Elk Rapids

[W. Gray]

From the August 22, 1872, Longton Weekly Ledger



Not sure why this formality occurred at the late date of August 1872.

The town of Longton received approval for a post office two years earlier on August 24, 1870.

Additionally, the first newspaper edition of the Howard County Ledger (Longton) issued on February 23, 1871, lists the town as Longton.

As the story goes, the federal post office folks were concerned that there were too many towns with an Elk prefix in Kansas that might hamper delivering the mail.

The name of Elk Rapids would apparently have been added to offices at Elk River (although it was closed by that time), Elk Falls, Elk City, Elk Creek, and Elkhorn. But post offices at Elk, Elkader, and Elkhart were in fact added later.

At any rate, the formality of changing the name from Elk Rapids to Longton did not occur until August 1872.

[Marcia Moore]

     This sounds very similar to the problem Severy had back in its beginning.  The Severy Town Company laid out the town and it was to be named in honor of Luther Severy, who was a vice-president of the St. Louis, Wichita and Western Railroad (which ran through the town).   But when the town was officially incorporated, it was done so under the name "Gould," in honor of Jay Gould, the eastern railroad magnate, (whose railroad also ran through the town).  Both depots in the town carried the name, "Severy."  
    There was much confusion due to the town being named Gould but the railroad depots being named Severy.  An item in the local newspaper read, "This matter could be very easily arranged if our citizens would only call a meeting and make an effort to have the names of the town and the stations correspond, either by changing the name of the town to 'Severy,' or the stations to 'Gould.'  The railroad companies would probably object to the latter, and so the easiest way would be to petition the court to change the name of our town to 'Severy Junction,' as there is already a town by the name of 'Severance' in the state, and the post office department refused to grant an office here under the name of Severy.  The matter should be worked up and some conclusion arrived at, as the present mix-up of names is very inconvenient for the traveling public."  Some of the mix-ups included a merchant who received a bill for some goods, and the bill was directed to Gould, via Severy.  In July of 1882, there was an instance where the mother of one of Gould's citizens lived in Illinois and she became terribly sick so they telegraphed for her son at Gould, Kansas.  Such a place could not be found, though, so the family sent him a letter.  When he received the letter, he at once started to see his mother, but it was too late – she had died sometime before he arrived.  Such were the inconveniences of the different names.  
     Gould was officially incorporated on April 1, 1880.  The 'name' problem existed until March 1, 1883 when application was made to the state of Kansas asking that the name of the town be changed from Gould to Severy.