185 - New Jersey Postal History Society

HISTORY OF THE HAMMONTON POST OFFICE ~ Doug D’Avino
In 1917, Lewis Mathis was appointed to succeed John Saxton as rural carrier and, a short
time later, a third rural route was created when John Welser, who had been serving the mail out
of the Winslow post office, was transferred to the Hammonton office.
James L. O'Donnell (Figure 9), became the acting postmaster March 1, 1923, receiving
his regular appointment in December, 1924. The post office continued in the Black Building
until it moved to Vine Street in 1927.
Fig. 8: A 7-bar 1912 Hammonton postmark and a 1915 postmark.
Fig. 9: Louis J. Langham, James L. O'Donnell, George Eckhardt and Raymond L. Buck served as Hammonton
postmasters.
Former mayor and Freeholder George Eckhardt (Figure 9), succeeded O'Donnell and
served as acting postmaster from January, 1931 to June, 1932 when Raymond L. Buck (Figure
9), publisher of The Hammonton News, was appointed. He served for a year and seven months
when he was succeeded by Mrs. Irma M. Adams (shown in Figure 10 and Figure 11), who
served as acting postmaster until April, 1935 when she was regularly appointed.
After passing the Civil Service examination required by a law passed by Congress in
1938, which places postmasters of the Second, Third and Fourth offices, indefinitely in the
service, Mrs. Adams was permanently appointed on May 25, 1939.
Although there had been talk of a new Federal Post Office building in Hammonton for
many years “nothing ever came of it’ until Congressman Elmer H. Wene, who was elected in
1936, went to work and carried through the necessary details to have Hammonton approved for a
Federal Building.
NJPH 28
Vol. 40/No. 1
Feb 2012 Whole No. 185