The White Water Post Office

 

Can you imagine living 142 years ago, starting your own home

out in the middle of the prairie, with no phone, radio, or tv,

and the nearest mail being 10 miles away by horse or wagon?

That was what life was like for the people who first settled

on our land.  They didn't hear the outside news very often!

 

 

So I'm sure they were so excited when a new mail route was

made, with the first post office in their area being built only

a mile away!  The post office was named White Water, after

the creek that runs just to the east of it.  All that remains now

of the post office is two big oak trees out in the middle of the

field, and, as I discovered this year, some daylilies growing in the ditch!

 

The post office was named White Water, as you can see in

the northwest corner of the 1885 map below, but after awhile it

was renamed to Ovo or Ova, I've seen it written both ways.

 

 

They received their mail once or twice a week.

I'm sure they were always so excited for any letters

from back home in the east.  It is likely that the

man who built our stone house found his bride

through the mail that came to this post office,

since she came from Ohio to marry him at the age

of 19, and he was 49! 

 

So it is likely that the

daylilies that are blooming so well in the ditch

this year, have been faithfully blooming

there each summer for over 100 years.

I wonder what the lady was like who planted them

so long ago?

 

~I dug a few up and planted them by our house~

 

I am joining Home and Garden Thursday