"A large number of clerks (?) was found necessary and it became evident that the office was managed with great recklessness. Money was lost through the mail when sent to the nearest postoffice on the route, and money sent to persons in the city from adjacent offices never came to hand. Postage stamps were borrowed from neighboring offices and return payment obtained with great difficulty, and in some cases there was a refusal to pay--because as he (Davenport) said, he had already paid the amount borrowed. He was at last removed, and on settling up the affairs of the office, there was found to be a shortage to the amount of fifteen hundred dollars. His bondsmen went to work and finally succeeded in effecting a credit on a part of the amount and had the satisfaction of paying about one thousand dollars, which had been stolen from the government by this arch swindler. After minor swindling operations he absconded, thus relieving the city of the most bare-faced falsifier and swindler that has infested the city since the time of Shepard & Co., in the early day. "George M. Howlett, the present incumbent, was appointed his successor and makes an efficient officer. In the spring of 1865 Cedar Rapids was designated as a money order office, commencing operations as such on the 3d of July following. This enlarges the responsibility of the office and great care is necessary to keep all things right--though the blanks furnished make the work simple in honest hands." * * * * * L. Daniels was another of the early postmasters. He, also, was a merchant, and so was Homer Bishop, his successor in office. It was not until J. G. Davenport became postmaster that the postoffice got into politics. In fact it was no plum worth having till about the time of the Civil war. A number of prominent men have since that time held the postoffice--such as Captain W. W. Smith, Charles Weare, Alex. Charles, Geo. A. Lincoln, W. R. Boyd, and W. G. Haskell, the present incumbent. A. C. Taylor relates how, when he came to Cedar Rapids, he carried on his jewelry store in the postoffice building, his store being located on the alley, in the rear of where the Masonic Temple now stands. The postoffice at Cedar Rapids soon outgrew the first government building, erected in the '90s, and the second was completed in 1909 at a cost of $250,000. If a person asked for his mail in the olden days more than once a month he was considered too important, and the postmaster would gently remind him that he had no legal right to bother a man more than once a month, at least, about such a small matter as a letter. The postoffice during the past sixty-three years has grown to enormous proportions, till it now takes the entire time of a score of people to expedite the handling of the mails. CHAPTER XI _The Physicians of the County_