Growth of Mail Show Progress ~ 1861

WAUGHTAL, COUEY

Posted By: Sharon R Becker (email)
Date: 11/18/2014 at 10:50:02

The Globe Gazette
Mason City, Cerro Gordo County, Iowa
Monday, June 01, 1953
Mason City Centennial Edition, Section 3

GROWTH of MAIL SHOWS PROGRESS of MASON CITY

[Section 3, Page 6] The growth of the Mason City postoffice from a set of boxes the size of a window sash to which the mail, a few letters in a saddle bag, was brought overland, to its present structure with its variety of departments, large number of employes (sic) and tons of mail rolling in from all directions is one of scores of developments that tell the story of Mason City's growth.

In the days before the coming of the first railroad in 1869 the late B. M. Waughtal, veteran mail carrier, once recalled, contained only 73 boxes. The case of letters was but a set of pigeon holes from which the man vested with the postmastership drew out the letters and handed them to customers across a little counter. The nearest railroad station was Calmar, to which point the westward moving Milwaukee had been built.

Waughtal came to Mason City when 8 years old with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. S. B. Waughtal, from Excelsus, Wis. His father's blacksmith tools were shipped to Calmar and the young Waughtal remembered going with his father to get them.

Waughtal recalled that land was cheap in those days. The south half of what is now the B and O addition was offered for $5 an acre.

NOTE: Bashford M. Waughtal was born in 1858, and died in 1934. Samuel Baugh Waughtal was born January 5, 1834, Smithfield, Illinois, and died in Mason City September 25, 1897. Samuel's wife, Sarah Ann (Couey) Waughtal, was born January 10, 1839, Randoph, Iowa, and died in Mason City February 1, 1914. They were interred at Elmwood-St. Joseph Cemetery, Mason City.

Transcription and note by Sharon R. Becker, November of 2014