The ORGANIZATIONS
Indiana Rural Letter Carriers Association
The Indiana Rural Letter Carriers Association is an organization of rural mail carriers from all over the state who work together to improve working conditions and benefits for all Indiana carriers. Rural mail delivery started in Indiana on 15 Oct 1896, with three experimental routes out of Hope and Hartsville, in Hawcreek Township of Bartholomew County. Once those routes out of Hope were declared successful, many other mail routes were started throughout the state. By 1902, the carriers realized they needed an organization to connect these rural carriers. One of the main concerns was improving the salaries of those carriers and providing funding for equipment purchases and maintenance. The original organizers for what would become the Indiana Rural Letter Carriers Association were:
*R. Hamilton from Fort Wayne representing Koscuisko and Whitley Counties
*B. H. Wright from Greentown representing Tipton and Carroll Counties
*Paul A. Meyer from Evansville representing Posey, Gibson, and Warrick Counties
*H. Blacklidge from Anderson representing Boone and Tipton Counties
*Emery McCullough representing any county in southeast part of Indiana
*H. Frube Skiwanva representing Pulaski County
*E. Shadinger from Peru representing Cash and Miami Counties
A meeting was called for 18 Jan 1902, in Muncie, Indiana. After a discussion of the benefits of a state organization, a motion was made to form the Indiana Rural letter Carriers' Association. The first officers for that organization were elected as follows:
*Samuel F. Scott of Muncie for President
*R. Hamilton of Fort Wayne for Vice President
*L. Fetters of Bluffton for Secretary
*H. Bushing of Portland for Treasurer
The President then appointed a committee with Milton L. Collens and Benjamin Harrold of Muncie, and William B. Oris Orbatre of Daleville to draft a constitution and by-laws and report at the next meeting.
A collection was taken of $5.25 that was turned over to the secretary for postage and periodicals.
The next meeting was set for 1 Feb 1902 at Muncie again.
Second Meeting
The second meeting was held in Muncie on 1 Feb 1902. The committee to draft the constitution and by-laws was ready and each section was read, discussed, and adopted. Then a motion was made to allow the secretary to appoint an assistant and to pay the state secretary and treasurer $1.00 per annum each as salary. Preparations were made for the first State Convention to be held 18 Oct 1902, in Indianapolis.
First State Convention
The first State Convention of the Indiana Rural Letter Carriers' Association met in the Marion County Courthouse in Indianapolis, on Saturday, 18 Oct 1902. Rev. Moore opened with a prayer and words of welcome to Indianapolis in which he spoke of home ties being more closely linked in the rural districts by the carrier system. He said more papers are now taken and more letters written than before, and members are bound closer making home ties "sweeter and dearer."
Edward J. Gaynor of Muncie was introduced as a member of the Executive Board of the National Letter Carriers' Association which was in the process of being formed. He spoke of Indiana's success with their organization, and since Indiana is foremost in Rural Carriers' Association, why not be a promoter of the National Organization? Later Indiana would become the 5th state to form a state chapter of the National Organization on 15 Jan 1904. A committee was appointed to talk with other state organizations about perfecting the National Organization.
After an outstanding meeting, the next state meeting was set for 17 Oct 1903 in Indianapolis.
As of this year (2019) the Indiana Rural Letter Carriers' Association is now 117 years old.
Both the Indiana and the National Rural Letter Carriers' Associations have the same motto, "Service with a Smile."
National Rural Letter Carriers' Association
Limited free mail delivery was begun in small towns as early as 1863, but it would be 1896 before rural mail delivery would be tried. That year in October, William Wilson, the Postmaster General of the United States began an experiment that many people thought was ridiculous. President Grover Cleveland said rural mail delivery was "crazed." But congress agreed to allow $40,000 to experiment with some rural routes mainly to please the farmers and their organization known as The Grange. On 1 Oct 1896, three routes were started in Wilson's home state of West Virginia. Two weeks later three routes were begun in Hawcreek Township of Bartholomew County, Indiana, out of the towns of Hope and Hartsville. This crazed idea proved successful as Wilson continued to add new routes until there were 84 routes in 29 states by the following year. And by 1903, just seven years later, there were 15,119 routes covering 322,618 miles throughout the United States.
Some states, like Indiana had organized into a state group that could help carriers with problems like small salaries and the need for funding for equipment or its maintenance. By 1902, when Indiana was forming its state organization, a member of an Executive committee for what would become the National organization asked to speak at the first Indiana State Convention of Rural Letter Carriers, asking them to help promote a National group that could become their bargaining agent. So by 1903, the National Rural Letter Carriers' Association was formed. The emblem they chose for their group held a picture of a mail hack that had been designed and built for many carriers at the Neligh Carriage Shop in Hope, the site of the longest continuous rural mail delivery in Indiana.
Dues for the National Association were 50 cents per year until 1919, when it finally went up to $1.00 per year. For those dues, the group worked to make things better for all mail carriers. By 1906, carriers got six National Holidays off each year, but that did not include Christmas until 1923. In 1941, and during WWII, the group arranged for exemptions for tires and gasoline rationing for mail carriers.
In 1962, President John F. Kennedy signed executive order 10988 which established employee-management cooperation in federal services. To qualify, unions had to show they did not discriminate based on race. There had been a stipulation that only white delegates could hold seats at the National Convention, but that was quietly lifted from Article 3 of the NRLCA Constitution without passing a resolution or bylaw.
Separate gender pay was abolished by Attorney General Robert Kennedy. And the state organizations selected the NRLCA as their only bargaining agent.
The first National Convention was held in Chicago, Illinois, and by the second day, the Constitution and By-laws were adopted on 12 Sept 1903. It would be 1908 before women would first attend the National Convention. And there was no convention in 1918 because of WWI. Besides that one year, the NRLCA has continued to work hard to make Rural Letter Carriers the best federal business in the US.
The Ladies' Auxiliary
The spouses of Rural Letter Carriers felt it was their place to help continuously in improving the working conditions of rural carriers at the national, state, and county levels. On 12 Aug 1915, the Ladies' Auxiliary of the National Rural Letter Carriers' Association was begun at an annual convention at Detroit, Michigan. On 4 July 1926, the Indiana Rural Letter Carriers' Association Ladies' Auxiliary was organized at Indianapolis, with 72 charter members.
According to their constitution, the purpose of the Ladies' Auxiliary of the Indiana Rural Letter Carriers' Association is to unite fraternally to help create a greater interest in rural mail service and association work, and to cooperate with IRLCA to seek beneficial legislation.
The main purpose of the Auxiliary is to aid the Association in every way such as safety on the job, writing letters for legislation and aiding mankind through the National President's annual project and the State projects like scholarships. Some examples of the humanitarian projects selected by National Presidents have included Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's Disease), American Heart Association, and Multiple Sclerosis. One of the safety projects focused on America's Country Crossroads. Members worked with local and state governments as well as property owners to improve adverse conditions at country crossroads.
The Indiana Rural Letter Carriers' Association Ladies' Auxiliary is said to have the most unusual gavel of all the chapters. This gavel was created by Mr. Sidener of Terre Haute, who was a wood collector and the next door neighbor of Mrs. C. G. Smith, the Secretary-Treasurer of the Indiana Ladies' Auxiliary in 1933. From Mr. Sidener's unique collection of specimens of wood, he created a gavel that was a very light brown in color and very light weight. It was made from South American Mahogany. But the history of that wood is even more unique. That history was written in the constitution and by-laws of the Auxiliary in 1933 as follows:
After World War I, our leaders were given the task of trying to use the ships, guns, airplanes, and other equipment from the war for service of peace. We really don't know what became of many of these things, but planes were used for air-mail delivery.
One night a heavy storm came up and one of these air-mail planes was caught and driven down to earth a few miles outside of Chicago, landing nose down in a haystack. Among other damages, the propellers were broken. When news got out about the plane, everybody rushed to see it. Mr. Sidener was one of those looking at the wreckage. He was able to procure a piece of a propeller, not as a souvenir, but as another specimen of wood.
When Mrs. Smith asked him to create a gavel for the Auxiliary, she told him about the Auxiliary, and showed him the emblem of the organization which bears an airplane as the emblem of "Progressiveness". So Mr. Sidener remembered his specimen of wood from the propeller of the air-mail plane and from that wood the gavel was made.
Indiana is justly proud of her gavel and its history. We do not know how much good the air-plane did in the service of its country, but we do know to what heights it soared. We cannot say how good our Auxiliary has done or how much it will do, but our aim, like the air-plane is for "Service" in our country.
The auxiliary is made up of many hard-working ladies, who stand behind their motto "Cooperation Means Success."
The Rural Letter Carriers Junior Organization
The Junior Organization for children was formed at the 34th Indiana Rural Letter Carriers' Association Convention at Ellis Home on 8 July 1936. This first group was sponsored by Mrs. Walter Mannering of Frankton. The aim of the organization is to promote fellowship between the boys and girls of all rural carriers. While adults are holding meetings during Conventions and gatherings, the boys and girls gather to play games, learn about rural mail carriers' jobs, and enjoy the company of other children from all over the state.
Each year there are contests that include posters, drawings, paintings, and essays that all are encouraged to take part in. Each year there is a prince and princess chosen for one of the contests from those children ages 6-9, and a King and Queen chosen from the older children. As children prepare to graduate from high school, there are applications for scholarships that many try to obtain.
Keeping the kids interested in the entire function and business of the rural carriers might encourage some of them to eventually become a rural carriers, also. This participation teaches children to respect rural carriers and their jobs.
The Junior Organization helps with fundraising each year through the National Auxiliary President's humanitarian project. They also help with the safety project each year. That must be where their motto comes from, "We Help to Serve."
