A story about my mother’s father
By John Putnam
The Art of Letter Writing Summer Camp Session One
This summer, the Delray Beach Historical Society sponsored two sessions of summer camp for kids entitled The Art of Letter Writing.
Session Two, a record turnout.
Winnie Edwards, Executive Director and Kate Teves, Archivist, asked me to give a session on the US Postal Service and stamps. My grandfather, for whom I am named, was an employee of the Railway Mail System (RMS) for many years. Founded in 1864 after the Civil War it was the primary means of interstate transfer of mail in the US until the last train stopped rolling in 1977.
Grandfather Buerkle was a supervisor in the RMS, carried a badge, a .38 caliber snub nose revolver, and a suitcase (always ready and on call), standard issue for all RMS employees. For some reason (probably security) he didn’t like having his picture taken and when I was growing up, there were only two photos of him, one my mother had and one my grandmother kept. My mother told me that beginning in 1937 all the gold bullion and coins in the US, at Federal Reserve Banks, and federal mints was sent to Ft. Knox, KY.
Hitler was making big noise and it seemed to be a good idea to put in the middle of the US. It took until 1941 to transfer it all. For security reasons, the RMS got the job! So for some years, grandfather Buerkle accompanied gold to Ft. Knox. When I lived in Washington D.C. there was a small museum in the Department of Treasury which I visited one day with a friend. Walking through I stopped at an exhibit with pictures of RMS guys on a gold train going to Ft. Knox and I recognized one of the men as my grandfather. My friend was dubious. Eventually, my mother came to visit and I took her to the museum, not telling her why. She looked at the same exhibit and exclaimed, THERE is your Grandfather! I told her I thought it was. Three known pictures of John Michael Buerkle! In preparing for my talk, I found some info on the RMS on the Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum web page. There you will find an entry for Postal Inspection Service, “Protected Shipments”. If you open it up, there is a story about Ft. Knox and the shipping of the gold. The sixth picture shows a man in a suit in the middle of the picture who is taking inventory and issuing receipts. THAT IS My Grandfather! Picture number four has been found!
