Post Office

De Leon Post Masters

F.T. Bonneparte Aug 29,1881

John M. Lambert September 29, 1881

William Carnes (appointed April 15, 1889 Confirmed August 15,1889)

Richard B. Kee (appointed December 29, 1890)

Edward B. Walker (appointed July 10,1893)

C.G. Webb (appointed December 9,1897 but declined the appointment)

Alice Farmer (appointed March 4, 1898, reappointed January 27, 1904)

Clarence R. Redden (appointed April 2,1908)

S.R. Haynes (appointed May 20, 1913)

Clarence R. Redden (appointed April 25, 1922, reappointed April 28, 1926, April 28, 1930, retired December 31, 1934)

Rilious L. Scott (appointed effective January 1, 1935)

SidneyTate Counts (appointed April 22, 1940)

Reese Upshaw

C.L. Mohon



*Until Civil Service was instituted, Post Master appointments would often be made by political affiliation.  Such was the case with C.R. Redden, who was replaced as Post Master when Democrat Woodrow Wilson became president.  He was later reappointed when the Republican William Howard Taft was elected.

The building on the right is probably the De Leon Post Office around 1900.  The location is across the street to the north of Franks Home Appliances (Smiths) on Gonzales.  The uncertainty lies in the inability to see exactly how the buildings  to the left of the Post Office are divided.  A Sanborn map of 1900 shows three buildings between the Post Office and Texas Avenue.  The brick building on the corner housed Redden Drug.  Behind Redden’s to the east was a second building and then a building housing the telephone company and the Free Press.  The Post Office was in a small structure adjacent to the alley.  By 1908, the Post Office had moved to a building on East Reynosa immediately behind what was then the First National Bank.  It later moved to a building on the southeast corner of Houston and Reynosa and then to the Harmon Building (directly across from the City Hall) where it remained until December 31, 1950.  It was temporarily housed across the street in the building then immediately north of the city hall before moving into the new Masonic Lodge (current library location) in February 1951 when the new lodge was completed.  That served as the Post Office until the present building was constructed.  The snow photo insert shows the buildings in the 1920s.  The trees were still there.  You can better judge whether you are looking at the Post Office or the Free Press  after viewing the photo below.

The Post Office employees about 1912 when the office was located on the south side of East Reynosa.  From L-R:  Unknown; Unknown; S.T. Stover; Bun Chambers. C.R. Redden Post Master; and Earl Bibby.

De Leon’s RFD (Rural Free Delivery) mail carriers.  The photo was taken in front of the Gonzales Street Post Office.

  The RFD carriers were Rt. 1 Ira Harvey; Route 2 A.P. Taylor, Route 3 Will Weaver; and Route 4 J.F. “Tad” Carter.

   The photo and identifications were provided by Mary Alice Crittenden.

Longtime De Leon Mayor F.T. Daniell making his RFD run.

From the founding of De Leon in 1881 until 1949 when passenger service was discontinued by the railroad, De Leon’s mail arrived by train.  When passenger service was discontinued, the postal employees had to take their personal vehicles to Dublin each day to pick up the mail until the Post Office Department could get trucks running between cities.  Pictured above is the highway postal truck as it arrived for the first time in De Leon on December 16, 1950.  The Post Office is the building on the left.  The Bearcat Band supplied the music for the afternoon which also included the grand opening of the newly remodeled F&M Bank and an appearance by Santa Claus.