History of the Caro Postoffice, Caro, Tuscola County, Michigan

Copyright © 1998 by Bonnie Petee. This copy contributed for use in 
the USGenWeb Archives.  

 

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THE  CARO  POSTOFFICE

Taken from The History of Tuscola County, Biographical Sketches and Illustrations, H. R. Page 
Co., Chicago, 1883, Pages 106 - 107.  

About the first mail carrier to bring mail into Centerville was Mr. William E. Sherman, who used 
to bring it from Vassar and afterward from Watrousville and distribute it from his counter in 
the old Centerville House.  The mail then amounted to perhaps a hat full, provided always the 
hat was not too large.  About 1861 a rival to Centerville appeared upon the bank of the Cass, 
about a mile distant in Almer Township, called Richland, and a postoffice called Burnside was 
established there, and E. P. Randall was postmaster.  The mail route then extended from East 
Saginaw to Sand Beach.  At that time, when the mail carrier passed through, the important fact 
was circulated throughout the neighborhood, and in the mean time a boy on horseback was sent to 
Burnside for the mail, which he brought in his pockets to the store of DeWitt C. Bush, that 
being by common consent the general rendezvous.  The boy piled the mail on the counter, and the 
sacred pile was as safe as though it had been locked within government vaults.  Each one who 
came to the store assorted the mail to suit himself, and made his or her own selections.  


In 1866 it was thought that the neighborhood should have a postoffice of its own, and during 
that year one was established at Centerville, and named Tuscola Center.

The first postmaster was one Zenas Cook, a Universalist minister.  He built a shanty near where 
Mr. Horner's drug store is now situated, and gathered in cigar boxes from the neighborhood stores 
for the equipment of his office.  Mr. Cook continued in office about a year and was succeeded in 
September, 1867, by Farley Craw, the present incumbent.  . Mr. Craw removed the office to his 
store.  The salary at this time was $96 a year, and the mail was brought three times a week from 
East Saginaw.  Mr. Craw was a man of great enterprise and made a spirited and successful effort 
to build up the office.  He so increased the business that during his first year he earned $400, 
but the salary remained
the same as before.

October 1, 1869, Mr. Craw succeeded in securing a daily mail, and the salary of the postmaster 
was increased to $400.  In  June, 1869, the name of the office was changed to Caro, and the 
following July the office was made a domestic money order office, which was a great convenience 
as there were no banks in the village at that time.  The amount issued in money orders prior to 
the establishment of a bank has reached $60,000 in a single year.  October 1, 1872, the salary 
of the postmaster was increased to $490 per annum, and after that time, by a ruling of the 
postoffice department, any further increase in salary must arise from commission on the 
increased sale of stamps.  The salary remained the same until September, 1874, when the system 
of fixing salaries so changed that the salary depended upon the amount of stamps sold.  
September 25, 1879, Caro was included in the list of postoffices known as Canadian money order 
offices.  January 1, 1880, the office was made third-class.  The salary in 1883 is $1,500 per 
annum.  There are three daily mails, and the money order business amounted to about $19,000 in 
1882.  The office is kept in a building erected for that purpose by Mr. Craw in 1878.  Mr. Craw 
is a veteran in the postal service, and has always been very popular with the public.  


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