OCR Text |
Show First Railroad Post Office Carried . MaiL to Eighty years ago the llr"t llrt fiat flr " st perma permanent permanent permanent I nent railroad rallroad post office was estab estabhshed establrshed establisned hshed lrshed to speed up mail mall marl for soldiers soldiersI soldiersOn soldiersOn soldiersOn I On August 28 26 1864 George B Arm Armstrong Armstrong Armstrong strong then assistant postmaster of ofChIcago ofChicago ofChicago ChIcago sent his first railway post postoffice postoffice postoffice office on its way over the ChIcago ChIcagoand Chicagoand Chicagoand and North Western railway from fromChicago fromChicago fromChicago Chicago to Clinton Clmton Iowa With n a afew afew afew few years the new system of expediting ex expedlhng expeditmg pedlhng pediting the tile mails malls spread to Include Includethe includethe includethe the principal prmclpal trunk lines of the na nadon naIon don ( ( ) n Practically every nation in the world adopted the idea eventually Armstrong eventuallyArmstrong Instituted the service servicewith servicewith servicewith with approval of the postmaster postmastergeneral postmastergeneral postmastergeneral general as a means of facilltatmg facilitating facilitatingdistribution facilltatmgdistribution distribution of mail mall particularly to tomen tomen tomen men in the army From the first firstArmstrong firstArmstrong firstArmstrong Armstrong envisioned a national nationalsystem nationalsystem nationalsystem system and lived to see his plan planbecome become a success despite publ c doubts cdoubts and ridicule when he first fast firstannounced fastannounced firstannounced announced his planOn planOn plan planOn On the first trip 80 years ago agoprominent agoprominent agoprominent prominent Chicago newspapermen - - - - - - bankers and civic leaders went along wentalong to witness the initial mitlal opera bon tion operation operabon One banker refused to be con , vmced convinced convmced of the plan s practlcablhty practicability remarking practicabilityremarking that all the mail mall would blowout blow wouldblow wouldblowout out of the carAlthough carAlthough car carAlthough Although Armstrong is as generally credIted generallycredited \ vuth with Ith the first permanent railway permanentrailway post office others preceded hIm precededhim by a few years with SImIlar plans similarplans All however were devised to tc tnmeet tomeet tcmeet meet local emergencies and no plan planoperated . operated more than a year |