The history of men leading the postal service in Niagara Falls is long and varied, and was once intimately connected to politics.
Even in relatively modern times, the office of postmaster was considered to be one of the choicest political plums. In fact, E.T. Williams -- journalist, longtime city historian and politician -- served a stint as postmaster and was ousted in a political tangle.
The first postmaster, when Niagara Falls was still the fledgling hamlet of Manchester, was Judge Augustus Porter. The post office was in his house on Buffalo Avenue overlooking the upper rapids.
He served in that capacity until about 1840, when he was succeeded by Judge Samuel DeVeaux, a merchant who maintained the post office in his store on Main Street opposite the Cataract House.
The last postmaster of Suspension Bridge, Walter P. Horne, became the first postmaster of the city of Niagara Falls when the two villages merged to form the city.
Horne was succeeded by Francis H. Salt, who was appointed by President William McKinley in 1897. Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and William H. Taft subsequently reappointed Salt. During the second administration of President Woodrow Wilson, postmasters came under the civil service law. Even this law, however, could not completely subvert the political aspect of postmaster appointments.
After Wilson's first election in 1912, postmaster Salt asked politician Williams to notify the area's congressional representative, Robert H. Gittens, that Salt wished to resign in order to take a position with the Power City Bank.
Gittens then recommended that James Hulls be named postmaster. Shortly after his appointment, Hulls died. It just so happened that Gittens' term in Congress was ending, and so he was named acting postmaster by Wilson to finish out Hull's unexpired term.
Gittens resigned after three years, and Williams was named acting postmaster, taking office on Jan. 21, 1920. Civil Service was in effect at this time, and Williams had to take the test, which he passed with flying colors, emerging as No. 1 on the eligible list. At that time, the law provided that the No. 1 candidate had to be appointed.
However, politics usually finds a way out of these annoying fairness rules. Although Williams' name was sent to the U.S. Senate for confirmation, the matter was delayed over the controversy surrounding the peace talks ending World War I. President Wilson was having trouble mustering support for his League of Nations Plan.
Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts was GOP leader in the Senate and a bitter foe of Wilson. He held up the confirmation process for the Wilson postmaster appointees.
When Wilson left office, Williams said, there were 2,000 postmaster appointments awaiting confirmation. Still, the Republican senators would not confirm the Wilson appointees, even though some 900 of them were Republicans.
The next president, William G. Harding, a Republican, ordered new civil service testing. Williams took the test and again came out heading the list for Niagara Falls. However, Harding changed the rules, making the appointment mandatory from among the top three candidates, not just the No. 1 candidate.
Needless to say, Democrat Williams did not get confirmed and had to leave office.
When Williams took over the job in 1920, the salary was $3,600 a year, and when he left office two years later, it had risen to $4,000.
INTERESTING PHOTO -- The power of the Internet has struck again, showing the widespread popularity of the Reporter on the Web. Marine Maj. Brian Manifor sent me the following e-mail the other day concerning NiagaraÕs hero, Col. Peter A. Porter, killed at the Battle of Cold Harbor during the Civil War:
Read your article (online) on Peter Porter recently, and then remembered that I had an original photo of Col. Porter taken shortly before his death at Cold Harbor.
He is pictured here with Lt. Col. William Bates KIA, and Maj. Edwin Blake KIA. Porter is in the middle. Also pictured are Maj. James Willett, Capt. John Cooper, Maj. Erastus Spaulding, First Lt. George B. Wilson. Thought you might enjoy seeing him.
LITERARY TALENT -- Col. Peter A. Porter was not only a distinguished soldier, but also had a literary bent. He wrote a poem called ÒAlbum SketchÓ about the changing falls and the passage of time. The last two stanzas went as follows:
The banks no longer are the same
That early travelers found them,
But break and crumble now and then
Like other banks around them.
And on their verge our life sweeps on,
Alternate joy and woe,
But the waters fall as once they fell
Two hundred years ago.
Thus phantoms of a bygone age
Have melted like the spray,
And in our turn we too shall pass,
The phantoms of today.
But the armies of the coming time
Shall watch the ceaseless flow
Of waters falling as they fell
Two hundred years ago.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | Aug. 5 2008 |