West Jefferson in Days Gone By - series 131 by Charlie Miller

____June 1935 – One hundred and twenty-six members of the West Jefferson Alumni Association met at this year’s Alumni Banquet. The welcome address was given by Mrs. Etta B. Martin, class of ‘84. The Banquet was held in the dining room of the Methodist Church, and the dance was held across the street in the Township Hall. Some members present were Mrs. Martin ‘84 and Mrs. L. C. Dick ‘86, Mrs. J. M. Maddux E. E. Gregg.

____November 25, 1935 – An unintentional turkey chase and killing was staged today by 

E. J. Britton and son, operators of the Red & White Store. The turkeys had been purchased from Matt Higgins, a Fairfield Township farmer, and as they were being placed in the Britton poultry house, they escaped. Ben got out his shotgun, and his aim was good, but the other one got away. The last report stated that Mr. Turk was heading north for the tall and wild!

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Unfortunately, this ended in 1935. Hopefully, someone will pick up the next 88 years and carry on.

In the meantime, I will try to dig up some “specials” that may be interesting.

-POSTMASTERS-

The first Post Office was established in “New Hampton, Ohio” on January 4, 1830. New Hampton had been laid out in 1822 on the Stage Route between Franklinton (Columbus) and Springfield. Although New Hampton was never incorporated, it did have a Post Office. In 1830, there were 416 people living in Jefferson Township, with probably about 40 to 50 living in New Hampton. What little mail that all of these people received was sent to the New Hampton Post Office. (New Hampton was in the present location of Hampton Cemetery. The Stage road was the Main Street of the town of 93 lots, mainly 66’X165’.

The town of Jefferson was not settled until around 1831-1832 and was incorporated in 1834. By October of 1833, enough of the people had been removed from New Hampton to Jefferson, and a Post Office was established there. When the Post Office was moved to the new town, they ran into a problem. There was already a Village of Jefferson Post Office in the state established in 1828, so to distinguish the mailing address from the other Jefferson, our Post Office was designated “West Jefferson.” This was not an unusual procedure for that period of time; in fact, the town of Gilroy was the ‘Lilly Chapel’ Post Office. Big Plain was “California Post Office” and Amity was “West Canaan” Post Office.

The next page will list the Postmasters from the first, Mr. John Gilmore, who was a one-legged man of the Gilmore-Dalby Store. He had one leg, and Mr. Dalby had one arm. Darby would get the product, and Gilmore would wrap it. It ends with Robert Bradfield, who served from 1957 to 1989; he was the longest-serving Postmaster.