Story of Miller's Basin and Lockville Post Office</b>

History - Newark

Story of Miller's Basin and Lockville Post Office
Written by Bob Hoeltzel
Arcadia/Newark Historian, 2003

According to GAZETTEER OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK (1860) there were at that time three 'p.v.' (post villages) in the Town of Arcadia.

Newark was then known as Miller's Basin with the appointment of Col. James P. Bartle as post master. Col. Bartle was also the first merchant. His store (later referred to as the Pioneer Block) was on the northeast corner of Vienna St. (North Main St.) and Bartle St. (East Union St.) The building, torn down in 1912 to build the Newark State Bank/First National Bank/Noah's Ark, was surely the first post office, as it gave the postmaster a small income, at the same time keeping the store keeper and his helpers busy during slack periods, but took business away from his competitors. (The Blackmars ran groceries across the street and across the canal).

Miller's Basin post office then was approved by the United States Postal Service in 1823 with the appointment of Col. Bartle.

Fairville was appointed a post office in 1832, with Samuel N. Nelson as post master.

It was many years later, however that the story of Lockville's post office came to be.

What would we do today without ball point pens? It might be of interest to know that we who were in the military service never heard of ball-point pens until we came back in the early 40's. In grade school we used wooden stocks into which metal pins fitted. These soon became too dull to use any longer and needed to be replaced often.

Then followed 'fountain' pens. The idea was to move a metal pump on the side of a plastic pen so ink could be pumped into a rubber bladder inside. Apparently this worked for the majority of people until the ball-point era, but I couldn't get the knack and wound up with an empty pen and ink over my hands and everything beneath.

Now for the story of how Lockville/east Newark got its post office:

The time was about 1855 - quill pens were still in use. Have you ever seen your great grandmother's autograph book? If so you have seen what beautiful writing, birds and flowers can be made with a quill pen. Keep in mind that there was no radio, no TV and very few periodicals available. What better to do for a young person than to practice their handwriting. (No Palmer method then.)

Lockville ('East Newark') wanted its own post office. Home delivery wouldn't come until the 1890- 1900 era. It was actually three quarters of a mile from 'downtown' Lockville to downtown Newark, but if their ruse was to work, it was necessary to fib a bit - they made it one-half mile, and were sure to say that there was a steep hill (the foothill of a drumlin on which the DDSO is now.)

Obtaining the services of some resident of Lockville adept at the use of a quill pen, the figure one (1) and the figure two (2) were written in BOLD strokes while the slant (/) between the two figures was drawn as finely as a cob web. At a glance, a reader thought that those rubes in upstate Newark had to walk 12 miles, encountering a steep hill on their way in order to get their mail. Lockville had its Post Office!

Story II:

Here the time frame is in the 1960's - Charles Underhill was the Library Director. At the time, large bound copies of the old Arcadian Weekly Gazettes, co-edited by F.D. & W. C. Burgess, were still being stored in the Newark Library. (They have since been taken to Lyons and are being kept in the Wayne County Historian's Office on the second floor of the Wayne County Clerk's office on Pearl Street.)

It was a Saturday night and I was reading the newspapers and magazines (which I was too cheap to subscribe to) when Mr. Underhill......... (who was interested in Newark/Lockville history, as he was a direct descendant of Rodrick Price, prime developer of Lockville. Price owned the mill and mill pond, a brick kiln, etc.) showed me a clipping from an old Gazette.

Did you ever wonder why East Newark contains more red brick houses, two churches, the original Baptist Church, now a two-story residence, and the original Arcadia Reformed Church on Vienna St., the one room village school (now, with a second story in wood frame added is a residence. The original Arcadia Reformed Church is now a multi-family residence.)

Lockville was incorporated as a village (Arcadia) long before 1852, when Newark, Ninham, and Lockville were incorporated. It was then that Union Street was given its name to commemorate the event.

(Vienna was the original name for Phelps, Miller's Basin had a Vienna Street, Lockville had a Vienna Street and Palmyra has both a Vienna St. and Vienna Rd.)

Mr. Price gave bricks for the building of a college. This building, when the Baptists ran out of money, was sold to the Lutherans for a college. When the Lutherans ran out of funds, the building was sold to the State of New York for the Custodial Asylum, which was the 'A' building of what is now the DDSO, razed much later. (We can't blame Urban Renewal for all the demise of our stately and historic buildings.)

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