Itasca Post Office 100 Years Old

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Itasca Post Office 100 Years Old
First Mail Dropped Off By Horse

All loyal Itascans attention please! Your post office will be 100 years old come August, 1950. That's an historical fact taken from the records of the post office department. According to the records the first post office was established August 26, 1850 and was known as Sagone. It was not renamed Itasca until October 26, 1873. But this is ahead of our story.

Abel G CHESSMAN, a Revolutionary War veteran and great grandfather of the present generation of Chessman's in Itasca settled in Addison township in 1812. He was a builder and grain hayer. According to the records, he got title to the land here northeast of Itasca from President William Henry Harrison in 1841 and a permanent grant from Morrison's successor, John Tyler In 1843. His son Abraham Chessman, became first postmaster of Itasca and later the first mayor, inherited this acreage today known as the Godfrey farm, just west of Salt Creek on Lawrence Ave. In 1864, when he received his appointment as first postmaster from Abraham Lincoln he used his house as the office, in those early days mail was carried on horse back from Elmhurst north county Itasca to Arlington Heights. A few years later, according to Henry Luebring a former mayor and lifetime resident here, the office was removed to a building which occupied the site of the present bank building. Feminine fancy is responsible for changing the name of the post office then known as Sagone to Itasca. Legend has it that when the wife of Dr. A Smith one of the early founders and most distinguished of pioneer citizens here visited in Minnesota near Lake Itasca, she became so enamored of that place that when she returned she insisted that the kindly MD use his prestige to ditch "Sagone" in favor of "Itasca" That the good doctor couldn't or didn't refuse is a matter of record. The Milwaukee railroad was laid in 1871 and in 1895 the community was incorporated as a village. Today the post office enjoys a second class rating and has receipts in excess of $9,000 annually.
[The Roselle Register Friday July 28, 1950. Submitted by Janice Rice]