Port Clinton's Early Post Offices - Linda Higgins

With the advent of our technological society, the concept of “snail mail” seems quaint, but in the early years of Port Clinton’s history, mail was more than a mere novelty. There wasn’t much of it at that time, but the concept of connecting people by letters or newspapers was a rich and positive one. And the people who made the mail move became a popular part of the town’s life.

The mail was moved to Port Clinton by the Cleveland-Toledo Railroad until about November, 1858, when the Sandusky Bay Bridge broke down. After that time, a carrier rode by horseback or by buggy, depending upon the road conditions, to Elmore three times a week to pick up the Oak Harbor (called Hartford at that time) and Port Clinton mail. The Cleveland, Norwalk, and Toledo Railroad left the mail in Elmore for “stage riders” to pick up and distribute to those two towns. The first riders were Austin Smith and Jim Sweet, and a man whose last name was Rice.

James Kingham was commissioned as Port Clinton’s first postmaster in June of 1841. The Kingham home on Perry Street may have served as the first post office. Each piece of mail that arrived was noted on large ruled sheets of paper, called “way bills,” and then distributed. Records suggest that the first separate building that was used as the post office was on Madison Street, just north of Perry Street, until 1857. William Craighill then became postmaster, and because there was so little mail, Postmaster Craighill recorded the incoming pieces, then walked about town, carrying the few pieces in his hat for delivery. He chose to use a frame building nearby for a few years until John Kleinegger took over the position. While Kleinegger was postmaster, that first post office on Madison Street was moved to East Perry Street. The building remained there until April, 1926, when it was razed.

When Dr. William Greene was commissioned as postmaster in 1861, he first placed the post office in a building on his property, then moved it to a building at Madison and Second Streets. From there he moved to a building around the corner, then, finally, to the Neidecker building on Madison Street. When he died in January of 1884, having served as postmaster for 24 years, his clerk and stepson, John J. Robinson, filled the unexpired term of about a year.

In July of 1885, Wallace W. Montgomery was commissioned and served until 1891, using the building at 116 E. Second Street. When the next postmaster, James Greiser, took over, he worked from the structure built in the vacant lot next door at 120 E. Second Street. It would seem that he didn’t take his oath too seriously, however, as he disappeared with the government’s funds a couple of years after being commissioned!

John J. Robinson became postmaster again in 1897, moving the office several times during his tenure. A number of others served relatively short terms until the familiar brick post office on West Second Street was finished in 1935. Postal services and their postmasters have undergone many changes since that first home-based post office was used, and receiving certain types of mail, such as bills and junk mail, has never been, necessarily, a positive event. But finding a letter or card in the mailbox still connects us much in the same way it did “way back when.”