Post Office History in Sugar Grove
Through rain, sleet, and snow, the Sugar Grove Post Office has delivered important letters and packages to residents since 1840. The Post Office has been housed in various different buildings throughout the years.
Until August 18, 1840, mail had to be taken to Naperville, fifteen miles away, and cost 25 cents to mail. In 1840, the first Post Office in Sugar Grove Township was opened in the Thomas Slater home which stood at the northwest corner of Galena Road (Business Route 30) and Route 56, where the exit roads are now. (Source: "Sugar Grove, Illinois 1834 - 1984" by Ruth Frantz and Frank Damon.) The Post Office was kept by Cyrus Slater. Mail was brought there by Stage Coach enroute from Chicago to Galena. Letters cost twenty-five cents. The building later became the home of William Myers who purchased the farm and property from a man named Graves in 1882.
In the fall of 1847, Marcus White became Postmaster at Grouse, the intersecton of Scott and Harter Roads. Issac S. Fitch was Postmaster at Jericho, the corner of Jericho and Mighell Roads.
In August 1850, Samuel S. Ingham was Postmaster at Winthrop, the corner of Galena and Densmore Roads.
In the 1870s, Uncle Tom's Cabin housed the post office along with the depot for the Chicago & Iowa Railroad, express and telegraph offices, and a store.
By the late 1800s, the Winthrop location moved into the building which housed Miller's Store (Ice Cream Parlor and Pool Hall) / Sugar Grove Supply Co. on Main Street near the railroad tracks.
From 1943 to 1959, the US Postal Service rented a portion of the the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy (CB&Q) Railroad Depot for the Sugar Grove Post Office.
For decades, mail was picked up and dropped off in Sugar Grove by way of the Railway Post Office Car, a common part of the passenger trains at one time. The station master would hang the canvas bag of out-going mail from a "crane", which was a hook on an arm suspended from a post along the tracks. In Sugar Grove, this apparatus was located on the railroad right-of-way adjacent to the Hotel West. The mail handler inside the train car used a hook to grab the bag from the post as the train sped through town. The mail was sorted by mail handlers inside the train car, and later dropped off at the appropriate town. In-coming mail was simply thrown from the open door of the Railway Post Office Car, and shortly after picked up by the station master. There were only a few times in Sugar Grove when the bag got beneath the wheels of the speeding train, leaving the mail bag and mail in shreds. Amtrak did away with the mail sorters and since have carried only sorted bags of mail to their destinations.
With the U.S. Post Office occupying a portion of the train depot in Sugar Grove, it was always the center of social gathering as the farmers came to town on their noon break to retrieve their mail and were joined by those who lived in the village. In the winter the farmers would gather around the huge pot belly stove in the center of the waiting area and catch up on the news. In warmer weather, they congregated outside the depot. The sound of the telegraph key could always be hear above their voices. It was situated on the desk which occupied the windowed area towards the tracks, and was the only direct means of communication at that time, between the stations and subsequently the train crews. Flags were used periodically to tell a passenger on a passing train about a message that had been forwarded by way of the telegraph
In September 1960, a dedicated Post Office building was built at 60 Maple Street, Sugar Grove, IL.
In the 1980s, a new Post Office building was dedicated and located at 45 E Cross St, Sugar Grove, IL 60554. The building at 60 Maple Street was converted for commercial business.
(Source: "Sugar Grove, Illinois 1834 - 1984" by Ruth Frantz and Frank Damon.)
(Source: "Sin-Qua-Sip: Sugar Grove, A History of Sugar Grove Township, Kane County, Illinois" by Patsy Mighell Paxton.)
(Source: Handwritten notes on backs of photos.)