Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1907-03-05
RICH AND HOLDS DOWN JOB
POstmRn Makes Fortune In Real Es-
tate, hut stilI Delivers
Letters.

How to amass a fortune of 10000 on a
salary of $1,000 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 welath
aggregates nearly S5OO,OOO.>
The men are Martin L, Henry Of 1888
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 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
property in other boroughs.
Letter Carrier Munroe, who has deliv-
cred letters for nearly twenty years, has
also managed to gather together n COM
Portable fortune. According to his fellow
carriers he 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 IL the present congress will
vote a pension to those letter carriers who
| have been in the service twenty years.
| If 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 It is
| cent of his pay and labor increasingly for
! from 100 TO 300 years
| Martin /. Henry, who is considered the
| richest postman in the world, has a fortune
| estimated at from S15O,OOO to $4,000. He
started twenty-four years ago 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 It 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 street for 5000 apiece.
They are now worth $1,000 each. He owns
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 un-
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 a penny apiece
for the letters they collected at the boxes
He was obliged to tramp twenty miles
day to earn living Now his fortune Il
l estimated at $500, coo, and he owns property
| in Manhattan, Brooklyn and New Jersey
| New York World.