Stratford’s Legendary Postmaster
By David Wright
Stratford Historian
Stratford’s Legendary Postmaster
I. J. Booth, Esq. has been reformed out of the Stratford Post Office, and David Brooks, Esq. the former Loco Foco incumbent, re-instated. (Hartford Daily Courant, February 9, 1843).
The preceding brief paragraph from the Hartford Daily Courant must be one of the most understated newspaper paragraphs of all time. In none of the many Stratford histories is any mention made of any interruption in Mr. Brook’s service as Stratford’s Postmaster.
On December 13, 1803, David Brooks was appointed Stratford’s third postmaster. He remained as postmaster until 1857. He also served as Town Clerk from 1827 until 1835.
A quick check of the Official Register of the United States indisputably confirms that David Brooks was replaced by I. J. Booth as postmaster from October 1841 through February 1843.
Postmaster appointments came from Washington D.C. Vice President John Tyler, a Whig, succeeded President Harrison upon Harrison’s death in April 1841. Tyler appointed Charles A. Wickliffe of Kentucky as Postmaster General on September 13, 1841.
The Loco Foco movement supported Andrew Jackson and Van Buren (Democrat and Tyler predecessor), and were for free trade, greater circulation of specie, legal protections for labor unions and against paper money, financial speculation, and state banks. The Loco Focos were affiliated with the Democratic Party. Apparently, David Brooks subscribed to the Loco Foco movement, which likely ran afoul of his Whig Washington superior, Mr. Wickliffe.
Why I. J. Booth’s time in office was so brief is unknown. According to the 1843 Hartford Daily Courant article, Mr. Booth was “reformed out” as postmaster. It’s possible Mr. Booth was not particularly effective in his new postmaster position. Furthermore, the Loco Foco movement was passing into history by 1843. It’s possible Mr. Wickliffe was able to overlook David Brooks’ past political affiliations to restore order to the Stratford Post Office.
Lippincott’s Illustrated Magazine (July 1879, Volume XXIV, page 32) wrote of David Brooks: Is there anywhere now in the land such a post-office as he kept in a little store, where the sunniest and pleasantest corner was provided with cushioned seats for the comfort of the venerable men who “most did congregate” to meet the arriving postbag? This generation knows nothing of the pleasurable excitement of having a mail come in. There are nimble fingers and miraculous methods now-a-days, and papers and letters are whisked into boxes which show one at-a-glance what is in store. No such convenient and undignified proceedings were possible when Mr. Brooks was in power. From the moment his trembling old hands grasped the bag and slowly inserted the key until a litter of letters and papers from East and West and North and South was spread on the counter before him, he gradually swelled with importance and solemnity. His was no careless guardianship: marvelous precautions would he take lest the letters should get into wrong hands when they left his own; in fact, from the fierceness of his look and attitude, one might have supposed that he regarded the claimant of a letter as an intruder on his own rights. Gathering the packets into his hand and expanding his lungs to their fullest, he would begin (often interrupting himself by truculent observations on bad ink and bad writing) to read off the names, peering at each superscription through his heavy-bowed spectacles, holding the missive first at arm’s length, then directly under his nose. The happy recipient on hearing his name called would shout “Here!” when the old postmaster, after indignantly surveying the aspirant from head to foot, evidently longing to pronounce him an impostor, would make a reluctant surrender.
