Postle, OK—The Town That Was, But Ain’t No More.

Postle, Oklahoma was named for one of the first pioneers of Northwest Texas County -- George and Anna POSTLE. They moved to a claim of 160 acres in a prairie schooner, arriving in March, 1904. It was free land, 28 miles from Guymon and 30 miles from Hooker. The government first gave a patent to the land while the claimant lived on it and improved it. After five years, the official deed was given to the owner. Their closest neighbor, the MARKHAM'S, were six miles away east across the prairie.

Two years later, the WELSH family bought the quarter of land west of the Postle’s. Dan Welsh commenced to building a general store with a post office in the back. Win SCHNAUFER was an early day mail carrier, bringing mail to Postle three times a week. Later W.D.FRANKS built a blacksmith shop and a livery stable there. Postle was a stopping point between Hooker and Elkhart, KS. (f. 1913) on the Denver-Canadian-Dallas highway.

In 1915, when Alford and Tacy E. (BERRY) ULLOM, moved to Oklahoma from Streetor, Illinois, they purchased Postle (Section 1-4-12) from Dan Welch. In an area where building materials had to be trucked in, Dan physically moved his store building to the State Line between Kansas and Oklahoma the day lots in Elkhart, Kansas were sold. After settling his store, he was open for business the same day.

Postle became their homestead. Alford and Tacy’s son, John Henderson, brought his bride, Maurine Hester (LARUE) there in 1931. Their second child, Maynard and his wife, Ronda Faith (ARCHER) built their home between where the blacksmith shop and store once stood. They told of finding metal buried in the ground when they dug out the basement hole. The Postle School District No. 5 finally transferred to Elkhart, KS. in 1945.

More to Read:

1. "DOWN THE LONG ROAD TO POSTLE, OKLA." By Gloria Bayne. The Old Timers New Year Book  Lee Tucker, Editor. (First Printed in the Guymon Daily Herald, Friday, April 25, 1975; reprinted, Keyes, OK., 1978-1979).

2. “Northwest Flats” Heritage: A History of Five Townships in Northwest Texas County, Allie Mitchell. Oklahoma. Times Publishing, Texhoma.

3. The Old Timers As I Remember Them. By Chester C. Tucker c. 1963.

4. "Leave It To Miss Annie" By Georgia Tucker Smith. The Allen Press, Lawrence, KS; 1952.

5. Findagrave Links

Update: My mother filled in a few more neighbors that she remembers from the Postle area: " Willie and Bessie Haar lived 1/4 mile east of us.  Two miles west of us was Chester Lewis and his family. Two miles north and two miles west was L. Simmons.  Two miles more north of the Simmons was my Aunt Mable and Beryl Griffith.  Howard Kerns lived one mile North of the Griffith home.

Bessie was the daughter of Lemuel Simmons----------Chester Lewis' daughter taught school that  I attended in the Richland Center  School. 

After the Postle  school   was closed we were moved to the Richland Center School where I attended the 6th. 7th and 8th grade. Then we went to Elkhart School where I started as a freshman.  Mom took a bunch of kids in a sort of bus.  She drove us for a time and then Claude Bayer that had taken over the Haar place when they moved drove us.  We had 6 or 7 kids that rode with us to school. " 

Clara Mae Thrasher, beloved Teacher.