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144 Years in the Postmaster's Chair
(Part 2)

 Growth of Post Office Keeps Pace With City of Richmond

By Frank Hopkins

Last week Mr. Hopkins traced the history of the Richmond Post Office from its inception under President Washington to the regime of the bitterly hated Miss Van Lews, the city's only woman postmaster appointed by President Grant supposedly as a reward for her espionage services during the War Between the States. This week's article deals with the postmasters since Miss Van Lews up to the present incumbent and clearly shows that the growth of the service was an integral part of the growth of the city.--Ed. note

After Miss Van Lews lost the post office in 1877 to William W. Forbes, an appointee of President Rutherford B. Hayes, Miss Van Lews continued to live on in the old church Hill Mansion, a dried up little woman who lived a life of the most complete seclusion.

Falling upon evil days, she was unable at one time to pay her taxes, and, according to one account, successfully resisted the collector on the ground that being a woman with no male relatives she had no man to plead her cause for her or add to her support. She died some thirty-odd years ago.

Postmaster Forbes served only three years. He was succeeded on July 30, 1880, by George K. Gilmer, a Richmonder and a Southerner.

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With Gilmer's successor, William H. Cullingworth, appointed by President Cleveland on May 13, 1885, begins the list of modern postmasters. The present postmaster, Clyde W. Saunders, has assembled data on the nine incumbents of the office from Cullingworth's time to the present.

Born in Richmond, October 23, 1836, Mr. Cullingworth was educated in Richmond private schools and as a young man was engaged in the tobacco business here. He served two terms as postmaster, both under President Cleveland. The first was from 1885 to 1889 and the second from 1894 to 1898.

Between his first and second terms and after his second term Mr. Cullingworth was in the coal business in Richmond. He died here on March 24, 1903.

Between Mr. Cullingworth's two terms, the Richmond postmaster was Otis H. Russell, an appointee of President Benjamin Harrison. Born in Baltimore in 1845, Mr. Russell came to Petersburg in 1851. His family was one with Union sympathies, and after the War Between the States he served as an internal revenue collector under the Republican Administrations of Johnson, Grant and Hayes.

In February, 1885, he was appointed collector of the port of Richmond by President Chester A. Arthur, and served until January, 1889. He was appointed postmaster November 26, 1889, and served until February 13, 1894. Mr. Russell was prominent in Republican party activities throughout his lifetime.

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Following Cullingworth's second term, the next Richmond postmaster was Wray Thomas Knight, who served the eight years from March 22, 1898, to February 7, 1906. Mr. Knight was born on February 24, 1854, in Nottoway County, and was educated at Strother's University. He was superintendent of the Richmond Stove Company at the time of his appointment as postmaster by President McKinley.

Royal Eubank Cabell, the next Richmond postmaster, served from February 7, 1906, to September 1, 1909. He resigned to become collector of internal revenue, a post he held until the Taft administration gave way to that of Woodrow Wilson in 1913.

Mr. Cabell, born at "Inglewood," Nelson County, March 1, 1878 was educated at Roanoke College and Princeton, receiving an A. M. from the latter institution in 1898. He studied law at the University of Virginia and the University of Richmond, was admitted to the Virginia bar, and has been a member of the law firm of Cabell & Cabell since 1902.

Mr. Cabell has been active in the councils of the Republican party in Virginia, serving as district elector on the Roosevelt-Fairbanks ticket and as delegate-at-large to the Republican National Convention at Chicago in 1912. He is a prominent Richmond attorney today, living at 3412 Hawthorne Avenue.

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After Mr. Cabell as postmaster came Edgar Allan J., appointed by President Taft on September 1, 1909. He served for a little more than four years.

Mr. Allan was born January 13, 1875, at Farmville, and attended public and private schools in Richmond and Worcester Academy in Massachusetts. He was graduated in law from George Washington University and later took graduate work at the University of Virginia.

He practiced law in Richmond for a number of years, an associate of his father in the firm of Allan & Allan, and in 1906 became assistant postmaster under Mr. Cabell. He filled out the unfinished term of his superior and then was appointed himself by President Taft.

It was during Mr. Allan's term as postmaster, on March 28, 1910, that the biggest robbery in the history of the Richmond Post Office occurred.

Two professional yeggmen stole $85,000 in stamps from the Post Office's temporary quarters at Seventh and Franklin Streets and carried the loot down the streets of Richmond in broad daylight, bowing polite good mornings to every one they met.

They were later captured by Federal detectives in the North and convicted and sentenced to terms in Atlanta penitentiary.

Mr. Allan died April 27, 1931.

Hay T. Thornton, the next postmaster, was appointed by President Wilson and served during his two terms, from January 13, 1914, to November 1, 1922.

Mr. Thornton was born in Norfolk, May 7, 1857, but came to Richmond as a small child. He was educated in public and private schools here, and then engaged in business for a number of years, first in Richmond, later in Chicago and Baltimore.

After a number of years in the tobacco business in Baltimore, Mr. Thornton returned to Richmond and was a traveling salesman for the Wirt E. Taylor Company.

During the second administration, in 1894, while Mr. Cullingworth was postmaster, Mr. Thornton was appointed superintendent of Station A branch Post Office, which position he had until his appointment as postmaster.

Mr. Thornton served the Richmond Post Office at a very difficult period of its history, the years of the World War. Not only was the rush of mail severe at this time, but the Post Office was called upon to handle vast amounts of Liberty Bonds and War Savings Stamps.

In addition, Mr. Thornton was called upon to furnish experienced men from his staff to augment the emergency forces at Newport News, Petersburg, Camp Lee and other places. The Richmond postmaster was frequently called to Washington for conferences with postal chiefs there during this period.

Mr. Thornton was instrumental in securing for Richmond the Fifth District bank of the Federal Reserve System at a time when Baltimore and Richmond was competing sharply for the institution. This he did by preparing a statement for Washington Advantages from a postal standpoint.

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Joseph W. Stewart succeeded Mr. Thornton as postmaster and served under Presidents Harding, Coolidge and Hoover. Born in Richmond on August 26, 1872, Mr. Stewart was educated at public and private schools in Richmond, and engaged in business here. He became an executive in the employ of the America Can Company, in which position he remained until appointed postmaster on November 1, 1922.

Mr. Stewart has been prominent in Richmond business and political circles all of his life. He is a director of two branches of the State Planters Bank & Trust Company, of the Home Owners Building Corporation and of the Business Men's Association of the East End.

Chairman of the Henrico County Republican Committee in 1893 at the age of 21, Mr. Stewart was later district chairman for the Third Congressional District. He was also a member of the Republican Committee in Richmond for many years, and served as a delegate to the Republican National Convention in Chicago which nominated Warren G. Harding in 1920.

The Postal Credit Union and the Federal Business Men's Union were both organized at Richmond during Mr. Stewart's term as postmaster.

On July 1, 1931, Mr. Stewart was replaced by Berkeley Williams, Richmond investment broker, who held the position until April 1, 1934.

Mr. Williams' appointment by President Hoover came over the protests of the regular Republican organization in Virginia, who fought to retain Mr. Stewart. Mr. Williams, an independent Republican, had changed from the traditional Democratic politics of his family to organize the first Hoover-for-President Club in Virginia and had been a steadfast Hoover man for years.

A member of a family long prominent in Richmond, Mr. Williams was born in Richmond in 1878 and educated at McGuire's School and the University of Virginia.

Mr. Williams in his business career in Richmond has been president of the Virginia Better Trade Association, a director of the Bank of Commerce and Trusts, president of the Williams Oil Corporation, chairman of the board of directors of the Derby Oil and Refining Company of Wichita, Kan., and treasurer of the Anti-Diphtheria League of Richmond.

Clyde W. Saunders, the postmaster was born in Goochland County February 20, 1867. He came to Richmond in 1872 after his father's death and attended Richmond schools, meanwhile selling newspapers on the streets of the city.

He went into the printing office at the age of 13, and in 1895 went into business for himself in partnership with a Mr. Baptist as Baptist & Saunders. The firm name became Clyde W. Saunders in 1897.

Mr. Saunders served during the World War as chairman of President Wilson's Draft Board No. 1. At the close of the war he was chosen a member of the President's board of experts, he being the draft expert sitting with that body.

The present postmaster has been active in the councils of the Democratic party in Virginia since the age of 25. He served on the State Democratic Committee 28 years, and for about 10 years served as chairman of the city committee.

Mr. Saunders never held a political office until his appointment by President Roosevelt as postmaster. Since the appointment has taken effect, he has turned over the active conduct of his printing business to his sons and retired from Richmond political life in order to give his position the complete and impartial attention the tradition of the postal service demands.

The expansion of the Post Office from the appointment of Augustine Davis by President Washington in 1790 to that of Clyde W. Saunders by President Roosevelt in 1934 has been scarcely less wonderful than the expansion of Richmond during the same period from a village to a busy commercial, political and social metropolis. But the two developments have not been separate; each has been an integral part of the other for 144 years, and will continue so.