Mail and Rail

[W. Gray]

HOWARD POST OFFICE
Office hours from 7:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Money Order and Registered Letter hours from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Eastern mails arrive at 11:30 p.m. and depart at 5 a.m. All mail matter, to insure departure in the morning mail, should be deposited in the office by 8 p.m.

AT&SF RR—Howard
Trains arrive daily (except Sunday), 11 p.m.
Depart daily (except Sunday), 5 a.m.

KCL&S—Elk Falls
Passenger, west bound, arrives, 7:20 p.m.
Passenger, east bound, arrives, 7:56 a.m.
Freight, east bound leaves, 12:30 p.m.
Freight, west bound, leaves, 3:00 p.m.
All trains run daily, Sundays excepted. All passenger trains stop 20 minutes for meals.

"Frisco Line"—at Severy
Passenger, east bound, leaves 10:42 a.m.
Passenger, west bound, 4:10 p.m.
Freights, both east and west, leave, 3:05 p.m.
All trains run daily.

From the Elk County Herald, Howard, Kansas, August 20, 1881


Elk Falls and Severy were on a main line with dedicated passenger train service, whereas Howard was served by a branch line. Trains into and out of Howard were freight trains only. To accommodate travelers on the Howard Branch, either a single passenger car or a combine car was added to the freight train. A combine car looked like a passenger car but half of it carried freight while the other half carried passengers. The Sherman House in Elk Falls was the place the two passenger trains stopped for meals. However, these two trains used the Sherman house for only a short time until dining cars came into widespread use.

At twenty years of age, the Elk County Herald was the first newspaper that Polk Daniels (Thomas E Thompson) owned. He started it from scratch and owned it jointly with his father, Asa, and John A. Thompson, probably his uncle. Prior to purchasing the Herald, Tom Thompson was editor of the Elk Falls Signal. Three months after starting the Herald, Tom and Asa Thompson purchased the Howard Courant.