Alexander V. Sill, Chemung NY>St. Charles ILL
St. Charles (Illinois) Review, Aug. 1, 1879
Forty Two Years of the St. Charles Post Office
(This is a very long article. I will post here only the information about Mr. Sill):
Following the inauguration of Mr. Lincoln, petitions were circulated for Alexander V. Sill and A.S. Van Vorst. Mr. Sill held the winning cards and received the appointment. According to his commission, signed by M. Blair, Postmaster General, he was appointed to the position on the 19th of March, 1861, but the commission was not signed until April 18th, following. The office was continued in the same building occupied by Haydn for a number of months. Robert N. Sill and S.W. Durant acting as deputies.
Eugene A. Brownell appointed postmaster in the place of A.V. Sill, resigned, July 1, 1879, after the latter had held the office consecutively for eighteen years and nearly three months.
Alexander V. Sill was born in Old Tioga (now Chemung) county, N.Y. He attended school in Ithica, and about 1825 removed to Buffalo, and from thence, about 1835, to St. Joseph Co., Mich., from whence, after a residence of a few years, He returned to the east, settling in Schenectady. He also resided for a short time in Albany. In 1842 he returned to the west and settled in St. Charles, where his family has since resided.
At the risk of overstepping the bounds of courtesy we cannot resist the temptation to related an incident of Mr. Sill's official career: At a certain period an attempt was made to procure his removal, and in order to this, charges were preferred against him and forwarded to the Postmaster General. A copy was made and returned to Mr. Sill with the request that they be disproved or satisfactorily explained. The charges were something as follows: Keeping the office loosely; allowing people to handle letters; his is an Infidel, Spiritualist, etc. He kept the paper a number of days, uncertain what course to pursue, but finally indorsed underneath - "The above all true." The document reached the hands of President Lincoln, who was so pleased with the simplicity and nonchalance of the endorsement that he ordered the matter dropped at once.
SWD (S.W. Durant)
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I am not related to nor researching these families and have no further information. This newspaper article posted as a courtesy.