Historical Society discusses early Panhandle post offices

January 7, 2013

“Lost Post Offices of the Past” was the program topic presented by Sharon Morgan for the December meeting of the No Man’s Land Historical Society. The topic was focused on those postal stations that existed during the late 1800s and early 1900s in the area of land known by several terms - “The Strip,” “The Panhandle,” “No Man’s Land.”
The Organic Act of 1890 declared this previously unclaimed land as a part of Oklahoma Territory labeling the area as Beaver County with Beaver City as its county seat.
During this process inhabitants began filling the space, setting up homesteads and eventually very small communities. Businesses were set up, and what better way to bring people to a business than to have a postal station included. Homesteads became postal stations out of convenience.
While the men were working the homesteads, the woman of the household could still maintain the home, be available for the family, and offer a postal service at the same time. Postal stations were set up about every 5 or 6 miles with circulation branching off of two major established North/South and East/West Star Routes.
In most cases positioning of a postal station was also determined by the location of a reliable water source.
Applications for postal stations were rarely denied by the Postmaster General. Names of these newly established offices varied. Most often they were named for the person that became the first postmaster. If the postmaster was a man, the name would always reflect his last name.
If the postmaster was a woman, the postal station name was either her first name or a selected name of one of her children. Some postal stations held names of local ranchers, book titles, book characters, or local landmarks. It was considered inappropriate to refer to a female postmaster as postmistress.
There were approximately 152 known postal stations in the Panhandle.
The year 1907 brought statehood and inclusion of the area into Oklahoma. Eventually Beaver County was divided into three counties and postal administration was governed through the state.
As the railroads entered the area, smaller communities found the need to merge with the larger railroad towns, thus eliminating and closing many of those early day postal stations. In 1913 Parcel post became popular with orders from Sears and Wards becoming common and more efficient means of transporting mail and packages becoming necessary.
Road conditions improved as well making delivery of mail much faster.
Sharon discussed some of the postal stations in each of the counties, showing enlarged photographs of several. She elaborated on two that had sparked her interest since receiving requests from individuals for a gathering of research on them - Cosmos, Okla. (southwest of Elkhart, just barely over the Oklahoma line) and Sledgeville, Okla. (7 miles north of Guymon).
Photos were also shown of different modes of transportation used by postal carriers.
Members and visitors are encouraged to attend the next meeting which will be Thursday, Jan. 10 at 7 p.m. at the Victory Memorial United Methodist Church, Fellowship Hall (located in the basement of the church-south entrance).
The speaker will be Richard Wright, Associate Professor of Art and Architectural History from Texas A&M-International University.
He will be speaking on the topic of the history of the “Texas County Courthouse: Government Patronage of Architecture during the ‘Great Plow-Up.”
He previously presented his research on the Texas County Courthouse at the Oklahoma Preservation Conference held in Guymon about two years ago.