The Sutton/Alpine Post Office

As mining slowed and finally closed in the Eska area, many people were moving down off the mountain and closer to the railroad track. Mike O’Neill, owner of the Alpine Inn, decided it was time to add a gas station and post office to this tiny community.  Postal service began in a small wood frame building across from the Alpine Inn in April of 1948.  Mike O’Neill was the first postmaster of Sutton.

 

Grace Boulter replaced Mike as the Sutton postmaster in 1951.   It started as part time employment for which she received 56 cents a day.  Grace remembers this old building: “The place was so small around Christmas time; I would have to take a couple bags of parcel post and lock them in my car at night, because there was not enough room to leave it in the post office.”  In those days, mail was delivered by train; it was thrown from a railroad car as the train passed the office on its way to Jonesville Mine.

   

When the Eska Post Office finally closed in 1966, Rivera Hiber came from there and replaced Grace as postmaster of Sutton. When Rivera retired in 1975, she was replaced by Bobby Johnson. Bobby was postmaster when the post office moved to its present location at Mile 62 on the Glenn Highway in 1976. Bobby left the postal service in 1979 and was replaced by Catherine Wansor. Catherine continued to serve as postmaster until her retirement in 1984.   Merle Johnson  replaced Catherine until his retirement in 2005.  The current postmaster is Marie  _______