Russellville Post Office

The Russellville post office was established in 1835. By 1870 a large frame building, part store-part post office, was located on Water Street in Russellville. Office hours were on Wednesday and Saturdays.  One citizen reported that the postmaster was “a sturdy old man, one in whom the mischief-making flame of curiosity has long since burnt out, consequently there was no danger of his ever soiling his official robes, by breaking the seal of his neighbor’s letters with official fingers to pry into his business as some inexperienced, thoughtless, curious and meddling postmasters of some little isolated villages might think of doing.”

The Postmaster was J.B. Regan in 1873. The newspaper reported on December 1877 that the Russellville post office was moved to Heathsville owing to some irregularities. But by October 28, 1881, the residents complained they wanted the mail route changed via Centerville in order to receive mail from Vincennes every day. The mail dropped off in Vincennes on Friday, did not make it to Russellville until Monday.  “It’s nothing but foolishness anyhow to run a mail from a small station on the Wabash railroad line up in Crawford County when the run could be made from Vincennes at the same expense and give the residents of Allison, Russellville, and Palestine the benefit of mail on the same day.”

Apparently relocating the mail route was no small matter. It would involve the passage of an act of Congress. If the route that was once established between Vincennes and Lawrenceville was never abandoned but merely dropped into disuse, it would only be necessary for the government to order service on the route. But if the route was abandoned then a bill would have to be introduced into Congress. Such bills were put into a bunch and passed altogether just before the adjournment of Congress.

 The residents of Russell Township concluded that the mail route from Lawrenceville to Palestine was a nuisance. The late rise in the rivers caused a great deal of delay in the mail, there having been no deliveries for a period of about 10 days. This was because of the high stage of the Embarrass, and the impossibility of travel though that region known as Purgatory Swamp.

Mail carriers did more than just deliver the mail. On February 2, 1881, the Russellville mail carrier enroute from Lawrenceville to Palestine arrested a horse thief at James Richey's, where the fellow had stopped for the night. The property stolen (two fine horses and sleigh) was found in his possession. The thief and horses were taken to Russellville and given up to the Sheriff of Lawrence County.

Not all mail carriers had sterling reputations. On Oct0ber 12, 1881 two fellows named Garing and Sister, the latter formerly a mail carrier between Lawrenceville and Palestine, were arrested and charged with making repeated attempts at wrecking trains on the O. & M. railroad east of Lawrenceville. They were held for their appearance at the next term of the Lawrence circuit court.