Lilly Field Post Office and the Changes It Gone Through

The postal service, like all other fields of endeavour, has seen many changes over the past 100 years. Mail service came to Lilyfield, Manitoba to serve the people with the opening of the Post Office in 1896. There has never been a clear explanation as to exactly why the official stamp bore an extra “L”. Nevertheless, mail processed at Lilyfield bore the mark “Lillyfield”. The post office originally operated out of the home of Mr. and Mrs. John W. Phipps on the NW 16 l22E.

The mail was brought out to this post office once a week by courier. The first such courier was Billy O’Neal, who served in that capacity for a short period of time. Thomas Riggall, Sr took over the contract from him and carried the mail to and from Winnipeg faithfully for many years.

The contract to take the mail from Lilyfield to Winnipeg and return with mail from there meant making 15 miles each way under often arduous conditions. In the early days the trip was made with horses pulling a buggy or “democrat” in the summer and a sleigh or cutter in the winter months. In the summer he had to contend with poor roads, especially when it rained. In the winter he often had to cope with blizzards and always the cold weather. These sleighs didn’t have heaters like the vehicles of today. It took a hardy individual to withstand the rigours of the job of hauling mail.

Upon the retirement of Mr Riggall, a Mr. Mouchet took over the mail contract. He held the position for a short time, until Mr. Phipps relinquished the Post Office. Mr. Phipps had served as Postmaster for 31 years when he retired in 1927.

Eliza Mullins took over as Postmaster from Mr. Phipps. She operated the Post Office out of her home on the SW 29 12 2E for approximately six months in 1927. In September, 1927 the local post offices were phased out when Rural Route #2 was established. Morris Lynch, who operated the “Ever Ready Transfer”, secured the contract for mail delivery to individual boxes along the route. These deliveries were made three times per week: Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. His route followed the old PTH #7 during the 1930’s; it has been enlarged considerably since those days. During this period road maintenance in winter was rather haphazard. Mr. Lynch developed a forerunner of today’s snowmobile from a Model “A” Ford in order to keep mail delivery going.

In 1940 Russell Murphy secured the mail contract for the route. He honoured this contract for the next 27 years and finally relinquished it when he retired in 1967.

During the early 1960’s the people of the community joined together and, through persistence, convinced postal authorities to implement daily mail delivery. At approximately the same time the Rural Route expanded to include group boxes. These group boxes were placed at Gordon and at other appropriate locations along the route to serve people who did not live along the road.

In spite of all the changes over the years, RR #2 still remains in service. One change which has taken place is that previously a mail carrier used to contract for the route, now the contractor may hire people to do the actual delivery. The most recent contractors are Al McCarther, Garth Gustardt and Allan Lockhart.

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