Mail carriers Quick and Willey

BAILEY, DEREUS, DESMOND, EATON, GRIBBEN, JACKSON, MCCARL, OGG, QUICK, SPRINKLE, STOCKTON, THORSON, WILLEY, WINGER

Posted By: JCGS Volunteer
Date: 10/9/2016 at 17:31:21

The Last Round … Mail Carrier 45 Years … In County
Genial Henry Clyde Quick will don the blue-gray carrier uniform of the U.S. Postal Department, which he has served so faithfully for 45 years, and set out Wednesday, Mar. 31, to make last round of letter-carrying stops.
He will accompany the new carrier taking over the route. “This time I’m taking it easy… I’ll let him carry the sack,” says Quick with a wide smile.
Retirement becomes effective for both Quick and Miss Belle Willey, finance clerk, on Apr. 1. Miss Willey has been a postal employee for 38 years. She and Quick have been at the Newton Post office since 1920, after starting their service in other towns.
Miss Willey and Quick have been taking it easy from their duties for the past few days on accumulated leave time that they have not used down through the years. Although both are looking forward to visits and activities during their retirements, there is also a hint of sadness at leaving co-workers and patrons.
Last Round
The last round of his route Wednesday will be quite an event for Quick. It may be the final time that he will formally wear his uniform. For the people along the route – he has served the same one for 24 years – there is certain to be deep regret at missing the daily visits of a good friend.
It was December 1902, that Quick, who will be 66 May 5, first entered the postal service. He took up his duties as a rural carrier at Monroe, but the beginning was not smooth.
Quick had secured a team and buggy, at a great financial drain, so that he could take the job. Then just before he took up his duties, the team ran away through the park, and the buggy was wrecked. He managed to buy another buggy, starting the rural carrier’s job which was to last more than 17 years at Monroe.
The horse-and-buggy route carrying days were the most exciting and troublesome, says Quick. He remembers vividly one time when high water swept away a bridge on which he was crossing, making another team a necessity.
Transferred Here
Shortly after he was transferred to Newton in 1920, Quick recalls that day one of the darkest spots in his life occurred. He broke his back, and was down in bed for 57 days. It was then that the man, who had made it the rule of his life to accommodate other people, found that his work had not gone unappreciated.
His friends in the Newton and Monroe area tided him over the bad spell until he took up his duties again, despite the physical handicap the broken back had imposed on him. Quick smiles as he thinks of the many kindnesses from his friends during this period. He has been a city postal carrier, with the exception of a four-year stretch as parcel post clerk while his back was mending, since coming to Newton.
“Future plans?” replies Quick. “Well, a long vacation comes first, Mrs. Quick has three sisters in California whom we plan to visit. One of our daughters lives at Renton, Wash., near Seattle, and another at Greeley, Col., and we plan to visit them.”
Plenty of gardening is another activity for the Quicks, who have lived at 716 East Seventh street North since 1930.
Miss Willey
Miss Willey went into civil service in July 1910 at Tipton. She transferred to Newton Mar. 15, 1920, to relieve “Shorty” French in the local Post Office, which was under Postmaster Jesse Winger at that time. The Post Office was then located at the present site of the Thriftway Market.
She was in the money order-finance division of the service both at Tipton and Newton, and has served under Winger, Harlan Bailey, J. H. Gribben, Thomas Thorson and C. C. McCarl, postmasters or acting postmasters.
Miss Willey has no definite future plans outside of a two or three weeks visit at her sister’s home in Tipton. She will make her home in Newton.
Other Newton postal employees who have retired in the past are Charley Ogg and Arthur Jackson, city carriers; A. A. DeReus, Lloyd Eaton and Oscar Stockton, rural carriers; Miss Mary T. Desmond, money order-finance division, and Harry Sprinkle, acting postmaster.
Source: Newton Daily News; Monday, March 29, 1948, page 1, col. 5