Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1907-03-10
Old Friends in Company.
RICH AND HOLDS DOWN JOB
POstman Makes Fortune in Real Es-
tate, but still Delivers
Letters.

How to amass a fortune OF $4,000 on
salary OF 1900 a year seems next to the
impossible, and yet there are several letter
carriers in New York who tramp the
streets, rain or shine, delivering letters for
Uncle Sam who have that much money, II
not more, safely invested. The branch
postoffice known as Station Y. on Third
avenue, near Sixty-eighth street, employs
three letter carriers whose total wealth
aggregates nearly $4,000.
The men are Martin l. Henry Of 1893
Bathgate avenue, the Bronx; William w.
Munroe of POI East Seventy-second street
and Louis Gates of 1920 Third avenue.
These men, although independently
wealthy. through extra effort during leisure
hours. still trudge from house to house
daily with mail bag and whistle, content
to accept a salary of $1,000 a year which
Uncle Sam provides for his postmen.
In every case the fortunes were made
through shrewd investments in real estate,
In order to save from their salaries the
amounts they possess each letter carrier
would have been obliged to put aside every
cent of his pay and labor increasingly for
from 100 to 900 years.
Martin L. Henry, who is considered the
richest postman in the world, has fortune
estimated at from $4,000 to $250,O00. He
started twenty-four years ago as a letter
carrier with 500. His route for many
years has been to Fifth and Madison ave-
nues, in the vicinity OF Seventy-second
street, and II was from some of the wealthy
Wall street operators to whom he delivered
mail that he first received his start in
fortune building. Several years ago he
bought lots In the vicinity of Two Hun
dred and Thirty-hfth street for 500 apiece.
They are now worth 1900 each. He owns
property In other boroughs.
Letter Carrier Munroe, who has deliv-
cred letters for nearly twenty years, has
also managed to gather together COM
Portable fortune. According to his fellow
carriers no will leave the employ OF Uncle
Sam next September, II not before to live
on the large farm near Saratoga, N. Y,
which he recently bought, He is now
waiting to see II the present congress will
vote a pension 10 those letter carriers who
have been in the service twenty years.
II the law is passed Munroe will wait until
next September, when he will have served
that length OF time
Postman Gates has long been a partner
In real estate deals with Henry, and II Is
said that his fortune equals, II not exceeds,
that of his brother letter carrier, All the
wealthy postmen, however. do not work
at Station Y. One of the richest is Sam
Fitch who received his appointment I'M
der Lincoln. and who has delivered mail
in the downtown district for thirty years.
| Sam" as he is popularity called, is a civil
war veteran and minus an arm, which he
lost in the battle OF the Wilderness After
the war he bought an artificial arm him
self and went into the business Of selling
them TO others.
After the legless and armless veterans
had all been supplied, Mr.. Fitch Joined the
letter carriers. At that time the men wore
no uniforms and received penny apiece
for the letters they collected at the boxes.
! He was obliged 10 tramp twenty miles a