It was September 1942, nine months after the attack on Pearl Harbor and the start of America’s involvement in World War II (1941–1945). Mr. and Mrs. Frederick J. Martin of Saratoga County had not heard from their son, Fred (Bud) Martin, for many weeks.
Bud joined the Army in 1939 and was stationed at Port Townsend, Washington. Such loss of communication during the Second World War conjured up dreadful thoughts for parents of military personnel.
Finally, after many weeks of worrying the Martin family’s anxiety was alleviated when they received a mystery envelope from an unidentified person. The mail was addressed to the Martins and was postmarked Troy, New York.
When the Martins opened the parcel there was a cover letter inside wrapped around an envelope from their son, Bud. The message read: “While walking on the car tracks in the village of Lake George Labor Day I found this letter. Seeing it had not been opened I am forwarding it to you.”
The notation was not signed nor was there any return address on the envelope. It was simply an unknown well-wisher’s good deed.
After checking with postal authorities, the Martins speculated that the long overdue postal communication from Bud, a letter that normally would have been delivered from the Gansevoort Post Office, must have fallen out of a mailbag during transit.
It was postulated that the stray postal communication probably rested on a Delaware & Hudson train’s mail car floor for some time. As the locomotive rumbled along the tracks, Bud Martin’s letter tumbled out of the sliding door. The communiqué deposited onto the rail tracks in Lake George Village.
The Martin family often wondered who was the anonymous “Good Samaritan” that discovered Bud’s written communication, a person described by one newspaper as a “considerate finder of the letter.”
For decades the United States Postal Service had a much-publicized motto: “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.”
In this case in 1942, the mail service got “a little help from a friend” walking along the railroad tracks in Lake George Village.
Frederick (Bud) J. Martin, Jr. survived the war and according to his obituary was the recipient of a Bronze Star. He returned home, married a woman from Warren County, raised a family, and lived a long life. A resident of Athol, NY, Martin died in 2004 at the age of 83.
A version of this article first appeared on the Lake George Mirror, America’s oldest resort paper, covering Lake George and its surrounding environs. You can subscribe to the Mirror HERE.
Illustrations: A 1940s photograph showing a Delaware & Hudson train near Lake George Village (courtesy the J. Zarzynski Collection); American military personnel writing letters and a soldier sorting mail during the Second World War (The National WWII Museum, New Orleans).
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