Scottsville’s Post Office and Postmasters

The Masonic Building was built in 1914 and hosted the town’s post office on the bottom floor from 1915 until 1964 when the post office moved to its next location on West Main Street. Sam Gault served as Scottsville’s postmaster from 1893 to 1939. He was succeeded by Ashby Mayo in 1939, who retired as postmaster in 1958.

Postmaster Gault was known as Mr. Scottsville for he was always at the center of town activity. Every summer week night, townspeople would stroll to Scottsville’s C&O Depot to watch the No. 11 train arrive from Richmond. Postmaster Gault would collect the town’s mail from the train and take it back to the post office for sorting that evening as townspeople waited. Gault was not required to open the mail those nights, but he didn’t want people to have to wait until the next morning for their mail.

Gault also was Chief Marshall of town parades, an active member of Masonic Lodge No. 45, friend of prominent politicians (Senator Thomas Martin, President Theodore Roosevelt), and owner of a sassafras oil mill on Driver’s Hill just to the east of Scottsville. Gault was born in 1853 in Pennsylvania and passed away in 1939 in Scottsville; he is buried at Scottsville Cemetery.

Ashby Mayo, standing at the right of Postmaster Gault in this photo enlarge-
ment above, was born in Scottsville on July 1, 1894, to Eplem Edgar Mayo (1853-1934) and Virginia (Kidd) Mayo (1861-1924). He attended Scottsville schools, and he first entered the postal service in Scottsville on September 1, 1912, when Samuel R. Gault was postmaster and the Scottsville post office was located at 358 Valley Street.

During WW I, Mayo served overseas in the U.S. Army as a Corporal, Co. A, 323 Infantry and was discharged on May 30, 1919. After the war, Mayo served for nine months as a railway postal clerk on the Richmond division and then returned to work as a clerk at the Scottsville Post Office. He married Pauline Parr on 22 July 1925.

In his early years as a postal clerk at this post office on Scottsville’s Main Street, Mayo could carry all of the out-going mail in one bag to the train depot. At that time, each of the three rural routes covered about 126 miles.

Randolph Moulton, who grew up in Scottsville, remembers that Jim Brown met the trains at the Scottsville Depot in the late 1930’s and transported the mail to the Main Street Post Office. Mr. Odell White was sometimes a worker on the train mail car. In the 1940’s, Rural Free Delivery (RFD) carriers included Pen Thomas, Reeve Nicholas, and John Henry Phillips. By the 1950’s, each of the three rural routes covered 168 miles, and the local mail box patrons in Scottsville grew from 25 to more than 200.

Mayo was appointed Scottsville’s Acting Postmaster on 15 November 1939 and its Postmaster on 12 July 1940. Mayo served as Postmaster of Scottsville Post Office until his retirement on 30 June 1958; he was succeeded as Postmaster by Edward G. Gildersleeve. Below photo shows Mayo at right handing the cashbook at Scottsville Post Office to Gildersleeve on 30 June 1958.

Mayo passed away on October 10, 1967, in Scottsville. His wife Pauline, born November 16, 1902, passed away in Scottsville on December 3, 1978; she is buried next to her husband, Ashby, at Scottsville Cemetery.

Edward Gildersleeve was a native of Pocohantas, VA, and moved to Charlottesville where he graduated from Lane High School in 1938. He attended the University of Virginia and served with the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II. He and his wife, the former Odelle Lewter of Holland, moved to Springfield Farm near Scottsville in 1951. Gildersleeve was sworn in as acting Scottsvon postmaster on 30 June 1958 and as its Postmaster on 21 September 1959. Gildersleeve retired from the position of Scottsville Postmaster in February 1979.

In the 2005 photo above, Barbara Brochu had been greeting customers to Scottsville Post Office and helping them with their postal needs for 19 years. Barbara started her postal career in Charlottesville as a ‘casual employee’, without benefits before taking the Postal Service exam and coming to work in the Scottsville P.O. Barbara believes in “treating people the way I would want to be treated”, an attitude which has earned her the community’s affection and respect. On 11 May 2011, Barbara was appointed Officer-In-Charge of Scottsville Post Office, and she served in that role until 09 July 2012. Barbara continued working at Scottsville P.O., and she and her husband, Joe Brochu, reside at Holly Hill in Esmont, Virginia.

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Other Scottsville Post Office locations from 1884-1917

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Postmasters in Scotts Landing aka Scottsville
Albemarle County, VA, 1814-2015:

This post office was originally established as Scotts Ferry Post Office on April 29, 1814. Its name was changed to Scottsville Post Office on October 4, 1850.

Name	Title	Date Appointed
Samuel Dyer	Postmaster	04/29/1814
Benjamin M. Perkins*	Postmaster	01/01/1815
James L. Jefferson	Postmaster	08/01/1817
Benjamin M. Perkins	Postmaster	02/01/1819
Edwin H. Jordan	Postmaster	06/25/1841
Peter C. Hogg	Postmaster	11/12/1844
Peter C. Hoge	Postmaster	10/04/1850
William A. Hart	Postmaster	07/15/1851
John L. Brady	Postmaster	04/14/1853
William C. Page	Postmaster	08/09/1865>
George W. Dillard	Postmaster	12/13/1870
Miletus B. Harris	Postmaster	06/25/1872
Henry G. Harris	Postmaster	01/07/1880
George W. Dillard	Postmaster	02/01/1882
Henry G. Harris	Postmaster	05/22/1885
Mifflin B. Gault	Postmaster	06/20/1889
James F. Gault	Postmaster	02/23/1892
Samuel R. Gault	Postmaster	03/30/1893
Ashby W. Mayo	Acting Postmaster	11/15/39
Ashby W. Mayo	Postmaster	7/12/40
Edward G. Gildersleeve	Acting Postmaster	6/30/58
Edward G. Gildersleeve	Postmaster	9/21/59
Calvin V. Moyer	Officer-In-Charge	2/23/79
David L. Lea, Jr.	Postmaster	8/11/79
Tracy D. Murry	Officer-In-Charge	12/31/02
Gerald A. Payne	Officer-In-Charge	3/26/03
Tracy D. Murry	Postmaster	5/17/03
Ralph B. Seay	Officer-In-Charge	4/26/05
Ralph B. Seay	Postmaster	8/20/05
Michael L. Altman	Officer-Iin-Charge	6/4/10
Barbara Brochu	Officer-In-Charge	5/11/11
Nancy G. Barker	Officer-In-Charge	7/9/12
Michael L. Altman	Postmaster	1/12/13
Milton E. Nappier	Postmaster	7/11/15

*Benjamin M. Perkins submitted his first financial return on January 1, 1815;
his appointment date is unavailable.
Source: United States Postal Service (http://webpmt.usps.gov/pmt003.cfm)

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More on rural mail carriers:

Rural Mail Carriers in Scottsville ~ 1915

Copyright © 2018 by Scottsville Museum

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