I've downloaded a picture of the Radio post office which was once located on Irvine Flats near Polson, Montana. The Radio post office no longer exists and is listed as a Montana historical post office.
My dad, George Halverson, gave me a a picture of the Radio post office to scan which was taken by my great-grandmother Rose in the 1940's. I finally was successful in posting the picture on this blog. The original picture was quite big, about a 5x7, however, due to technology today it was re-sized by the computer - hooray!
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| The Radio post office located on Irvine Flats near Polson, Montana. The picture was taken by my great-grandmother, Rose Halverson. My grandmother, Lilly, said that the lady in the picture is Mrs. Nelson, the post master at the time. |
The lady in front of the Radio Post Office building is Mrs. Nelson, the Postmaster. The Nelson family lived in the back of the post office building.
Before there was a Radio Post Office I believe the area was named Seines, after a man with a last name of Seines.
The Nelson kid"s names were August, Lilly, and Evelyn They all had the bluest eyes and also quite fair skin.
I have not heard much about their (the Nelson's) father.
August, as an adult, was accused of stealing money out of the some of the mail at the post office. He served some time in Federal prison for this crime.
Lilly thinks that perhaps her brother Charlie and sister Anna may have had some money stolen as they would send money home from money earned from their jobs after they left the homestead.
Charlie sent money home quite often.
A neighbor, Anton Bjork, would carry mail from Polson to Hot Springs after the Radio Post Office was closed.
Anton Bjork lived in a house near the post office with his mother. His mother smoked a pipe. Sometimes she would throw the pipe under a dishcloth in order to hide it. Lilly and her sisters would go over there and listen to the radio. Mrs. Bjork would always fix coffee.
Anna Kasseroler, Lilly's mother, loved Mrs. Bjork; they were the best of friends. Anna would speak in German and Mrs. Bjork would speak Norwegian, but somehow they knew what each other was saying!
Anna Kasseroler, my fraternal great-grandmother, (Grandma Lilly's mother) was an industrious homesteader. Perhaps because of the fruit busness which they left in Bozen, Austria, (now Balzano, Italy) she would can fruit every year. The family would store the fruit in the cellar. Sometimes, they would see Mrs. Bjork taking a jar of fruit from the cellar, however, it did not bother them.
There were not very many houses around the post office
The weeds around the post office may look like knapweed, however, it was not. They did not have knapweed on Irvine Flats at the time my relatives lived on Irvine Flats.
Grandma Lilly thinks that the posters on the front of the walls in the picture are signs for an election. I was wondering if they were "wanted posters" but she didn't thinks so. Patty, my aunt, did not think they were "wanted posters" as she thought that era had already passed.
