Springwater Post Office Preserved

From the Hornell Tribune, 23 July 1976

By Unknown Author. Rediscovered by Donna Walker.

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With Springwater’s oldest existing building and original post office in the background, history buff Andy Mahefkey and Mrs. Elizabeth Bomstad flank the plaque noting the historical value of the structure.

Springwater - A permanent marker was erected in front of a North Main St. home here two weeks ago. Saturday it will be dedicated formally during a special Bicentennial Festival ceremony at 3 p.m.

Through a community effort and the direction of Supervisor Howard Kramer and the town board, everyone will know that the house owned by Mrs. Elizabeth Bomstad is not only Springwater’s first post office but it oldest exiting home, as well.

Mrs. Bomstad remembers the post office well, passing it as a child often. She probably also knows it better than anyone. She’s lived there for 46 years.

“I’m the only one to have lived there long enough to make a home of it,” she says.

Right cross the road fro the Bomstad home is a shiny red antique shop and snack bar. The owner and operator is one of the area’s most studied history buffs, Andy Mahefkey.

Since he came to Springwater from Pennsylvania about 31 years ago, setting on some of the community’s most historical land, he has accumulated a mass of information along with his collection of antiques from the countryside.

He said the Bomstad home, now completely remodeled with a full second floor, probably dates back to between 1798 and 1800. It is known that the plank, story and a half structure was there by at least 1810.

There weren’t any postmasters, as such, when Town Suupervisor Alvin Southworth moved in. During the period 1818-1830 he not only conducted the town’s business there but also served as a kind of overseer for Springwater’s postal service.

Postmaster status was inaugurated about 1841 by President John Tyler. It is known that the post office was removed about that time to another location, Mahefkey said. But because records of that period are incomplete, nobody seems to know just where.

Springwater’s post office is now located on the corner of Main and Mill Streets. Postmistress is Mrs. Francis Colegrove.

In Southworth’s era, according to Mahefkey, letters were sent and delivered by stagecoach for five cents.

“The letter and envelope were combined into one piece and were called stampless covers. Those being sent out of state or long distance cost 18 3/4 cents,” he said.

“Postage stamps came out sometime between 1841 and 1844. Each postmaster used his own distinctive cancellation mark of cork, sometimes a ring, denoting a dove - patron of missives - or an American eagle signifying patriotism. Letters bearing those marks are rare collector’s items these days.” Andy said he has about 3,000 old envelopes. The earliest pertaining to Springwater is postmarked 1821.

“Springwater has always maintained a post office. Jealously guarded its facility and let it develop a personality all its own. It was known for its friendliness, its neighborliness and as a community meeting place,” he said.

Mahefkey’s property, across the way, was also a meeting place long ago. Indians once bartered there. Civil War news was read from the hay drive. His present red-painted country Yankee barn built in 1825 of native stone and lumber in pegged and fitted form was once a stage coach stop in the middle 1800’s between Canandaigua and Rochester.

Mahefkey, a former director of the Pennsylvania Historical Society Board of Governors, lives in the old grainery. He keeps his antiques in the milking parlor, his refinishing shop where cattle were once sheltered a century ago. And he operates his coffee shop on the hay mow site. His building, probably also serve as a brief resting point for the mail carrier who once delivered mail from Slab City on horseback.

In Springwater, as elsewhere, a postmaster job was a very coveted position, he said. It is unusual that the first was a Democrat in a predominately Republican community. And also that two women have been appointed to that post.

The longest tenure was that of Mrs. Madge McIntyre who retired recently after serving more than 30 years. She had been a clerk before succeeding Mrs. Bomstad’s husband, Mahlon, who died 20 years ago. Bomstad served as postmaster and later as a rural mail carrier during 22 years.

Mahafkey, who wrote the town board in 1974 proposing a community-wide Bicentennial celebration and designation of the Bomstad home, described Springwater’s pride and “jealousy,” toward its own post office

“About a year ago when about 2,800 small post officers like ours were threatened with extinction, Mr. Kramer immediately wrote letters to Washington and the people petitioned the government. And our post office is still here.

“A Springwater cancellation is something quite valuable to a philatelist these days. Most mail is now simply marked ‘U.S. Postal Service’ and small rural post offices are still being closed up. So our cancellation is becoming a very coveted mark of collectors,” he said.

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