David Jackson Rigell ~ First Postmaster of Ray’s Mill? Maybe Not!

November 7, 2010 at 1:21 am (Governance & Civics, Knight Family, Ray City Georgia, Uncategorized)
Tags: David Jackson Rigell, General Levi J. Knight, Henry Harrison Knight, Knight and Ray's Mill, Knight's Mill GA, Levi J. Knight, Ray's Mill GA

Some local histories say David Rigell was the first postmaster of Ray’s Mill, but even in 1885 he wouldn’t have been old enough for the job. It is more likely that Rigell served as postmaster some time after  Postmaster Henry H. Knight, probably in the  late 1890s. Rigell’s general merchandise store, the first in the community, was located in a building near Ray’s Mill and reportedly also served as the post office of that time. (This “post office” building has since been moved about ½ mile east of its original location at the mill site and has been remodeled as a house.)  Given the facts that there was already an official post office at “Knight’s Mill” (nka Ray’s Mill) by 1867, that General Levi Knight was a part owner of the mill with a long and distinguished career in civil service, and that cessation of the Knight’s Mill post office corresponds with the death of Levi J. Knight in 1870, in all likelihood it was the General himself that first drew the postmaster’s salary in this community.