Postmaster

During the years that Flower served as Postmaster, the Sitka Post Office was located in the Customs House, the building on the left of this image from 1914

Sitka Post Office, 1914

Sitka, 1914: the area containing the Post Office is circled

Even though in 1902 he reported deafness that disabled him from holding a clerical job, Consider Flower became Sitka's acting postmaster in 1903, and assumed the job permanently in 1904.

The year Flower became postmaster the post office moved to the Customs House. Typically the postmaster also worked as custodian when the post office was located in a government building like the Customs House. That job involved supervising the janitorial staff and organizing repairs to the building.

He wasn't paid for that work. A postmaster's salary was based on the volume of stamps and stamped paper sold. Flower would also have had to deal with dispatching, receiving and delivering mail, money orders, accounting, registry and insurance work, and supervise any clerks that worked in the office.

By 1910, Lucy Flower worked alongside Consider, as a Post Office clerk.

That would be the last year Flower worked as the postmaster: he retired due to ill health. A new postmaster was appointed on February 26, 1910.