CHAPTER XVIII. POSTAL HISTORY. Red Wing — First Post Master — Stage Coach Days — Growth and Progress — Other County Offices — Discontinued County Offi- cers — New Federal Building. — By C. A. Rasmussen. In 1851 Hon. H. H. Sibley, then the territorial delegate to congress from Minnesota, secured the establishment of a post- office at Red Wing, and Rev. J. W. Hancock, the pioneer resident, was commissioned postmaster. He was under the necessity of performing a journey to St. Paul to qualify and execute the re- quired bond at an expense of five dollars, and his income for the next two years hardly covered that expense. But the post-office was a great convenience for the few residents here, as previous to that time the nearest post-office was twenty-five miles away. The mail was carried in those days to and from St. Paul, easterly, by steamboats in the summer, and in the winter at first on foot and later by a one-horse train. Mails were expected once a week, but on account of floating ice interfering with the steamboats or blizzards with the one-horse train, the office was sometimes three weeks without mail and for that length of time all communication between the little band of pioneers and the outside -world was cut off. In the spring of 1852, on one occasion, the one-horse mail train was wrecked in crossing Spring creek. The mail bags, some five or six in number, were left several hours in the water and after being fished out were brought to Red Wing and Mr. Han- cock spent a whole day in drying out the mail. At one time, in the winter of 1855, the office was without mail for six weeks, the mail carrier having died and considerable delay having been ex- perienced securing a new carrier. In the fall of 1853, from which year really dates the first settle- ment of Red "Wing as a village — -prior to that time the point hav- ing been mainly a missionary station — Dr. W. W. SAveney was appointed postmaster. Rev. Hancock having resigned. Dr. Sweney served about a year and was succeeded by H. L. Bevans. Mr. Bevans served until 1858, when he was succeeded by H. C. Hoffman. It was during his administration that we find pub- 298
