Date:  ca. 1915

Image Number:  B01CDB12

Comments:  (L to R) U.S. Postmaster Samuel R. Gault and his assistant, Ashby Mayo, stand in front of the Scottsville Post Office located in the Masonic Building on Main Street.   The Masonic Building was built in 1914 and hosted the town's post office on the bottom floor until 1964 when the post office moved to its current location on West Main Street.  Sam Gault served as Scottsville's postmaster from 1893 to 1932; he was succeeded by Ashby Mayo, who retired as postmaster in 1958.

Postmaster Gault was known as Mr. Scottsville for he was always at the center of town activity.   Every summer week night, townspeople would stroll to Scottsville's C&O Depot to watch the No. 11 train arrive from Richmond.  Postmaster Gault would collect the town's mail from the train and take it back to the post office for sorting that evening as townspeople waited.  Gault was not required to open the mail those nights, but he didn't want people to have to wait until the next morning for their mail.  Gault also was Chief Marshal of town parades, an active member of Masonic Lodge No. 45, friend of prominent politicians (Senator Thomas Martin, President Theodore Roosevelt), and owner of a sassafras oil mill on Driver's Hill just to the east of Scottsville.