The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1941-03-20
The Common-tater
-ByC Chuck Rattle
A Columnist's Digest
Blu Chuck Rattle

At a quarter to twenty-sx years of age Pat
Dubois becomes family historic and singular fig
in becoming the youngest appointee to the post
masters chair in this CITY, He is probably the first
to receive the post appointment succeeding his
father; and is the fifth to hold the position in the
present century. We went to school with Pat
from the time we were snivelnosed kids in kinder
garten to the time in cap and gowns on
one of the hottest June evenings we can ever re-
member 1t terrible night with the heat
and insistent fly, while trying to be
academic as Socrates, was eternaly at the tip of
our nose
We don't remember that Pat exhibited in school
any marked tendencies toward becoming eventual
ly head man in Sank Centres postofce He
passed notes to any degree of being consistent
about it. However we do believe that Pat was
in the same gang with who at one time another
did play at post office game which, as social
pleasure for large groups is considered passe in
these more enlightened times. AS early as kinder
garten said knew Pat. In fact my father
took both of to school the first day. deposited
of set up howl Mrs. Lyle johnson, then
Prudence Arndt, says at that early age Pat and
yours truly exhibited highly unsocial talents. We
played catch with her new, white, furry tassel cap
the inevitable outcome of which horse play landed
the fluffy garment in mud puddle. 1t caused
Prudy woefu moments; and to chagrin
Until year two ago both Pat and had agree
ably and conveniently forgotten the incident Prudy
with far better memory exhibited in later years
in both poetry and class play activities stubbornly
refuses to let her memory Of that regrettable NOM
Pat is really Benjamin, Jr, fact that is rarely
heralded because Benjamin, the elder seeing the
inevitable concourse of events in which he would
be known "od Ben" promptly called the boy Pat
Important thing of this is that the post office
has paced the growth of this community And it is
a slight rumbling the surface have other
things portended, of the rising of another genera
ton It's painless, and it's slow, but it's sure.
Little by little new generation comes up to take
the jobs just relinqushed in way
other And presto, one day you are suddenly aware
that good many faces the street
Faces that once were the cherubc, downy cheeks
of lads and lasses.
U. S. mails that in free distribution date to
Ben Franklins time, have been notably quick to
penetrate last and the first outposts of this
country's westward advances Hardly had the
last log been swung in place and the workmen sag
ged back in perspirng effusion after the erection
of the pasade for Sank Centres early stockade-
than the U. S. mails the job. :. Even
in the previous years, with scattered settlements
smuggling up beside the water holes Of this section
there evidence of mails getting haphazardly
through. But into that stockade went what was
probably the first real postoffice, and its master
was Solomon Pendergast Pennsylvania who had
walked with his dog and his gun to this state, and
whose walking Fourth of July made him
a day late for his wedding In Solomon
Pendergasts store where he shelved the bolts Of
calico and the staples of the the first post
office. And by stage mail reached here whose ar
rival at periodic spasms we imagine event
that never went without heralding
Arrival of the mails was early an important
part of those peoples lives. For matter where
man has gone there is always someone in the some
where he has come from. With the Civil War
over and the Indians in more peaceful moods the
community moved out Of its crowded stockade,
stretched itself in the warmth Of room like emerg-
ing from dark to the penetrating warmth
Of the With Solomon Pendergast went the
postofce uptown there to reside in his store again.
From then to the turn Of this century the
postmaster was by turn versatile fellow in several
lines Now when J. H. smonton, Herald editor
founder who started this sheet in 1867, post
master, the postoffce the front office Of this
newspaper. Charles Hendryx, who came later
in 1879 mixed printers ink with the dispatch Of the
mails You can call up visions of Clint and U.
NJ Tobey moving from carrying out bale of hay
sack of feed and then switching to find
letters for those calling in the postofice department
1t was w. o. p. Hilsdale who built the building
where the postoffice resides and he one
of the early postmasters Before that the post
office housed in addition to the Herald, general
stores and feed stores in building situated where
now is the Beidleman grocery. There other
plots where it rested comfortably over the years.
1t is interesting to note that about the time the
town began to get out of its swaddlng clothes the
postoffice took the dignity Of separate estab-
lishment with full crews and a postmaster who did
little else while he was in the actual building.
1t paced the exodus of the general store, and not
many years after this singular change in the malls
routine, the general stores began to fade and the
specialized market for this and that began to rise.
ago that the last of the general stores under s. c.
Bjone gave way with his death.
Coming of the railroad in 1873 was the greatest
boost toward making the postoffice separate inst-
tuition. 1t moved about. thrived with the bust
ling. growing community, took postmaster after
postmaster in stride Finally met the new
tury with Oliver Boobars term straddling the past
and the future. Then followed ]. A. Schoenhoff
William M. Parker and to the regime of the man
who just finished, Ben Dubois. This century
boosted it further on the pinnacle of the commun-
itys necessities. Air mail brought about great
strides in linking this hinterand province with any
part of the country Rural free delivery that came
in the last spans the break from the horse and
buggy to the automotive transport. . Then
finally came city free carrier service that brings
the world and friends at large doors removed
from anyone. -.
think curiois and Quaint following of