Post Office

The establishment of a post office was one of the first goals of people in any settlement. The town of Cashmere was originally named "Mission" because of its beginning as a Catholic Indian Mission, notice the name above the door. However, there were other towns in the territory with the same name, and in order to reduce the confusion of getting the mail delivered to the correct town, the Post Office asked the towns to rename themselves. In 1903 local judge, James Chase, suggested our area resembled the beauty of the Kashmir Valley in India, and the town's name was changed to Cashmere (with an Americanized spelling) when it was incorporated.

This cabin was built in 1871 as a trading post in what is now Wenatchee. Two traders named Ingraham and McBride started the trading post but ran afoul with the federal government for selling whiskey to the Indians and had to leave town quickly. They sold their business to brothers David and Frank Freer and Samuel Miller, business partners who were looking for a new venture after discontinuing their freight packing business in Walla Walla. The Freers and Mr. Miller used their freighting expertise to pack goods from Ellensburg over the treacherous mountain trails to supply their store. Samuel Miller ran the day-to-day operations and eventually the trading post came to be the mail delivery location with letters addressed to "Millersburg". The small community was known as Millersburg until 1893 when it was incorporated as Wenatchee, taking the name of the Indian tribe living in the area. This cabin is considered the first original building in the Wenatchee Valley. The post office boxes inside the cabin came from the old post office in Chelan.