NEWTON- Last
Friday at 2:30 a. m. another era in mail delivery in Sussex County
came to an end as Mr. and Mrs. Frank L. Howell, of 7 Penn avenue,
Lake Lenape, turned over three sacks if first class mail to Postmaster
Stanford B. Tidaback at the Newton Post Office. It was the last
mail to be shipped into Sussex County by train and marked the
termination of the delivery contract held by Mrs. Howell for the
past 3 years.
Last January,
the Post Office Department terminated contracts with the Lackawanna
Railroad for delivery of mail on the Sussex Branch and replaced
the service by truck delivery. Since then the only mail received
in the county by rail has come in on the train that passes through
Roseville Station, Byram Township, on the main line of the Lackawanna
about 2 a.m. There, sacks containing first class mail destined
for Newton and Andover Borough were thrown from the moving train
and picked up and delivered by Mr. and Mrs. Howell.
All
By Truck Now
Continuing
its policy of substituting truck for rail service, the Post Office
Department terminated the Roseville service as of last Friday
morning. In the future this mail will come into Sussex County
by truck, also.
Actually,
the contract for picking up the mail sacks at Roseville and carting
them in Andover Borough and Newton was held by Mrs. Howell. Her
husband has assisted her since their marriage 21 years ago.
Mrs. Howell's
father, Ludlow Cornine, who lived in Andover Borough, held the
contract for the route for 12 years prior to his death in 1926.
There were two years remaining on his four year contract when
he died, and Mrs. Howell completed them. She was then awarded
the contract in her own name in 1928 and has held it since then.
Covered
200,000 Miles
During the
33 years of faithful mail delivery service, Mrs. Howell traveled
over 200,000 miles, or the equivalent of 20 trips to California
and back. She met the mail train in the early morning hour six
days a week including holidays. During the 33 year period she
wore out four different automobiles.
In keeping
with the tradition of the Post Office Department, Mr. and Mrs.
Howell were not deterred in the performance of their duty by snow,
ice, rain, sleet or dark of night, and on several occasions had
to leave their auto on snow-clogged roads and walk a half or three
quarters of a mile to the Roseville station to meet the train
and pick up the mail bags.
Will
Get More Sleep
Although
the Howells regret the termination of the contract, they are looking
forward to nights of uninterrupted sleep. In order to keep the
schedule during the long years, they had to crawl out of bed about
1:30 a.m. every day except Sunday. To make sure they would not
oversleep, they set three alarm clocks each night, each one to
ring a few minutes after the other.
"It's
so easy to reach out and turn off the alarm and then go back to
sleep in the middle of the night," Mrs. Howell explained.
She said they overslept a "few times", but never enough
to miss the train.
Now Mrs.
Howell declared she expects to wake up at 1:30 "by force
of habit" until she gets used to the idea of sleeping through
the night. It has been their habit in the past to return to bed
about 3:a.m. and then arise for the day at 6 a.m.
Mr. Howell
is employed at Newton Garage, 62 Water street , Newton, and has
been a member of the Andover Township Committee since 1950.