Postmarked History: The 1937 Post Office Robbery

Mokena’s first post office opened February 10, 1853 and served our newly formed train depot of a town. With the railroad splitting through town, it made Mokena a prime mail location, with mail coming via the passing trains, to and from Chicago.  The post office was a vital organ in the life of the new town and many took up the role of Postmaster, until 28 year old Margaret M. Maue is takes the position. She served as one of Mokenas' longest running Postmasters or Postmistresses, serving the role for thirty four years.

Margaret Maue, (later Margaret O'Brien), held the post on March 2nd, 1937, when the Post Office was robbed in the dark of night. The Office suffered a significant loss and Matt shares the story of the search to catch the bandits and what was recovered from the theft.  In addition to the story of the theft, Matt paints the picture of what the Post Office meant to the residents and how it helped Mokena grow into a hub along the route to and from Chicago.

Read Matts blog post that this episode is based on HERE.
The History of Mokena: A Journey Through Time - 1831 to 2010

Transcript

Israel: 0:01

Welcome to Mokena's Front Porch. A Mokena History podcast with Mac Galik and me, israel Smith.

Matt: 0:08

This institution is almost as old as the village itself, tracing its founding to February 10th 1853, when our town was less than a year old. Six males a day will have to be handled. In addition to hanging mail pouches on mail cranes twice daily, a team of men went inside maybe four or five of them and be lined for the offices safe in 800 pound colossus In no time flat. Two inspectors showed up in town who sealed off the premises, allowing no one to come or go.

Israel: 0:42

This story we're going to talk about was the 1937 heist of the Mokena Post Office, and, matt, you posted this on March 10th of 2023. Oh, wow, and a really interesting article for one, because I think you really highlight the importance or how the post office kind of grew up in town and how important it was, you know. But one thing I was wondering about, and maybe you can speak to us, what the effect was when the post office moved off of Front Street. Did it affect downtown at all?

Matt: 1:18

That's a good question, Not that I've ever really picked up on. That was a relatively relatively recent occurrence in Mokena's history. I believe the current post office on Wolf Road was built in and opened in at least we'll say opened in 1980, I want to say, but yeah, I don't think it had any kind of negative effect or anything.

Israel: 1:43

And did it have a consistent? You know, were there businesses in that? They were in there consistently after they left?

Matt: 1:51

Yeah, as far as I know, yes, there was After the post office left, where it had been on Front Street, which is where the oh, what is the name? Noz, yeah, noz, noz, where Noz is now on Front Street after the post office left. I believe there was a pool hall in there. Briefly, really, yeah, yeah, from what I hear, it was kind of attracting nefarious characters, as they're probably usually usually do. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And then then, after that, fd printing moved in, which was there for quite a long time. For, let's see, when I was was growing up in the 90s, the early 90s, it was already there and they finally shut down well into the 2000s. When was that? That had to have been around 2015 or 16. Thereabouts, but there could have been other short-lived businesses in there.

Israel: 2:57

But, and then I don't remember anything until you know it'd been a while until Noz was there.

Matt: 3:03

It's empty, right. It did sit empty for quite a long time, yeah, until Noz finally moved in.

Israel: 3:08

Yeah, it was a great little job there. The Noz resale for rescues yeah, they're always good. They have a little bin of toys that the kids you know going with my son. He likes to look around and they always let him pick something free out of there. Oh cool, nice little place.

Matt: 3:21

Yeah it is. Yeah, it's a cool business to have on Front Street, for sure.

Israel: 3:24

Yeah, yeah, so before we get into that story, we are rounding out the beginning of 2024 and it's almost February, and so I was looking through this really cool the timeline of Mokena that Mr Quinn did as well. As you said, you helped him out with organizing this, is that right?

Matt: 3:47

Yeah, there were a few of us that were that. Put that together.

Israel: 3:51

Yeah, yeah. Very cool and if you haven't seen it, we're, I'll post. I'll post a link to this. I think the village has it listed, posted on their website. But really interesting and just kind of bullets, you know, the kind of historical highlights for the village through each year. So I wanted to just point out a couple of those, so from a hundred years ago. So I thought you know, look at both 1923 and 1924, we're still kind of in the new year. So 1923, Herman Schweizer has elected Mokena's first fire chief.

Israel: 4:29

Yeah there he was. And Albert Helmuth moves his shop out of the Cooper and Hoster garage building and leaves the old drugstore building and leases the old drugstore building which some sources say was located on the southeast corner of front and Mokena Street. Yes, yeah, that was the one. And then it also says Albert has expanded his business to include auto top repair and making side curtains for roadsters and open top towing cars, touring cars.

Matt: 5:01

Yes, he certainly did yeah.

Israel: 5:03

And then in 1923, we also have in March a large truckload of illegal beer is intercepted at the corner of Front Street and Wolf Road, which is something we've talked about before in our episodes. That was done by the Will County deputies Walter Fisher and John Frisch, who should be very well known toward listeners.

Matt: 5:22

Yeah, definitely they will be.

Israel: 5:24

During questioning, deputy Fisher saves the life of Deputy Frisch when the truck driver attempts to shoot him and the shipment had come from Gary, indiana. And then we talk about St John's and Reverend William Cris. With the assistance of numerous committees and subcommittees, st John's Congregation completes construction of a new church on its property At what is now a 111, 00 seconds treated a cost of $60,000. And again we did a whole episode on this at the anniversary last year. Really, really interesting With about the booklet that you wrote really goes into depth about the process they went through and and how much money that really was Compared to you know, today's it was a yeah, huge it was yeah it was quite an undertaking.

Israel: 6:19

It is because of this accomplishment, as well as the 60th anniversary of St John's congregation, that the year 1923 is declared the church's Jubilee year. On April 15th, the new church is dedicated, and the 60th anniversary celebration is one of the biggest events to occur in Mokena up to this time. And Then just a couple points for 1924. Mokena State Bank is robbed of over $4,000 and the perpetrators are never apprehended.

Israel: 6:51

That's right and a major moment in our history. Fred and Carrie Yonker purchased the McGovney farm from the estate of Elijah McGovney, who's the youngest son of the first settlers, john and Nancy McGovney. So this is the first. This is where the Yonkers kind of come into the picture. Yeah, that's what happened yeah in town.

Israel: 7:13

So and then Wanted to jump to as I had a little time on my hands, and Jumped to 50 years ago. So look at 1973, and that was a quiet year. But the Citizens Club is formed, the senior Citizens Club is formed, and we talked about the Mokena original jail the Calabas we've Taught referred to it very frequently. Definitely built in 1881 and converted into Dick McGovney's home in 1916 until 1558, is relocated to the lock to Lockport by the Will County Historical Society when you can still see it today and still there yeah and that's pretty cool.

Israel: 7:58

Yeah, in 1917, 1974 will look will. Ocrest elementary school gets an addition at a cost of $642,000. What? What would that been referring to?

Matt: 8:14

Yeah, will Ocrest basically is Part of MES, nowadays Mokena elementary school will Ocrest. How would I explain this? Will Ocrest was the Southern portion of the school because the school nowadays is a huge complex.

Israel: 8:33

And yeah, the elementary school was called will Ocrest back then and the name went out of use and must have been about 1995 or so, yeah, and when they did the connection Right, yeah, so, and actually Dr Cohen gave me a bunch of newspaper articles and one of them was the dedication of the, the connection of those two buildings together so they, but did they do a second floor?

Matt: 9:03

addition is that where they added the second floor to it to for the $642,000 in 1974 there was not a second floor to will Ocrest on which it addition exactly that refers to I'm not sure off the top of my head, because that building, will Ocrest, was actually added on to a few times over the years, ever since it first opened in the 1950s. And then what was later referred to as Mokena elementary school was built just a few yards to the north, in the 70s I believe, and then they were. The two buildings were connected as one in the 90s. Yeah, and then will Ocrest name fell out of use.

Israel: 9:40

Yeah, all right. Yeah, also, in 1974, the Mokena volunteer fire department purchases a rescue vehicle, the post office initiates motorized mail delivery and up to this point residents were not required to take Home delivery, so they're not required to take. And you know what the story is there that I don't actually yeah, I don't know what, what that is.

Matt: 10:06

Yeah interesting.

Israel: 10:07

Well, yeah, maybe if we get to talk to Mr Quinn, he'll yeah, he'll definitely be able to explain what that process was there, yeah, yeah, so interesting, and again, we'll post the link I've. I've tried to go through this so many times. I mean it's so long and there's so much. Every time I read it like something jumps out at you.

Matt: 10:24

Yeah, something new.

Israel: 10:25

So yeah, thank you for helping part. You know, put this together.

Matt: 10:29

It's a great piece of history.

Israel: 10:32

I mean it's, it's a Great record of our Village's history. I mean, if this is all you had to know like we get a really good picture from this.

Matt: 10:43

It's, yeah, it's a really handy. Yeah, it is.

Israel: 10:45

Yeah, I refer to it a lot myself all right, and one more set of years, we go jump to 25 years.

Israel: 10:50

Oh yeah and so we go to 1998 Seems like just a couple days ago. Yeah, Mokena's population is 12,613. The widening of 191st Street from Route 45 to Harlem begins, duplexes and old castle Woods. South subdivision is established. And Then 1999, st John's this is a popular popular topic today. St John's yeah, st John's church hall, which was the original Methodist Episcopal Church built in 1867, is demolished. That's right. Yeah, st John's begins construction of their Christian Community Center, and this is this what sits there now and where we vote.

Israel: 11:38

And yeah exactly have the Boy Scout spaghetti dinners. Oh yeah, a lot of, lot of uses the forest view, subdivision is established and where is forest view?

Matt: 11:49

I was just thinking the same thing. I Somebody will correct me on this if I'm wrong, but I think forest view is the subdivision on the south side of La Porte Road. How would I describe?

Israel: 12:03

this West of Lagrange. Yes, West of the grain. Okay, so behind like CVS.

Matt: 12:12

Yeah, that right. Yeah, I believe that's what that is, but I'm not a hundred percent sure on that. It sounds right.

Israel: 12:17

Yeah, we'll go with that. Yeah unless somebody proves this different.

Matt: 12:21

Yeah, yeah no.

Israel: 12:23

on December 31st, Mokena brings in the new millennium with a town celebration held at the Mokena junior high school, known today at Mokena, known today as Mokena Intermediate School, located on 195th Street. Yeah, yeah it was a big deal. So did you participate in this? I did, yeah. What do you remember about it?

Matt: 12:47

I wrote it's actually that's. That's a good question. Well, it was a huge deal there. That was the where the town's official millennium celebration was, so there are tons of people there. It was this very happening, very alive and aside from the fireworks at midnight and having little pieces of cardboard and stuff fall on us from the fireworks. The biggest thing that sticks out in my memory right off the bat is talking to a local guy you know he's probably been mentioned by us at some point before, but Mokena guy by the name of Bob Baker, who later would found Mokena's newspaper, the Independent News. That wasn't until about 2001 or so. At this point, new Year's Eve 99, he was still working for the Herald News in Julia. I believe that was the Herald News he worked for. But I remember talking with him at the gym at the junior high and him saying that he watched the New Year's Eve on TV in Australia earlier that day and that he was happy because everything was working. As some of us who are old enough to remember will remember, the Y2K.

Israel: 14:03

Sure. So I remember similar thoughts seeing. I think it was Paris, I don't know Paris made it. We're all right. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Matt: 14:11

So yeah, I remember that was a big, big thing that day. Yeah, I always remember him.

Israel: 14:17

But wow, very cool. Yeah, that's a good memory to have there. Anything else that stands out, I mean from that night.

Matt: 14:24

Yeah, another cool thing from that night was that we got to hear a performance of the Mokena March in Two Step, which was a, the march that was written by excuse me, by Mokena Lady by the name of Emma Close in the earlier part of the 20th century. That must have been around, let's say it was around 1910 or thereabouts, without having my files on her in front of me, and she composed this march and got it published into sheet music and everything, and a copy of the original music was given to me by a I believe it was a gentleman from New Lenox who had happened across it kind of right before this, right before New Year's Eve, and I believe it was once again, if I remember correctly, through the efforts of Bob Baker, who I just mentioned, that he was able to get some copies of the sheet music from me and have it played that night. Oh, cool, and that still remains the one and only time in my life I've ever heard it performed.

Israel: 15:28

Wow, yeah, yeah, that's really cool.

Matt: 15:31

That was pretty cool, yeah, nate. Oh, yeah, yeah.

Israel: 15:34

Well, this story that we're going to talk about tonight is a really, really interesting story, like we said, and it gives a lot of detail about the post office and as well as the town and an interesting time you know in our village and a very interesting character you talk about. Margaret Moe. How do you say her last name, maui? Maui, later O'Brien, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, and really interesting. So be sure to listen, for when Matt starts talking about her, do we say the longest running postmaster, that that they call?

Matt: 16:12

it a post. I don't know what that Back then at least they would have called her a postmistress. Yeah, I say that, or would say that sounds right that she was the longest running because she held that office for a very long time.

Israel: 16:28

Yeah, very cool yeah.

Matt: 16:30

So, yeah, she probably still holds that record to this day.

Israel: 16:32

Very neat, so yeah, so let's hear it again. This was posted on Matt's blog on Friday, march 10th of 2023, titled 800 pounds of treasure the 1937 heist of the Mokena's Post Office.

Matt: 16:50

Mokena's story is a long and winding one, stretching back nearly two centuries, containing countless moments of mirth and buoyancy. When we look back, these are the times that first come to mind, and rightfully so, as they are what make our village feel like home. However, a close look upon the record of the years will also review nefarious bits as well. These are things we aren't proud of, but that, nevertheless, any locale as old as ours will have. From the bone crushing riots of the 19th century, detailed elsewhere in these pages, to the infamous robbery of the Mokena State Bank that is still talked about to this day, a hundred years later, we have some high octane events on our collective timeline. One case ranks up with the rest of them. One that is remembered by increasingly few, the 1937 heist at the Mokena Post Office, has all but slipped into the cracks of history. This institution is almost as old as the village itself, tracing its founding to February 10th 1853, when our town was less than a year old. The same day, the honor of calling himself our first postmaster was bestowed upon Warren Knapp Esquire, who, a little over a year before, founded the first business in what would become Mokena, at a time before the Chicago, rock Island and Pacific Railroad was fully completed. A 26 year old man of New York birth, knapp, married into the McGoverni family in 1850, when he took Nancy as his wife, the younger sister of future first mayor Azias McGoverni. Where exactly Warren Knapp's post office stood in the Newborn Village cannot be reconstructed from the historic record, although it's reasonable to think it could have been in his combined general store and residence, a small stone building that stood on the site of today's 11124 Front Street. That Mokena was a railroad town since its birth gave us excellent postal connections to the world. From the outset, it was the job of the Rock Island agent and his helper to bring sacks of mail from the post office to the depot, but a 1921 ruling passed by Uncle Sam changed this. From then on, this would be the domain of a new hire. A blurb under the headline Do you Want a Job? It appeared in the November 2, 1921 edition of Mokena's News Bulletin, looked for bidders for the position. It's stating that applicants had to be at least 16 and that whoever takes the job will be paid monthly, not to mention that six mails a day will have to be handled, in addition to hanging mail pouches on mail cranes twice daily. The final part of the sentence referring to the wooden arms that allowed mail bags to be grabbed via hook from fast-moving trains.

Matt: 19:52

Today we take it for granted that nearly anyone is a text message away. But in the days before this rapid, instantaneous communication, the arrival of a fresh load of mail over the rails was a much anticipated event. Some sardonic pointers passed on by the postmaster of neighboring Tinley Park in 1924 give life to this fact. Notice advice to patrons positively no letters will be delivered until received. If you do not get your letter the day you expect it, have the postmaster. Look through all the boxes and in the cellar. Also, it ought to be there somewhere and he likes to look for it just to please you. If your friends don't write, curse the postmaster. He is to blame. If he tells you there is no mail for you, put on a grieved expression and say there ought to be some. He is probably hiding your mail for the pleasure of having you call for it six or seven times a day and after every freight or hand car, ask him to look again.

Matt: 20:53

From its first days until the lean years of the Great Depression, the Moquina Post Office counted 20 postmasters and postmistresses and was housed in a head-spinning number of different locations in the village. On June 18, 1934, ms Margaret M Maui received her commission as postmistress at a time when the community counted around 350 residents. The 28-year-old local native oversaw an office counting three employees, namely herself, her clerk and one rural mail carrier. At which time her charge was located in a small wing of an old building that stood on the northwest corner of Front and Division Streets. Less than three years into her stewardship, an event transpired that would stay with Margaret Maui for the rest of her days.

Matt: 21:44

In the pitch black of Tuesday morning, march 2, 1937, front Street stood quiet and still not a soul stirred. At about four o'clock, a truck piloted by unknown yags cut through the pre-dawn darkness and ambled into town. The conveyance was backed up to the post office and the nameless miscreants went on to cut a hole in the front door's glass, whereupon one snaked his arm in and opened the catchlock. A team of men went inside maybe four or five of them and be lined for the offices safe in 800-pound colossus. Using a lot of elbow grease and oomph, they lugged it from the back of the post office and threw the lobby, leaving gouges on the floor, then outside and into the truck. Before they disappeared, one of the crooks tore open a package addressed to Ben Tews but, upon rifling through its contents, was not impressed with them and threw the box aside. The whole thing was just as easy as that. The thieves made their hasty escape, leaving tired tread marks on the ground in front of the post office. The entire time they were busy, they never had to worry about being interrupted in their deed, as neighbors would later report.

Matt: 22:59

Having heard a truck idling in those early hours but thought nothing of it Flashing forward to 5.30 that morning, 70-year-old Front Street resident and local mail messenger Julius Grafendtik turned up at the post office to get started on the day's work. To his horror, he found the office's door ajar and the safe missing. Using a chain of frenzied communication, grafendtik, Mokena's sole veteran of the Spanish-American War, alerted postmistress Maui, who in turn notified federal postal officials in Chicago. In no time flat, two inspectors showed up in town who sealed off the premises, allowing no one to come or go. The whole post office was dusted for fingerprints and photos were extensively taken both inside and out of the small wing of the building that held the office. In the meantime, Mokena lawman George Bennett posted himself in the doorway and handed out the mail to any villager who came for it. Ms Maui tallied up her losses. The biggest were the $1300 in government savings bonds, worth around $27,000 in today's money, and the $400 in stamps that disappeared. Along with them were cashed money orders representing $82, then $198 in cash, $60 in checks and two books of blank money orders. To add insult to injury, all of the post office's record books were in the $50 safe and none of it was insured.

Matt: 24:33

The next chapter in the saga played out six days after the heist. In the morning of Wednesday, march 10, a traveling attorney spotted what was described as a pile of junk along the old Monee Road four miles southwest of Chicago Heights. Whatever it was, it was battered beyond repair and upon closer inspection it turned out to be a safe, or at least what was left of one. Nearby, a set of railroad tools was found cast aside, consisting of a pick, two sledge hammers and others. It was deduced that these had been used to smash it open. Rightfully finding all this fishy, the lawyer notified the police. Sure enough, with the help of postal authorities, direct safe was traced back to Moquina. Interestingly, most of the contents of the safe from the post office were found. Along with it, only the $400 in stamps and $198 in cash were missing. Most Mistress Maui was able to get the rest of the documents back to town, but the historic record is unclear as to what she did with the broken safe. Curiously, that same morning yet another wrecked safe, complete with railroad tools, was found abandoned two miles east of Frankfurt, determined to belong to a grocery store in the county seat. It was surmised that this was the handiwork of the same gang that attacked the Moquina post office.

Matt: 26:00

Life kept going in Moquina the Second World War came and went, the baby boom started and the village enjoyed a period of prosperity. In June 1952, there was yet another robbery of the post office, in which a large number of money orgurs were looted. In any case, the whole event wasn't as high-profile as the case 15 years earlier and the whole thing has been forgotten by history, much as the 1937 heist has. Postmistress Margaret Maui, one of the most intrepid young women in our community's history, took Frances O'Brien as her husband in 1941 and held her office in Moquina until 1968. Her 34 years running our post office is, as far as anyone can tell, a village record that still stands to this day. Perhaps the crowning moment in Margaret O'Brien's career was the dedication of the new post office in 1960, a building which still stands at 11134 Front Street. The Moquina Post Office is a community institution that goes back almost to the day our village was born, as the great robbery of 1937 proves. Its history isn't all sorting letters and stamping cards.

Israel: 27:13

So it ended up being about $600 in losses in the end. So I don't know what that works out to in today's money, but not insignificant, but not what it started with being at $1,700 between savings bonds and stamps. You have a really good picture here from the blog post of it shows the post office in 1925. But really great highlights. You even have it circled where the post office sat there. So just kind of a small, not a real big building at all there?

Matt: 27:50

Not at all. It was just a little tiny wing of that building which held the Moquina Hardware Company.

Israel: 27:57

So it was attached to the hardware store here.

Matt: 28:00

Yeah, it was just attached onto the side of the building, onto the western side.

Israel: 28:05

And that has to have been one of the coolest looking buildings that was on Front Street. I mean that is such a neat with the second floor, second story balcony kind of going on there.

Matt: 28:17

Yeah, it was a cool building and unfortunately, that building burnt down in its entirety in 1974. And that's what happened to that. But that was.

Israel: 28:26

Yeah, and we've talked, I think, some about that here and there. But I know you have another article on that building as well. That I do. I'm sure we'll be soon to cover. So March 2nd 1937 was the date of the robbery and they're never found, we don't? We never hear anything more after that.

Matt: 28:47

Yeah, as far as anything that's turned up on the historical record. No one was ever prosecuted for this and there were no suspects, at least not that were publicly named, Aside from that other smashed open safe that was found outside Frankfurt where it was kind of deduced that this was maybe the same group of people, but yeah, no good suspects ever really came up for that.

Israel: 29:11

So our first post office was opened in February 10th 1853.

Matt: 29:17

So not too much going on in town back at that time, Not really Just before the railroad comes through, yeah, it was just just after the railroad and there were only just a tiny handful of buildings in Moquina at that time. But it was decided to open a post office here and it has been in just a million different places all over town. It was kind of one of those things where the postmaster could ultimately decide where he or she wanted to put the post office, so it was up and down Front Street.

Israel: 29:48

Do you know where the decision comes? To decide that you know Moquina needed a post office?

Matt: 29:55

I don't know, I don't know who ultimately made that decision. So Warren Knapp, the first postmaster his commission was signed by. I believe that was President Pierce at the time. Franklin Pierce, I believe, was president in 1853. So ultimately he probably I'm sure he didn't think about oh Mokena, illinois, here's his postmaster. He probably was just signing papers that were coming across his desk. But I know that his Warren Knapp's brother-in-law, ziaz Magovny, was very prominent in getting the effort started to get the post office because I believe he had to collect a certain amount of signatures or show that there were a certain amount of people who would be using the post office. So he was, he was pretty prominent in that and collecting the signatures and convincing the right people and all that kind of stuff.

Israel: 30:51

And that had to be significant to the growth of the town, the early village, then to know that you could get everything taken care of there, business-wise, getting things shipped to you, sent to you by mail, for a business that was running and selling goods and besides the train. And pretty much everything was brought by train, then Is that right?

Matt: 31:15

More or less. Yeah, Even from any kind of distance. Yeah, would have come over to the Rock Island, Very interesting. Yeah, absolutely.

Israel: 31:23

It's something we really do take for granted, especially when you know most people have Amazon stopping at their house you know two, three times a day.

Matt: 31:31

Yeah, right, right.

Israel: 31:33

You know we don't think about the process. Went through 100 years ago or 100 plus years ago. To you know, send a letter or get a package to you, yeah, absolutely Great. Well, thanks for sharing the story, man this is another great one.

Matt: 31:45

You're welcome and we'll see you next time.

Israel: 31:47

Matt and I both really hope that you're enjoying the podcast and that you enjoyed this episode. We would really appreciate it if you would share our podcast with your friends or family, as well as leave us a review on Spotify or Apple Music or wherever you hear our podcast. We'd love to hear your show ideas or your questions so you can send us an email at podcast, at Mokenasfrontporch. com, or on Facebook through Messenger, or through our website, which is Mokenasfrontporch. com. You can send us a message there. We have a link in the show notes to Matt's blog post that this episode was based on. We have some great things coming up and we're really excited to share with you. So thanks for listening and we'll see you next time on Mokinasfront Porch.