Rock Creek, Wyoming, Post Master's Scrapbook

Collection

Identifier: H86-11

Staff Only

Content Description

Scrapbook compiled by Herbert Thayers, postmaster of Rock Creek, Albany County, Wyoming. Includes official correspondence from the U.S. Post Office Department, as well as receipts for registered letters, correspondence with other post offices, appointments, renaming, and discontinuations for other post offices established along the route between Rock Creek and Fort Custer, Montana, contracts for mail carriers, memos regarding stamps, official reports filed by the postmaser, and other correspondence and records relating to the post office.

Dates

1876-1880

Creator

Thayer, Herbert, 1852-1882 (Person)

Biographical & Historical Note

Herbert Thayer, son of Wyoming Territorial governor John Milton Thayer. In the 1870s-1880s, Herbert and his brother Dana, ran the sutler's store at Fort Fred Steele and then opened a hotel and Union Pacific railroad eating house in Rock Creek, Wyoming. In 1876, Herbert was appointed the new post master for Rock Creek. Around 1878, he was also superintendent of the Rock Creek and Fort Fetterman Mail and Stage Line. In 1882, Herbert won a seat in the Territorial House of Representatives from Albany County. He served for only one year. Just after the New Year in 1883, word reached Wyoming that Herbert had died suddenly while visiting with his mother in her home town in Massachusetts. He is buried in the family plot in Bellingham, Massachusetts.

Rock Creek was a town on the Union Pacific Railroad line in Albany County. It served as the distribution point for mail traveling between the rail line and Fort Custer, Montana. The post office was established in 1876, renamed Rockcreek in 1894, and discontinued in 1910.

Extent

.5 cubic feet (1 scrapbook) : Analog

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

Scrapbook of official documentation kept by Herbert Thayer, post master at Rock Creek, Wyoming.

Arrangement

None

Provenance

Donated by the Nebraska State Historical Society, Manuscript Division in 1986. Accessioned under MS579 in their collection.

Separated Materials

Log of registered mail received 1879-1882 and receipts for registered package 1881-1882 were transferred to the Wyoming State Museum collection in 1997.