Greenwood County History- Rural Route Men
“The recent cold weather of January 1912 has had the “old timers” hard put to produce a weather history that would awaken interest. Rural mail carriers do not date back to the days of the “old timers” and the continued cold weather of the past several weeks probably has no precent since they began distributing mail in Greenwood County. The condition of the weather, however, has not affected the regularity with which the Eureka carriers have made their trips. Not even the rush of holiday mail put them behind and the country people look up at the clock, as usual, when the mail carrier goes by to see how closely he is keeping to schedule and find he is not far off.
There are six carriers serving routes out of Eureka and each has from 75 to 118 boxes on his route. The mail has been very heavy all through the cold weather for country people have more time to read in the winter than during any other season.
Bert Snider, Carrier on Route 1, heads the list in length of service and number of boxes on his route. He has been carrying mail out of Eureka for more than four years and Route No. 1 has 118 boxes on it. Mr. Snider drives in a small wagon and we might remark right here that he didn’t patronize Montgomery Ward or Sears Roebuck when he bought it for it is a home product and was made right here in Eureka. It is made after the regular model of mail wagons and he has carried a lighted lantern during the cold weather for additional heat. Lock McCoy, Carrier on Route No. 2, also drives in a wagon and he thought to overcome the downward tendency of the thermometer by carrying an oil stove with him. On his first trip with the stove the fumes of the burning oil almost made him sick but he soon had his system of ventilation arranged so he suffered no further inconvenience on that score and was kept comfortably warm.
O.H. Couchman, Carrier on Route No. 3, also drives a regular mail wagon and he has displayed considerable ingenuity in arranging for heat in his wagon. He has a little sheet iron stove, made after a plan of his own invention, with a stove pipe out the top of his wagon and in this stove, he builds a real fire. With this convenient little arrangement for heating Mr. Couchman has not found it necessary to wear either overcoat or gloves on the coldest day of the winter and he boasts of a nice warm lunch ever day. He even goes so far as to claim that it only takes two quarts of coal to keep this stove going nicely during his entire trip. This statement may be doubted by some who have a vision of the amount of their coal bill at the end of the month of January, but Mr. Couchman stands ready to demonstrate the veracity of his statement.
Robert Womack, Carrier on Route No. 4 makes his trip in a buggy and uses storm curtains to afford a relief from the bitter cold. He started out one morning last week but was unable to make the trip on account of sickness. For four days following he was unable to undertake the trip and his route was served by a substitute, Harry Souders. This one day is the only instance of a route being without service and this was not on account of the weather but was due to the condition of Mr. Womack’s health. With seeming disregard for the frigid temperatures of the past several weeks, Claude Ruggles, Carrier on Route No. 5, has made his trips regularly in an open two-wheeled cart and claims that he hasn’t suffered from the cold this winter. A fur coat, a mink cap and some heavy horse blankets arranged in the bottom of his cart have been his protection from the cold. If we hear of an opening for a mail carrier at Medicine Hat or Calgary, we will at once notify Mr. Ruggles as the frigid weather of those points would no doubt hold no terrors for him.
R.O. Houge, Carrier on Star Route, drives in a buggy but uses a storm front to keep out the cold wind. He makes but three trips per week, all the other carriers make six. Mr. Houge’s route, however, is 52 miles long and on his three trips per week he covers the same distance as covered by those on the 26-mile route who make six trips per week.
The cold weather of the past few weeks is only one phase of the mail carrier’s experience for there are the spring rains, the hail storms, the high winds, the muddy roads, the high waters and the summer heat. Through it all he makes his trips and doesn’t complain about the weather nearly so much as some of us whose occupation affords indoor employment.”
