles for ten cents. Dubuque had the only mail distributing office west of Chicago and north of St. Louis. The Dubuque post office moved to 6th and Iowa Street in 1857 for one year before being relocated in the Odd Fellows Hall at 8th and Locust streets. This location too proved brief. A fire led mail deliveries to be made from the Town Clock Building. In 1863 the mail distributing office was removed from Dubuque. The act was believed to be due to the opposition to the war shown here.

A permanent POST OFFICE was constructed at 9th and Locust Street through the efforts of Iowa Senator George W. Jones. The same man who established mail delivery by steamboat convinced Congress to appropriate $26,000 to a new DUBUQUE CUSTOM HOUSE AND POST OFFICE. The building was completed in 1866.

In 1873, Dubuque got its first three mail carriers--Frank W. Dyer, George A. Hoerner, and Moses MARTIN. Each man was paid $600 a year. In 1901 William BOLEYN became Dubuque's first rural carrier. He was paid $40 per month and had to supply his own carriage, sleigh, wagon and team of horses. Postal employees were not granted their first day off--Sunday--until 1911. The present Dubuque post office was constructed in 1934 at a cost of $513,000.

Experimental airmail flights came to Dubuque in 1912. At a local air show from NUTWOOD PARK, daredevil Lincoln BEACHEY dropped a bag of specially stamped mail to a messenger who took it to the post office. The four-block flight took only a few minutes. In 1950 Mid Continent Airlines began regular airmail service to Dubuque. In the same year, the daily delivery of mail to residences was reduced from twice to once. Business deliveries were reduced from three times to twice a day. On October 17, 1911, Hugh Robinson had landed on the river while attempting to carry mail between Minneapolis, Minnesota, and New Orleans, Louisiana. This attempt was unsuccessful, but in July 1918, a second airmail route was established with Dubuque as the starting point. An estimated 2,500 pieces of mail were delivered by Charles Walsh in two flights using a Curtiss landplane. Regularly scheduled airmail service, however, was not started until September 26, 1950. The same year residential delivery of mail was reduced to one per day instead of two. Businesses received two deliveries instead of three.

The cutback of passenger train service led the Post Office Department to begin the Highway Post Office service on October 15, 1952. The van, fully equipped to sort and distribute mail, ran a route from Madison, Wisconsin, to Dubuque.

Dubuque mail carriers began the delivery of mail from caddy carts on October 1, 1956. The increased volume of mail was reflected in the postal revenue in Dubuque. In 1934 postal revenue in Dubuque was $284,000. This figure rose past the one million dollar level by 1944 and six million dollars by 1978.

The Dubuque Post Office was designated a Management Sectional Center on November 1, 1961, making it one of 552 such centers in the United States. ZIP (Zone Improvement Plan) was started in Dubuque on July 1, 1963. On January 1, 1969, the Postal Annex was opened in the Kirby Building.

Dubuque letter carriers became motorized in red, white, and blue postal jeeps after April 1, 1970. A permanent parking lot for postal vehicles was acquired at Fifth and Locust Streets in 1978.


When the postal service decided to route all mail through Cedar Rapids, the citizens of Dubuque reacted strongly. The effort including petitions like this, however, were unsuccessful. Photo courtesy: Bob Reding
First Day of Issue envelope stamped in Dubuque. Photo courtesy: Bob Reding
For the Iowa sesquicentennial, special envelopes were stamped in each of Iowa's ninety-nine county seats. Photo courtesy: Bob Reding

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Source:

Oldt, Franklin T. History of Dubuque County. http://www.ebooksread.com/authors-eng/franklin-t-oldt/history-of-dubuque-county-iowa-being-a-general-survey-of-dubuque-county-histor-tdl/page-6-history-of-dubuque-county-iowa-being-a-general-survey-of-dubuque-county-histor-tdl.shtml