Although Omena’s Post Office was established in 1859, it has moved around a lot. Originally it was in the Dougherty manse, where mail was simply left in a pile on the parlor floor.
Apparently its distribution was left to anyone who came in. But in 1859 Aaron Page was appointed postmaster. For the next 22 years the post office was in his boarding house above the village.
Post office boxes constructed by Sidney Keys for the mail. They now are part of the display in Tamarack Gallery, formerly Anderson’s Store.
Andrew Anderson and Sidney Keyes took turns doing postmaster duties next, Keyes taking over first in 1881. He constructed a more elaborate individual box system for the mail while it was at his house or store. The PO boxes were moved during the winter of 1887 over the ice to Anderson’s store when Andrew Anderson became postmaster.
Frank Craker had the job of transferring the post office boxes. His daughter Ruth remembers that disastrous day. “After starting out with this peculiar load over the ice, the horses became frightened and ran away. The reins were strung through the stamp window, and by the time the horses could be brought under control, the mail was scattered over the ice, the stamps scattered to the winds, and the letter compartments much the worse of wear!”
There is no mention of how the boxes were returned to Sidney Keyes home in 1894 when Keyes again became postmaster. Perhaps they found a safer way. Perhaps they simple left them at the store. Andrew Anderson became postmaster again four years later.
Courtesy: A History of Leelanau Township by The Leelanau Township Historical Writers Group
Sidney Keyes residence was on a low rise of land about a mile south of Omena, far left side this 1898 map. Imagine him with a horse out of control on the way to the new Post Office in the village near the center of this old map. – Photo credit: Bentley Historical Museum
