Alfred A. Hanscomb

Submitted by
Terry Jenkins

Alfred A. Hanscomb was born in December 1831 in New Hampshire. He married Mary _____ some time before 1858. Mary was born in Maine sometime around 1834. Alf volunteered for service in the Civil War, serving from Milford, New Hampshire, for the Union in Company L, 1st New Hampshire H Artillery. Mary died sometime between 1870 and 1880 as Alf is found as a widower in 1880 Runnels County, Texas. Incidentally, Alfred Hanscomb was an enumerator for the Runnels County 1880 Population Census.

Alfred suffered from "lumbago".

Alfred moved to Runnels County sometime before 1880 and is recorded there on the population census, in which he was the enumerator. Alfred later sent off for a mail order bride from New York. He married on 2 February 1888 to Zella Hastings (Runnels County - Book 1, Page 51). Zella was born on 29 June 1833. She lived less than a year later, passing away on 13 September 1888. She's buried in the Counts Cemetery, Runnels, Texas near Content.

He was the last postmaster of the Blue Gap Post Office serving from January 26, 1880 to March 1881 when it was discontinued and mail was diverted to Content. He later served as postmaster of Content from 14 Aug 1891 to 11 May 1892 and from 15 Jan 1904 to 11 January 1905 when the post office name was changed. It seems that Alfred decided that the people were not so "content" so he changed the name to Tokeen. He is listed as postmaster of Tokeen from 11 January 1905 to 3 May 1906. In June of 1893, Hanscomb took the notary public oath of office and the next year was appointed to the board of managers for election day.

Alfred died in 1909 and lies in an unmarked grave beside his 2nd wife.

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