In this Thursday, June 15, 2017 photo, a letter, addressed to Mrs. H.H. Wheeler and postmarked in Des Moines in 1914, showed up in letter carrier Larry Schultz' batch of mail to deliver Thursday in Lincoln,... (Associated Press) 
 
 In this Thursday, June 15, 2017 photo, a letter, addressed to Mrs. H.H. Wheeler and postmarked in Des Moines in 1914, showed up in letter carrier Larry Schultz' batch of mail to deliver Thursday in Lincoln,... (Associated Press) 
 
 LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A Lincoln mail carrier faced a difficult task earlier this month when he found a letter sent more than 100 years ago in his pile. 
 
 The letter with a 2-cent stamp showed up in the pile of mail Larry Schultz was sorting for his route in the area June 14, the Lincoln Journal Star (http://bit.ly/2s8Ljld ) reported. Its recipient, Grace Wheeler, died in 1947, and her family home was torn down in 1965 to make way for the Nebraska Capitol's south parking lot. 
 
 The three-page letter from Wheeler's daughter, Margaret Casady, was mailed from Des Moines, Iowa, on June 1, 1914. It's unknown how it appeared in Schultz's stack and has been sent to other family members. 
 
 The letter was slit open at the top, as if by a letter opener. 
 
 Lincoln Post Office Manager Todd Case speculated the envelope had been open for some time because of the discoloration where a letter opener had sliced through it. 
 
 "Probably somebody found this either in an attic, or maybe in some boxes, and didn't know what to do with it and just dropped it in a mailbox somewhere," Case said. 
 
 Former Lincoln Postmaster Doug Emery said that mail can sometimes accidentally get lost within the system or sit in a dead letter office for a while. 
 
 "But I don't see how it sits anyplace for 100 years," he said. "I can't believe it would have been in our possession for 100 years." 
 
 Wheeler was the first woman to be a member of the U.S. Electoral College, and to bring election votes to Washington, D.C., in 1921. Those votes included some cast by women for the first time. 
 
 Wheeler flew the election results, at least part way, in an open-cockpit, two-seater airplane. The votes were cast in favor of Warren G. Harding. 
 
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 Information from: Lincoln Journal Star, http://www.journalstar.com ||||| In the Shadow of the Capitol 
 
 We're telling the stories of the people who live, work and go to school in our Nebraska Capitol area neighborhoods – past and present. 
 
 Today, we're exploring a letter that was mailed to a woman living across the street from the Capitol during the construction of the second and third state Capitols in Lincoln. The letter showed up mysteriously among the mail of postal carrier Larry Schultz in mid-June -- mailed from Des Moines, Iowa, 103 years ago. 
 
 We are sharing these stories periodically of the people in the shadow of the Capitol. Email us at jyoung@journalstar.com with ideas for stories of people in these neighborhoods, and read on.
– When a mail carrier found a discolored envelope among his stash of letters earlier this month, a few things stood out, the AP notes. For one, the envelope had been slit open at the top, apparently by a letter opener, quite some time ago. For another, it had been mailed from Des Moines, Iowa, in 1914 with only a 2-cent stamp. When Larry Schultz tried to deliver it to its intended recipient in Lincoln, Neb., his curiosity about how the letter ended up in the mail 103 years after it was originally sent only deepened, reports the Lincoln Journal Star. Grace Wheeler—who happened to be the first female member of the US Electoral College—died in 1947 and her home was torn down in 1965. In its place is now a parking lot. An official at the Lincoln post office doubts the letter was lost in the mail for more than a century as four names jotted on the back add to the idea that it was previously delivered and read. "Probably somebody found this either in an attic, or maybe in some boxes, and didn't know what to do with it and just dropped it in a mailbox somewhere," he says. "But boy, it would be interesting to know where it was actually located and the story behind that." While its path remains a mystery, the three-page letter sent to Wheeler by her daughter—telling of a "pleasant" excursion and a little boy who liked to pinch—will indeed get delivered. It's headed to some of Wheeler's relatives, now scattered across six states.