Moline Post Office
The Moline post office was established in 1844, with David B. Sears as the first post-master. The office was located in the ” Brick Store ” (a building owned by Mr. Sears, between Fifteenth and Sixteenth Streets on Second Avenue.) Following him Dr. Wells had the office in a little room about twelve by sixteen feet on the alley corner of Seventeenth Street between First and Second Avenues. George W. Bell succeeded Wells and moved the office south , to the corner where he had a tailor shop. Joseph J. Jackman was the next postmaster, and he again moved the office going east about half a block on Second Avenue. In 1856 Absolom B. Williams was appointed postmaster and he was succeeded in July, 1857, by Judge John M. Gould, who moved the office west on Second Avenue to the lot adjoining the present postoffice building and in the rear of the present site of the Peoples Trust and Savings Bank. Judge Gould had a bank here and the post office was placed in the rear of the bank room. Judge Gould was succeeded April 17, 1861, by William Kerns, who served until June, 1865, when George D. Gould, a brother of Judge Gould, took the office and held it until August 11, 1869, when Mr. Kerns again took it. He was succeeded by Henry E. Wells, who gave place April 1, 1877, to Luke E. Hemenway. Dan W. Gould took possession February 1, 1886, being the third of the Gould brothers to hold that place. John M. Holt succeeded him April 1, 1890, to be followed July 4, 1894, by M. J. McEniry, who held the office until October 1, 1897, when he gave way to George H. McKinley, who was followed March 1, 1906, by W. F. Eastman, the present post-master. The office remained in the banking room of Judge Gould until October, 1873, when it was removed to the old library building on the corner of Fifteenth and Library Streets, where it remained until July, 1885, when it was temporarily placed in the building on the south side of Third Avenue (two doors from Seventeenth Street) until December, 1885, when it was moved to the present site on Third Avenue and Sixteenth Street. A site has been purchased for a new building at the corner of Third Avenue and Eighteenth Streets, and there is an appropriation of $96,000 for the construction of a new building, which it is expected will be occupied in 1909. The first available report of the receipts of the postoffice is one published by Mr. Hemenway of the receipts in the calendar year of 1879. This shows the total receipts of the office to be $15,346.50. There were 3,158 money orders issued for $30,667.12, and 2,355 paid for $36,014.33. There were 640 .registered letters sent and 1,269 received. The total number of pieces of mail dispatched was 861,389. Business had not come to that point that the office was opened Sunday. The reports of the auditor of the postoffice department show a rapid growth. In 1891 the number of stamps sold amounted to $24,433.28, and this was increased the next year more than $5,000. Then followed five years of depression, and it was not until the year ending June 30, 1897, that there was an increase; the figures then being $31,465.16. Since then there has been a steady increase, averaging something more than eleven per cent annually. .On account of the financial depression the receipts for the last year were but little more than in the previous one, having been $79,306.19. An increase to $90,000 is confidently expected the current fiscal year. At the same time the number of pieces of mail dispatched has so increased that in one week of 1907 when they were counted there were 148,192 pieces, which would be at the rate of nearly as many in six weeks as were dispatched in the entire year of 1879. The total number of money orders sold in the last year-1907-was 27,341, of a value of $258,755.43 and there were 10,789 paid, with a value of $95,667.32. The total number of registers sent and received was 15,463. This is the roster of the office August 24, 1908: Postmaster, W. F. Eastman; assistant postmaster, John A. Godehn; clerks, in order of appointment, A. C. Dorman, John Mc-Eniry, C. V. Gould, F. L. Rogerson, H. E. Olson, N. L. Anderson, W. L. Olson, Orlando Metz, A. L. Hallquist, C. W. Heimbeck, P. E. Colson, Lilla M. Fulsinger, with D.W.Warnock, Ethel L. McCanon and Elmer Heck as substitutes; carriers, in order of appointment,W. G. Baker, F. C. Viereich, J. M. Hartzell, F. N. Pierce, G. E. Carlson, J. W. Dewrose, C. F. Grantz, Neander Johnson, O. J. Wilson, F. H. Wilson, C. W. Becker, A. O. Anderson, John Wind, A. E. Lundeen, A. E. Burlingame, Victor Youngberg, with C. O. Hanson, J. H. Becker, Frank Spriet and Paul Young as substitutes, and Thomas Stewart as rural carrier. There are six stations with W. H. Christi-son, Charles Brunstrom, C. C. Coyne, M. W. Battles, Jr., John L. Jennisch and August Sundine in charge. Henry Robinson is janitor and special delivery messenger. The first carriers went on duty July 1, 1887, Messrs. Baker and Hanson being two of the original four. Mr. Baker has been on duty continuously since, but Mr. Hanson resigned near the end of his twentieth year to go into business.
Source: Historic Rock Island County, pub. Kramer & Company, Rock Island, Illinois, 1908