Written by Joan Muehlbauer and Corrine Meierbachtol, from “As I Remember Scott County”
Tom O’Connor delivering mail in Belle Plaine, 1905. Photo from the SCHS Collections.
Our dad, John McDevitt, started his mail carrier job in 1903. He had three horses. In the summer, he had a two wheel buggy. When the water was high in the spring, he would have to leave his horses at the last patron’s house- he would also have to spend the night there. When I was a little girl, I remember how unhappy this made me when he couldn’t come home. He would call up and talk to me, and it would be ok. If the current in the river was not too swift, the mail could be brought over in a boat to him. In the winter, he would travel in a cutter drawn by one horse. A large stone as placed in the oven of the cookstove overnight and in the morning the stone was wrapped in burlap and kept near his feet. He wore a heavy sheep-lined coat. A nice warm horse hair blanket covered him. All was fine unless she had to go over high snow drifts, which many times tipped over the sleigh. He had to be at the post office at eight thirty in the morning to sort the mail. Then he came home and had a hot bowl of soup. The only lunch he took was thermos of hot coffee, and he left for his route at 10 o’clock. The route was 30 miles long, and in good weather he was home around three. In winter he was later.
The first car he bought in 1925. It was a Model T Ford. When we were old enough, we were taken with him on the route to keep him company. He was a mail carrier form 1903 to 1932. He died September 27th, 1936.