JERRY PERSON -- A Look Back

Just imagine opening a letter box and meeting a rather large black

widow spider staring back at you. This was just one of the dangers that

faced our early mail carriers.

We previously looked at one of those early mail carriers, Ole Hanson,

and this week we will look at another of those brave men who lugged those

heavy leather bags over their shoulders in the rural parts of Huntington

Beach. We will look at the trials and rewards of letter carrier Jim

Gerry.

In 1912, James O. Gerry said goodbye to the snows of Colorado and

boarded the train for California, and Huntington Beach in particular.

Arriving here, he got a job with the old Pacific Oil Cloth and

Linoleum Co., and after a time Gerry went to work for the Holly Sugar

Refinery, near Garfield Avenue and Main Street.

Just three months after Hanson began his career for the U.S. Post

Office, Gerry applied too.

On July 1, 1921, Gerry was accepted and became a carrier. For 20

years, Gerry delivered the mail to Downtown residents -- rain or shine.

In 1941, Gerry transferred to the outlying areas of what later would

incorporate the little communities of Springdale, Boulevard Gardens,

Ocean View, Liberty Park and Wintersburg into Huntington Beach.

Gerry’s route also included a section of Talbert Avenue that is now

part of Fountain Valley. This may seem like a huge area to cover twice a

day, but in those days there were only a handful of farms out in each of

these little settlements.

Letters would be addressed to so-and-so, Rural Route number, Box

such-and-such. There were some 700 of those boxes, and Gerry handled more

than half of them by 1947.

Gerry worked for six different postmasters during his postal career in

Huntington Beach. Before he retired, Gerry served under Postmasters T.C.

DeLapp, Elson Conrad, Charles Conrad, Walter Clapp, Ed Huston and Martin

Murray.

In August 1954, after 33 years of service to Huntington Beach, Gerry

retired, with his last letter going to his friend Johnny James out on

Atlanta Avenue.

There were hazards that Gerry went through in those 33 years, such as

the time his car slipped off the road and landed in a nearby lima bean

field.

And there was the time he was delivering mail out on Warner Avenue

during a nasty rain and wind storm. While driving the mail in his car, a

telephone pole blew down only inches from him. Maybe not a hazard but

definitely a nuisance was the collecting of postage still due on some

letters, and there were times that Gerry would return to the post office

with 200 to 300 pennies.

Gerry and his wife, Margaret, were active members of Four Square

Church, and they lived at 17201 Elm St. in Huntington Beach. When Gerry

retired, he was replaced by Lou Mitchell, who we read about in an earlier

column.

U.S. Postmaster General Arthur Summerfield sent Gerry an official

commendation for his “meritorious duties in the course of his honorable

career.” Except for a few days off to nurse a broken thumb, Gerry never

missed a day of work with the post office.

Maybe someday the early mail carriers will be honored by our present

postal service, a fitting tribute to those hearty pioneers who so long

ago carried our mail. * JERRY PERSON is a local historian and longtime

Huntington Beach resident. If you have ideas for future columns, write

him at P.O. Box 7182, Huntington Beach, CA 92615.