Norwich bulletin., 1915-05-01

@. lettera from Pneumonia-Fire in Frank Pankus' Lunch Room-One Hundred Attend Teachers' conven-
 tion-5all Game Postponed Rain. Former Postmaster Frank G Let
 ters died at his home on Grand View just before o'clock Friday morning The announcement proved shock to the people of the city, for MT. Letters illness, up to within 24 hours before
 his death. had not been regarded as
 particularly serious. He had been i'll
 put one week. pneumonia developing | rom grip. His death occurred one
 month to day from the date of his retirement as postmaster after a ser- vice of twenty years.
 MT. Letters was born at Monson,
 Mass, September 1. 1865. the sen of
 MT. and Mrs. William Fl. Letters. As
 boy he came here with his parents and his education was obtained in I the schools of this town. His father established a sewing machine bus mess here and afterwards expended
 his commercial activities to include a l music store.
 After leaving school Mir. Letters
 was engaged in his fathers store and
 was eventually taken into partnership | under the firm name of W. H. Letters
 & Son. After the fathers death MT.
 Letters became the proprietor the business under the firm name of F. ] G. Letters & Company
 MT. Letters was very much inter- ested in music and was the organizer l of the Music Block orchestra, an or ganization of well known musicians which become very popular in this l city and surrounding towns and was continued with success for number | of years. MT. Letters played the bass violin in this orchestra
 MT. Letters first appointment as kTlN net. To.,4, | ident Grover Cleveland, August 2, 1894. Between that date and his re- tirement from the office on March S1 | of this year he received four addi- tiona1 appointments under Presidents | Mckinley, Roosevelt and Taft Dur ing all of this period his music bus | mess was in charge of competent hands and 1t was his stated intention upon retiring from office so short
 time ago, to devote his time to that particular interest.
 As postmaster in Putnam MT. Let ters made a remarkable record of ef- | ficiency and was rated one of the best postmasters in New England. Under | his administration the office advanced | its rating from third class to it's pres
 ent classification: His twenty years | of service for the government un- der both democratic and republican constant and successful series of ef- forts to expand the business of the postal service here.
 At his own expense, during the early years of his service, he caused letter boxes to be erected at various points in the city and daily collections of mail to be made, this being the be- ginning of city delivery service here. | His administration witnessed the for | nal introduction of city delivery ser vice under government auspices here and successively, the coming of the
 rural free delivery service, the parcel | post and the postal savings depart ments. The annual receipts of the | office during the last years of MT. Let ters' term were triple what they were when he took over the office.
 l His term of office was also marked | by the steady growth of all the new | departments and by an increase, al- most annually, of the local postal l force. During his administration also | the government acquired a site for a l federal post office building here and | made an appropriation for the cree | tion of the same, but developments of | an unforeseen nature have delayed
 its erection up to the present time MT. Letters had a host of friends | in the city and great many more l throughout the state.- He was de- | servedly popular. His genial dispo- ! sition, generally sunny nature and | fair mindedness were all factors that l combined with his business ability to make him an exceptionally well liked man. All of this was amply illus l trated by the many tributes that were paid to his memory Friday by resi- | dents of this citv
 I MT. Letters was vice president of the Putnam Savings bank and a di-
 rector of the Putnam Foundry and | Machine company.
 { He leaves his wife, who was Miss Genevieve Hart of this city. son, F. Halford, and a daughter, Genevieve, | who recently recovered from a se- rious illness. Mir Letters mother also survives, residing here, and a brother, Assistant Postmaster Charles Letters.