Beatrice Glenn Swaim ^223,224

  General Notes:

SHE BLAZES AN INTERESTING TRAIL CARRYING THE MAIL TO RURAL HOMES
by Mary Hendry, Lost Cabin, Wyoming Saturday, October 15, 1966

Zip Code was invented to speed the mail service and Air Mail implies that letters are "winging you way in a jiffy." But neither Zip Code or Air Mail seems to have much in common with mail service up and down Bad Water where the mail comes "up the crick" twice a week. [Tuesdays and Fridays]
The residents on Bad Water and down in Lost Cabin, however, would all agree that they have the most reliable and conscientious mail service anywhere. The carrier, Mrs. Beatrice Glenn Lewis, widow of the sheep man, W.I. Lewis, has been faithfully carrying the mail for over 28 years, and often under conditions which would have caused a Pony Express Rider to blanch.
"Aunt Glenn" knows the road "like the back of my hand" and even on days when the mud, snow, and blow seem especially threatening she "chains up" and "churns up" the creek to make her deliveries. Her mail carrying duties and do-it-yourself chaining is quite remarkable because, although, she does not tell her age, she admits that she was just a young girl in 1899 when she first arrived in Wyoming.

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In the early days, the Lost Cabin Post Office was next door to the Lost Cabin Saloon,perched on a cut gulch down the road from the present location of the town. When J.B. Okie started his ranch, he acquired the post office and moved it. This was over 75 years ago. For the past 35 years, the post office has been operating from the glassed in veranda, at the rear of J.B. Okies_______, The Big Tepee.
In August of this year, 1966, the era of the Lost Cabin Post Office came to a close. The present owners of the big ranch, Mr. and Mrs. Tom Spratt and son, could not find a postmaster to handle the job, and so with considerable regret, on of Wyoming's oldest post offices had to be "phased out."
Mrs. Beatrice Glenn Lewis was given the additional duties of Rural Mail Carrier for Lost Cabin. Each day she brings the mail three miles from Lysite, just as she has been doing for over 28 years, but now she distributes the mail among the shiny new mailboxes up and down the tree shaded lane which is Main Street and cow path in Lost Cabin. Twice a week, the route is extended up Bad Water Creek for delivery of the mail to ranchers in the valley, just as it has been delivered for the last 28 years.
If the weather is not too bad and the roads are not too slippery, Mrs. Lewis can drive her pickup alongside the mailboxes and exchange the incoming mail for the out going with little or no effort. There is a postal regulation which states that the recipient of mail must provide an adequate box for the convenience of the mail carrier, but Mrs. Lewis had one erratic gentleman, an aged trapper and prospector, who sorely tried her patience with his "drifting mailbox."
She never knew where she might find the big rusty barrel stuffed with an old pair of hair chaps "to pertect things," which he had rolled down to the roadside to receive his mail. Sometimes the wind would move the barrel out across the prairie and lodge it against sagebrush. The barrel was along a regular stock trail and the cows all seemed to have a pick at the barrel and would butt it off toward a gully. Playful cowboys would rope the barrel and drag it to a hiding place. Rabbits, beetles, gophers and field mice found the barrel mailbox a cozy hideout. To the relief of the mail carrier, the owner of the wayward mailbox moved on a few years ago, but the barrel remains rusting and rolling, no longer the concern of anyone or anything except the shelter seeking animals.
Over the years, Mrs. Lewis has delivered many varied and wonderful things to the people along her route, and some of her deliveries have presented special problems. When early spring arrives and the mail sacks are bulging with colorful full-of-promise seed catalogues, and the chuck holes in the roads are brimming with water, she takes on her "mother hen" duties. This is the time of the year when the ranchers order their baby chicks for delivery by parcel post. Several hundred baby chicks chirping forlornly and frantically in their cardboard boxes have to ride in the cab of Mrs. Lewis' pickup with the heater nice and high to keep the chill off.
"I don't mind the chickens too much. If you are hauling chickens, you know what they ARE, but I remember one package I delivered years ago. That package bothered me plenty after I found out what was in it."
The mysterious package had been a battered cardboard carton which had traveled many miles from a foreign land. When Mrs. Lewis handed the carton over the desk in the Lost Cabin Office, she had remarked to the postmaster, "This carton is from some far-off place judging by the queer labels and postage, and it seems to have been leaking all the way!" Later, to her dismay, she learned that the leaking package had contained the ashes of the relative of a local well-to-do family. The deceased had been a world traveler, "a restless soul, never staying anywhere very long." He had died abroad, but had made previous, if unannounced arrangement, for cremation and shipment to Wyoming for burial in the family plot in Lost Cabin. Beyond his control lay the incredulous fact that he had trailed his dust all the way from the exotic far east, across the ocean, into the little country post office in Lost Cabin and then on to his final resting place in the small prairie cemetery.

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It is not uncommon for a mail carrier on a rural route to find himself thus involved in the lives, deaths, dreams and plans of those he serves. One might wonder why a woman who arrived in the raw frontier atmosphere of Wyoming at the turn of the century, would wish to continue battling the elements. It would seem as though it were time to stop and draw a quiet breath, but Beatrice Glenn Swaim Lewis springs from pioneer stock which never backed away from hardship in making a place for itself in the roaring west. In 1899, when Mrs. Lewis' father, Charles Swaim brought his wife and four daughters from Missouri, Casper was the end of the railroad. To finish the journey, the family had to buy a wagon. Before leaving town, the Swaims agreed to bring along another family headed in the same direction. As a result of bringing the other family, the adults and older children had to walk most of the way. The younger ones rode in the wagon with the possessions and supplies.
It was late autumn and the weather was growing colder. By the time the two families had made their way to the old town of Wolton, it had begun to snow. The weary group spent the night in a "Prairie Motel" - a long piece of wagon canvas stretched out on the hard ground! The children huddled in the middle with the grownups on the out edges. All the quilts and blankets they owned were piled on top. They slept well after the hard journey, but had to beat the snow off upon arising. Mrs. Lewis remembers her mother trying to dry her daughters' shoes over the campfire. The journey was completed when the group reached the Bader Ranch on lower Bad Water where a tent settlement had sprung up. The Swaims lived on the Bader Ranch that winter and the children attended school there.
When Beatrice Glenn Swaim reached young womanhood, she attracted the attention of Will Lewis who finally found the courage to ask her father's permission to court her. On their first date they were to attend a dance to be held up Bridger Creek. Will arrived with two horses for the ten-mile ride. He lifted her up into the saddle on one of the horses. No sooner had she arranged her riding skirt than the horse stiffened his legs, ducked his head and bucked "all over the place." Will managed to pull her off, apologized to her raging father, and helped his date mount up on the other horse. The other horse proved to have a racing streak in his blood. He plunged away into the darkness with the young auburn-haired rider clinging desperately to per precarious perch. He would neck rein, but he certainly didn't know "Whoa!" The distraught young suiter leaped on the bucking horse and kicked him into action.
"Will trailed behind, spurring his horse, trying to catch up, and hollering, 'hold on, Glennie, hold on! I'm coming! I'm coming!' Of course I held on! I rode that dratted horse just like a little monkey. I was a trifle shaky when we finally reached the dance, but we did have a nice time."
Will popped the question a short time after the wild ride. The couple was married in Lander. For a year they lived in Arminto, then they bought a desert claim on Bad Water and went into the sheep business. Later they moved to Lysite where their three sons, Rex, Howard and Swaim could attend school. They permanent family home was built in Lysite. Mrs. Lewis continues to live in her sturdy comfortable log house.
When asked about retiring from carrying the mail Mrs. Lewis answers, "Well, I have a new pickup truck and I have just signed a new three-year contract to carry the mail. I enjoy my work in spite of chickens, chains and what have you. Ask me again in three years."




Birth date: Dec 18, 1887
Death date: Apr 1968
Residence code: Wyoming
ZIP Code of last known residence: 82642
Location associated with this ZIP Code:Lysite, Wyoming

  Medical Notes:

Diabetes Heart Disease

  Events

• She was employed in Rural Mail Carrier 1938-1988 [Lysite To Badwater].

• Soc Sec Num: 520-34-0018.

Beatrice married William Irvin Lewis, son of Thomas Newton Lewis and Hannah Skinner, on 4 Jul 1905 in Lander Wyoming. (William Irvin Lewis was born on 30 Aug 1874 in Thayerton, Nebraska,³⁸⁸ died on 29 May 1960 in Evanston, Wyoming ³⁸⁹ and was buried in Riverton, Wyoming.)

  Marriage Notes:

Reference Number:1632
Married by Methodist Episcopal pastor.