Mount Ayr Record-News
Mount Ayr, Ringgold County, Iowa
December of 1961

Earl KELLY, veteran rural mail carrier at Redding, will retire Dec. 31.

In a letter to patrons this month he said, "It has been my privilege to have served as your rural carrier, some of you for more than 37 years, most of you for a shorter length of time. My career as a carrier began May 1, 1924, when I started delivering mail from the Mount Ayr post office on what was then route number five with a length of 29 miles."

Mr. KELLY began on this route a couple of weeks or so before he was graduated from high school in Mount Ayr. He delivered mail in the forenoon and went to school in the afternoon. This route went west of Mount Ayr to the Joe LINK corner, thence north and east to Wishard Chapel and on east, south and back to Mount Ayr. John McNERNEY was the postmaster when he started and was succeeded in a short time by Howard TEDFORD. In 1930, the routes were consolidated so there were only four out of Mount Ayr and Mr. KELLY was transferred April 1 to Redding.

In his letter he relates, "Elmer SCHLAPIA, who celebrated his one hundreth birthday on Oct. 27, was one of my first patrons. He and I had many pleasant chats at the mailbox."

When he transferred to Redding, he filled the vacany of "Doc" HARRIS. The postmaster there at that time was Frank PARKER. There were two routes until Carl QUICK retired when the routes were consolidated and with further extensions it now measures 62 and 2/3 miles.

Mr. KELLY states that the route he now serves contains 90 fewer families than the same distance had in 1930. One example of this change may be noted in the four-mile stretch from Redding north to the Maloy corner where there were then 12 families. Now there are four.

He started carrying mail in a Model T Ford roadster one-seater and later used four more Model Ts. He has used 20 cars in the 43 years. He remembers the spring of 1930 was the year that U.S. Highway No. 169 was put to a grade for gravel. It had been an open wet winter and much of that road was impassable. In places, logs had been laid crossways to make a corduroy road in order to cross.

With many, many episodes of bad roads, he especially recalls the winter of 1936. He and his substitute, Marlon JENNINGS, who now lives in West Branch, divided the route. Marion rode a horse for which he had to break trail through the snow much of the way, and Earl walked, in snow knee to hip deep. He estimates that in the years between 1930 and 1948 he had walked at least 5,000 miles on his route, usually in the spring when the roads were deep in mud.

Mr. KELLY has been a member of the Rural Letter Carriers association all the years that he has carried mail. Mrs. KELLY has been a member of the auxiliary ever since they were married. He has held all the office in the county assocition and was secretary for the last 15 years. In the district carriers organization he has held the offices of second vice-president, first vice-president, and was district president for two years. Mrs. KELLY has been state vice-president of the ruralletter carriers auxiliary and was state president for two years.

He says that for him retirement won't mean sitting in an easy chair. He thinks his wife will find plenty of chores to keep his time well occupied. Mr. and Mrs. KELLY have two children, Cynthia, who is a teacher in Exira, and Tom, a student at Iowa State university.

Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, September of 2009