OLD  ENVELOPE  LEADS  TO  FORGOTTEN  POST  OFFICE

     In 1933 or 1934 my father, A.V. Arnold, became curious about an old envelope dated May 2, 1878.  The envelope was addressed to Daylight, Todd County, and had at one time contained the homestead papers of Matt Young, a pioneer settler of Todd County, MN.  The land in the homestead now was the farm owned by Mr. Arnold.

    The letter was taken to Mr. O.B. DeLaurier, county historian, who learned that the Daylight Post Office, established in 1876, was located on the Arnold farm 80 rods west and 80 rods south of the present buildings on the farm.  The settlement of Daylight was built by Hartwell Silver who was a captain in the Union Army during the Civil War.  Captain Silver operated a blacksmith shop at Daylight and had a small store in his house.  According to stories he was very set in his beliefs and drove customers away by getting into arguments with them.  He resigned as postmaster in 1878 and moved about a half mile east by a small stream.  Captain Silver made a contract to ship out railroad ties which he apparently was unable to fulfill.  He mortgaged his farm and lost it when the bank in Sauk Centre foreclosed on him.

    I can remember as a small boy playing around the remains of the log buildings and wondering who had lived there.  The building site was on a slight elevation with a small slough below it.  We children would carefully play with the numerous garter snakes that lived in and under the decaying logs.

 

Reference:  Long Prairie Leader, Jan. 13, 1934