From 'deep wilderness nights' to now, Aurora celebrates 175 years
The city of Aurora and the Aurora post office both celebrated their 175th anniversaries Friday in an afternoon ceremony with song, stamps and history.
The ceremony was held March 2 because that's the day in 1837 when Aurora's post office first was recognized by the U.S. postmaster general and the day the city claimed as its anniversary.
“It's kind of cool in my mind because it's the city of Aurora's anniversary and it's also the post office's anniversary here,” said Mary Clark Ormond, president of the Aurora Historical Society. “It's satisfying to help them celebrate something so positive.”
The celebration included facts about the establishment of Aurora's post office, including the amount of money it brought in during its first quarter — a whopping $10, said John Jaros, executive director of the Aurora Historical Society.
Jaros read from a certificate officially recognizing Aurora's post office before turning the floor over to a choir of historical society members who sang “Aurora (Lived a Dream),” a song written in 1987 by Batavia resident Roger Jacobson to commemorate Aurora's sesquicentennial year.
The song brings listeners from the city's pioneer beginnings as a settlement called McCarty Mills through its railroad and industry years and into more modern times with lines like “from deep wilderness nights came our own City of Lights.”
More than 100 people attended the ceremony and many of them lined up afterward to have envelopes with first-class postage stamped with a special cancellation logo designed for the occasion.
Cancellation involves imprinting a logo over the bottom right corner of a postage stamp. The logo only can be used for a 30-day period and it often marks anniversaries or other occasions, said Melanie McCarthy, customer service supervisor for the main post office and east side post office in Aurora.
John Muschler of Aurora said he attended the ceremony “because of the 175th birthday and because my wife's a big stamp collector.”
“She loves collecting stamps, so I wanted to get some for her,” he said as he flipped through his stack of commemorative envelopes.
After the postage cancellation ceremony, Aurora held a birthday party to recognize residents who have lived in the city the longest, members of pioneer families and residents 100 years old or older.