William Bancker Winne was born in 1769, the son of Albany tanner Daniel K. Winne and his second wife, Schenectady native Jannetje Bancker. By that time, his father had purchased some tanning lots along Foxes Creek. Over the next two decades, Willie Winne and his brothers would learn the process that transformed animal skins into leather.

By the 1790s, the young man began to purchase lots on the North Side of Foxes Creek. By 1804, he was identified as a cordwainer (shoemaker) and was a member of the Albany Mechanics Society. Winne left leather work to become a letter carrier. His “three penny post” would deliver mail anywhere in the city for three cents. According to his obituary, he served in that capacity for 48 years. That occupation made him an everyday fixture on Albany streets.

Winne was among the more colorful and legendary characters of early nineteenth century Albany. In August 1831, the “penny postman” had a seat amid the dignitaries in the first train between Albany and Schenectady — powered by the DeWitt Clinton locomotive — on the Mohawk & Hudson Railroad, renamed the Albany & Schenectady Railroad in 1847.

By 1816, he also was the “front door-keeper” at the Albany Theater and was toasted in the newspaper for “his long and meritorious services — having punctually fulfilled the duties of his station through wind and rain, fair weather and foul.” At the same time, he maintained a connection to leathermaking and held a municipal post with the title “Inspector of Leather.”

Winne continued to buy and sell real estate in the Arbor Hill section of the city through the remainder of his life. As the years passed, he watched the Foxes Creek ravine change from a marginal area dotted with tanning pits to a working-class, residential neighborhood. His wife, Rebecca, died in 1845. He died at at age 90 in January 1848.