Archival Anecdotes: Got mail?

The Eddy County Museum is home to an exclusive collection of dozens of biographical histories that were collected and documented by The Pioneer Daughters, a club that flourished in the 1960s. These histories have been an incredible resource in helping to draw connections between the artifacts we house today, the people they once belonged to, and the individuals responsible for donating them to the museum. As a result the pioneer histories serve as the interpretive backbone to the museum's history.

Incidentally, pioneer settlement also served as the backbone to modern infrastructure. The development of the postal service was instrumental in building connections between early North Dakotans and the rest of the world. In some cases, the early post offices attracted new faces from far away places.

One example is John Goss and his wife Vina who migrated from Illinois in 1888 to eastern Wells County where they managed the Kiner Post Office. In 1902 he then moved his family to New Rockford and became a fuel dealer. During the early days of the Eddy County Museum, daughter Pearl Goss donated her father's wedding suit and her mother's parasol and black shawl, all of which made the trip from Illinois all those years prior.

Not only did post offices attract folks from other places, but a working mail system connected the people on the prairie with the rest of the world. It wasn't long before receiving postcards and cabinet card photos became a regular source of excitement. Mail order catalogs and subsequent packages also came via post from growing retailers such as Sears Roebuck and Montgomery Ward.

Post offices became a necessity throughout the county.

According to the Eddy County history written in "A Century of Sowers," Ed Nash served as the postmaster at Eddy County's first post office. It was located at Brenner's Crossing, Hillsdale Township.

The county's second post office was established October 23, 1882 in Tiffany and was initially overseen by Cyrus H. Culver. A series of other postmasters followed including George Neasmith in 1883; Henry Gardner in 1885; George H. Fields in 1887; and Horace Tarbell in 1888. Tarbell was the one to keep the best track record. His daughter, Elsie Biggs Dunham wrote in her biography how the Tarbell family relocated to New Rockford in 1903.

In Sheyenne, early accounts report that Ole Hendrickson walked to New Rockford carrying a large leather pouch, and would bring the mail to his sod house, where the people of and around Sheyenne would go there to get their mail.

The first post office for New Rockford was dedicated October 11, 1883. It operated from its original downtown location until the current post office building opened in 1939.