Person:Paul Hipple (1)

Paris Beacon News, December 28, 1960 Paul Hipple Ends Career Of Postal Service The new year will hold more than normal significance for Paul Hipple, 315 Alexander street. For the first year in the past 40, he won't be making the daily rounds of a postman for the Paris Post Office. Mr. Hipple, city carrier since 1920 on city route six, officially retires this month after delivering cards and catalogues, letters and packages to well over a thousand men, women and children along his route. Together with his military service, Mr. Hipple will have completed more than 40 years in government service. There have been many changes in the postal service since Mr. Hipple was appointed a regular carrier to start his association with the Post Office. Not the least have been five separate changes in his route. When he made his final rounds, only two residential blocks and two business blocks remained out of the original 88 blocks he started to walk nearly 40 years ago. But the volume of mail, and number of families, has increased. Upon retirement he was serving 1,250 persons in 525 homes along the route. For those "customers," the volume of mail has increased by 400 percent over the amount delivered during his early years along the route. As the volume went up, some sacrifice had to be made in the frequency of delivery. Forty years ago, residential areas were carried twice daily, Mr. Hipple recalls, and the business district received four daily deliveries. In addition, carriers spent several hours Sundays and holidays sorting mail, and manning the route windows at the post office for any resident who wished to come to the post office building to pick up their mail. Parcel post had just been launched by the Post Office Department when Mr. Hipple joined the force of mailmen. And all the details of service had not been worked out, at least at the local level. When he started, he and several other mailmen were assigned to take turns delivering parcels aboard a three-wheeled motorcycle equipped with a box trunk, during the late afternoons and early evenings after the regular mail routes had been completed. The arrangement continued until a requisition for flashlights to read house numbers was forwarded to the district post office. This brought an inquiry "Why flashlights?" and shortly a directive to put on additional men to make parcel post deliveries, and stop using regular mailmen overtime. Forty years of mail delivery carries with it a wide range of experiences and observations of human nature. Mr. Hipple has probably run the range of such incidents, from pulling youngsters out of open man holes to making small deliveries for elderly persons along the route. These "small deliveries" terminated for one woman, however, when she requested the postman to bring along a five-pound bag of sugar from the store. One of Mr. Hipple's fondest recollections is of "Jiggs," a nondescript but loyal white canine that reversed the usual animosity between mailman and dog. A family moved into Oak street early in Mr. Hipple's postal career, together with "Jiggs," their dog. "I made it a practice of making friends with all dogs along the route," the postman noted, "But this one really stuck. He would follow me around the entire route each day. Started by meeting me at his house, then started to pick me up on the start of the route at the comer of the square. People could always tell when I was coming by watching for Jiggs, he would be about two houses in front of me most of the time." Jiggs became so faithful that he even came to the Hipple home on holidays and days off. "He'd scratch to come in, I'd pat him a minute, then he'd turn and head back for home. "For five years he didn't miss a day on the route or visit at home." Then companionship ended one night when Jiggs was hit by a vehicle and crawled to the steps of his home to die. During his tenure Mr. Hipple served under seven post masters, starting with Thomas Moyer, and continuing through Paul Shutt, Frank Beals, Lloyd Lamb, O Rice Jones, Grady O'Hair and currently Ray Foley. The route has been taken over by Emil Kerrick while Mr. Hipple enjoys his final vacation leave time. No definite plans are on hand for the future, except to enjoy the reflections of his association with postal subscribers along the route. Summing up 40 years, the retiring postman noted, "People on my route were always wonderful, and they've given me the satisfaction of looking back on a job well done." Paris newspaper clipping, undated: Retired Paris mail carrier Paul Revere Hipple, 79, formerly of 315 Alexander Street, died at the Paris Hospital at 4 p.m. today. He had been a resident at Shady Rest Manor nursing home. Mr. Hipple, a World War I army veteran and past commander of the Paris American Legion post, was a member of the First United Methodist Church. Funeral services will be at 10:30 am. Tuesday at Sutton and Son Funeral Home, with the Rev. Arthur Runyon officiating. Burial will be at Edgar Cemetery, with military rites by Paris American Legion Post 211, and friends may call at the funeral home from 3 to 5 and 7 to 9 p.m. Monday. Mr. Hipple was born March 13, 1897, in Paris, the son of Tobias and Martha Jane Morehouse Hipple. In 1927 he married Joyce Gallagher, who died in 1967. Surviving are a son, Paul, of Matteson, Ill.; a daughter, Mrs. Donald (Jane) Johnson of Des Moines, la.; and eight grandchildren. More About Paul Revere Hipple: Burial: 13 April 1976, Paris, Edgar County, IL, Edgar Cemetery Children: None with Vera Perkins, Two with Joyce Gallagher Military sendee: U.S. Army, WWI Retirement: 1960, After 40 years as a postal worker

WWI Draft Registration Card: Paul Revere Hipple age 21 address: 118 Cherry St. Paris, IL dob Mar 13, 1897 at Paris, IL, USA father's birth place: PA occupation: Pipe Line Co. Closes Relative: T H Hipple at 118 Cherry St., Paris, IL Height: Tall eyes: brown hair: red signed: May 31, 1916

1.   Martha Ogle.
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2} Jeanette Findley.
3.   Uncle Paul was one of the sweetest people I've known. He was my favorite uncle.