Arabella Porter

First Woman Postmaster In U.S. Served Haigler, Neb., 1882 to 1888

Haigler, Neb. takes a bow in the current issue of the Postmaster's Gazette, official publication of the National Association of Postmasters of the United States.

Haigler claims the distinction of having the first woman postmaster ever appointed in the Unites States.

According to the Gazette, a copy of which has been received by John H. Hopkins, Mrs. Arabella Gould Porter on October 5, 1882, was appointed the second postmaster of Haigler. She with eldest son, Samuel Gould Porter, as assistant, served until August 24, 1888.

Jake Haigler, for whom the town was named, was the first postmaster there. The town is in Dundy County on the Colorado line.

Mrs. Porter, born in Michigan, went to Plattsmouth as a young girls, was a student at the Brownell Hall in Omaha. In 1861, she married James R. Porter, who in 1868 became the first democratic candidate for Governor of Nebraska.

In 1882, the couple filed on a homestead, which later was organized as the town of Haigler. Mrs. Porter died in 1920. Her daughter, Mrs. Dorothy M. Porter, is postmaster now. The assistant postmaster is Belle L. MacGregor, a granddaughter of the first postmaster.

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The above story was originally published several years ago in The Postmaster's Gazette, official publication, and was reprinted in the Omaha World Herald a short time thereafter at which time I clipped and saved it for my newspaper history concerning Haigler, part of which appears in this issue. Miss D. Maud Porter, after her long and faithful service to the Haigler community as their postmaster, retired the first of June of this year and Mrs. Belle MacGregor, her niece , who was serving as assistant postmaster at the time of her retirement, took over.

--The Benkelman Post & News Chronicle, Sept. 16, 1949