Moline Post Office
The Moline post office was established in 1844, with David B. Sears as
the first post-master. The office was located in the " Brick Store " (a
building owned by Mr. Sears, between Fifteenth and Sixteenth Streets on
Second Avenue.)
Following him Dr. Wells had the office in a little room about twelve by
sixteen feet on the alley corner of Seventeenth Street between First and
Second Avenues. George W. Bell succeeded Wells and moved the office south
, to the corner where he had a tailor shop. Joseph J. Jackman was the next
postmaster, and he again moved the office going east about half a block on
Second Avenue. In 1856 Absolom B. Williams was appointed postmaster and he
was succeeded in July, 1857, by Judge John M. Gould, who moved the office
west on Second Avenue to the lot adjoining the present postoffice building
and in the rear of the present site of the Peoples Trust and Savings Bank.
Judge Gould had a bank here and the post office was placed in the rear of
the bank room. Judge Gould was succeeded April 17, 1861, by William Kerns,
who served until June, 1865, when George D. Gould, a brother of Judge
Gould, took the office and held it until August 11, 1869, when Mr. Kerns
again took it. He was succeeded by Henry E. Wells, who gave place April 1,
1877, to Luke E. Hemenway. Dan W. Gould took possession February 1, 1886,
being the third of the Gould brothers to hold that place. John M. Holt
succeeded him April 1, 1890, to be followed July 4, 1894, by M. J. McEniry,
who held the office until October 1, 1897, when he gave way to George H.
McKinley, who was followed March 1, 1906, by W. F. Eastman, the present
post-master.
The office remained in the banking room of Judge Gould until October,
1873, when it was removed to the old library building on the corner of
Fifteenth and Library Streets, where it remained until July, 1885, when it
was temporarily placed in the building on the south side of Third Avenue
(two doors from Seventeenth Street) until December, 1885, when it was
moved to the present site on Third Avenue and Sixteenth Street. A site has
been purchased for a new building at the corner of Third Avenue and
Eighteenth Streets, and there is an appropriation of $96,000 for the
construction of a new building, which it is expected will be occupied in
1909.
The first available report of the receipts of the postoffice is one
published by Mr. Hemenway of the receipts in the calendar year of 1879.
This shows the total receipts of the office to be $15,346.50. There were
3,158 money orders issued for $30,667.12, and 2,355 paid for $36,014.33.
There were 640 .registered letters sent and 1,269 received. The total
number of pieces of mail dispatched was 861,389. Business had not come to
that point that the office was opened Sunday.
The reports of the auditor of the postoffice department show a rapid
growth. In 1891 the number of stamps sold amounted to $24,433.28, and this
was increased the next year more than $5,000. Then followed five years of
depression, and it was not until the year ending June 30, 1897, that there
was an increase; the figures then being $31,465.16. Since then there has
been a steady increase, averaging something more than eleven per cent
annually. .On account of the financial depression the receipts for the
last year were but little more than in the previous one, having been
$79,306.19. An increase to $90,000 is confidently expected the current
fiscal year.
At the same time the number of pieces of mail dispatched has so increased
that in one week of 1907 when they were counted there were 148,192 pieces,
which would be at the rate of nearly as many in six weeks as were
dispatched in the entire year of 1879.
The total number of money orders sold in the last year-1907-was 27,341, of
a value of $258,755.43 and there were 10,789 paid, with a value of
$95,667.32. The total number of registers sent and received was 15,463.
This is the roster of the office August 24, 1908: Postmaster, W. F.
Eastman; assistant postmaster, John A. Godehn; clerks, in order of
appointment, A. C. Dorman, John Mc-Eniry, C. V. Gould, F. L. Rogerson, H.
E. Olson, N. L. Anderson, W. L. Olson, Orlando Metz, A. L. Hallquist, C.
W. Heimbeck, P. E. Colson, Lilla M. Fulsinger, with D.W.Warnock, Ethel L.
McCanon and Elmer Heck as substitutes; carriers, in order of appointment,W.
G. Baker, F. C. Viereich, J. M. Hartzell, F. N. Pierce, G. E. Carlson, J.
W. Dewrose, C. F. Grantz, Neander Johnson, O. J. Wilson, F.
H. Wilson, C. W. Becker, A. O. Anderson, John Wind, A. E. Lundeen, A. E.
Burlingame, Victor Youngberg, with C. O. Hanson, J. H. Becker, Frank
Spriet and Paul Young as substitutes, and Thomas Stewart as rural carrier.
There are six stations with W. H. Christi-son, Charles Brunstrom, C. C.
Coyne, M. W. Battles, Jr., John L. Jennisch and August Sundine in charge.
Henry Robinson is janitor and special delivery messenger.
The first carriers went on duty July 1, 1887, Messrs. Baker and Hanson
being two of the original four. Mr. Baker has been on duty continuously
since, but Mr. Hanson resigned near the end of his twentieth year to go
into business.
Source: Historic Rock Island County, pub. Kramer & Company, Rock Island, Illinois, 1908