Sunny Bank's Post Office

During the earliest settlement in the area letters were undoubtedly carried by fishermen and merchants who came during the summer months. Mail service on a regular basis began in 1804 with the establishment of the first Post Office on the entire peninsula, in Douglastown. The service was somewhat irregular. Mail was carried by boat as long as the bay was navigable, and two or three deliveries were made during winter on snowshoes. Letters cost three shillings and no parcels were handled.

The Gaspe Basin Post Office opened Jan. 6, 1837, and in 1839, weekly service was established. Benjamin Patterson of Wakeham carried the mail to and from Port Daniel, which was already linked to the main postal system. Around 1850, deliveries were increased to twice per week to the newly established Perce office. Upon completion of the railway to New Carlisle in 1895, on the south shore of the Gaspe Peninsula, mail began arriving three times a week. Shortly after the arrival of the first train in Gaspe in 1911, it became a daily service.

The "Gaspe Bay South" Post Office opened in the home of J. H. Eden on Jan. 1, 1885. Its name was only changed to Wakeham in 1926. For another 15 years the people of Sunny Bank were forced to make regular trips by boat to pick up their the mail, though the distance was somewhat less than earlier. Then on February 14, 1898 the Municipality of York submitted an application for its own post office, to accommodate the fifty resident families. These observations were noted on the application, "The locality herein referred to is on the opposite side of the Bay from the neighboring offices at Gaspe Basin and Gaspe Bay South. Though there is no village, there is a Blueberry Canning Factory and about fifty dwelling houses in the vicinity. The extension of the mail route from Gaspe Basin to Gaspe Bay South around the head of the bay to York is the most favoured mode of service as it would be a convenience to people living further from the existing offices and in the interior."

The first request was refused because a post office already existed in Ontario by the name "York". I was unable to find where the new name came from, but a post office with semi-weekly service, opened on Aug. 1, 1899 under the name "Sunny Bank." Initially it was in the home of John E. Mullin, about one half mile east of the Mill Brook in the area later named Brassett.

The "Sunny Bank" stamp on a postcard, 1908

Mr. Mullin served as post-master for a very short time receiving a salary of $2.50 per month. The Sunny Bank Post Office then moved to the home of George Patterson, in which I presently reside. George Patterson officially became Post-master on Nov. 1, 1900 and continued in that position until his death in 1920. His daughter, Mrs. Emily Falle, took over and likewise operated the post office until 1938. During her eighteen years of devoted service her salary never exceeded $17.00 per month, and the contract obliged her to sort and distribute mail seven days a week, year around. Her brother, Joseph C. Patterson was the mail carrier, transporting the mail by horse to and from the Gaspe Post Office. Unlike today, the service was as regular as clockwork, and neither rain, snow or sleet prevented the mail from being delivered. Sorting was done as soon as the carrier arrived, and picking up the mail became a social event, with gossip the main attraction...

Aug. 1, 1899 - June 4, 1900        Mr. John E. Mullin

Nov. 1, 1900 - Jan. 4, 1920        Mr. George F. Patterson

May 13, 1920 - Jan. 8, 1938      Mrs. Emily (Falle) Patterson...

For complete text of the book:
"Sunny Bank, Our Ancestral Home"
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