Show I First Railroad Post Office Carried Mail fail to Soldiers 80 Years A Ago o Eighty years ago the first permanent permanent perma perma- nent railroad post office was established established to speed up mail for soldiers On August 28 1864 George B B. B Armstrong Arm Arm- Armstrong strong then assistant postmaster of Chicago sent his first railway post postoffice postoffice postoffice office on its way over the Chicago I and North Western railway from fem Chicago to Clinton Iowa Witt With afew a afew few tew years the new system of expediting expediting ex ex- the malls mails spread to include the principal trunk lines of the na na- tion Practically every nation in the world adopted the idea eventually Armstrong instituted the service with approval of the postmaster general as a means of facilitating distribution of mail particularly tomen to tomen tomen men in the army From the first Armstrong envisioned a national system and lived to see his plan I become a success despite public doubts and ridicule when he first I announced his plan On 01 the first trip 80 years ago prominent Chicago newspapermen bankers and civic leaders wen went along to witness the initial opera opera- tion One banker refused to be convinced convinced convinced con con- vinced of the plans plan's practicability remarking that all the mail mall would woul blow blowout out of the car Although Armstrong is generally credited with the first permanent railway post office others preceded him by a few years with similar plans All however were devised to meet local emergencies and no 00 plan operated more than a year |