Help With An Rpo Postmark

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Posted 02/21/2015 4:12 pm

This postmark has been driving me crazy all afternoon. It came in a group of Michigan postmarks so I am 99% sure it is Watersmeet, Michigan, a small town in the Upper Peninsula near Wisconsin that was once a railway center. For the life of me, I can't find any information on this RPO. What is the "Mon"?
Any help would be appreciated!
Thanks,
Dan

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John Becker

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Posted 02/21/2015 4:22 pm

Watersmeet, MI & Monico, WI, on the Chicago and Northwestern Railway.
Appears to match MPOS catalog # 851-X-1, although usage listed in 1908, so may be a new, but similar device by the time of yours.

Map scanned from: 1948 Handy Railroad Atlas of the United States, shows a bit of Upper Michigan and mostly Wisconsin separated by the broken line.

Edited by John Becker - 02/21/2015 4:38 pm

Bedrock Of The Community

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Posted 02/21/2015 9:45 pm

Here's an interesting twist to the postmark: Watersmeet and Monico was an RPO back in the early 1900s, but according to the Postal Bulletin excerpt below railroad service was discontinued on January 5, 1917. Obviously it must have been re-established at some point, given that the postmark in question is 1934:

Edited by wt1 - 02/21/2015 9:49 pm

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Posted 02/22/2015 09:44 am

John, Wt1, Thank you!

You guys are amazing. I floundered around on the Internet for hours and found nada. Here I get an answer in ten minutes! The depth and breadth of the information on this site is incredible.

John,

Quote:
Appears to match MPOS catalog # 851-X-1, although usage listed in 1908,

Given what Wt1 found, would this be a different catalog number or do they catalog by route?

Wt1,

Quote:
railroad service was discontinued on January 5, 1917

I take it there is no evidence of the service being reinstated?

It certainly looks like a routine RPO and not a special trip. I wish I had the rest of the cover.

Thanks again,
Dan

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Posted 02/22/2015 10:55 am

I thought this bit of information might add to the thread:

Quote:
Monico was name by B.F. Dorr, an early surveyor who gave no special reason for the name. Some residents believe the name is of Indian origin. In 1882, there was nothing at Monico but a few railway shanties. By 1883, Wisconsin Sulphite Fibre Co. bought practically the whole town site and built a factory. Emil's Mill was located there in later year. In the fall of 1884, the company built a new larger factory, with the intention of building a paper mill. Within a year or so, the pulp mill burned down. The company gave up their plans, sold out and left. The site was bought by Ed Squire of Rhinelander, who sold it in lots to various people. Logging was carried on in 1885 by Green & Sons and by Clarke, Lennan & Stableton. There were also several portable sawmills.

In 1882, the Milwaukee, Lake Shore & Western Railroad line was completed as far as Monico. A spur line was run 15 miles to Rhinelander and the main line continued north to Watersmeet, Michigan. During the height of the railroad boom, Monico Junction had 24 trains in and out per day -- 16 freight and eight passenger. Passenger service ended in 1971 and the freight train in 1984. Railroad tracks were removed and the depot was moved to Rhinelander.

And here are a list of the stations that were part of the line:

Quote:
85. MONICO - WATERSMEET (CNW)
324.5 Monico (66)
331.6 Gagen
334.2 Hiles Junction [Stella Junction 1891WG ]
340.7 Three Lakes
344.7 Clearwater Lake
350.1 Eagle River
355.0 Scott z
360.3 Conover >
369.6 Phelps [Hackley a]
362.7 Rummeles a
368.1 Land O'Lakes [State Line a ]
(Wisconsin-Michigan State Line)
376.7 Watersmeet

(The letters following the station name suggest that the location was listed in timetables but had no train stop.)

You might find pages 6-8 at this link to be interesting reading on the subject as well:

http://www.cnwhs.org/misc_pdfs/sam_campbell.pdf

Edited by wt1 - 02/22/2015 11:15 am

John Becker

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Posted 02/22/2015 12:29 pm

The Mobile Post Office Society listing from an older catalog is:

Your cancel wording closely matches the one reported in 1908. The MPOS gives an ID number to each cancel device, based on wording and grouped by route. It is unfortunate most MPOS tracings excludes the killer as this can help differentiate new devices. (I hope they upgrade to actual scans some day for a number of reasons I won't go into here.)

I agree with wt1, the fact that the second type has been seen for a wide range of years would indicate the route was reactivated. I poked around the Postal Bulletin too, but did not find anything in that era. I do know that there are typos in the PBs and that the OCR quality makes educated guesses sometimes, so I'll bet the information is there if one searches enough permutations.

Edited by John Becker - 02/22/2015 12:35 pm

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12128 Posts

Posted 02/22/2015 12:53 pm

Not that it answers the question at hand, but I did an alternate search on the Postal Bulletins (i.e. Waters meet, as two words) and came up with this note from 1906 about the establishment of that RPO route:

Bedrock Of The Community

United States

12128 Posts

Posted 02/22/2015 1:12 pm

This may also be pertinent information as found in a newspaper article:

Quote:
RHINELANDER DAILY NEWS - WEDNESDAY, MAY 19, 1948 (page 2):

Northern Lakes Special to Be Run Again This Summer

Announcement was made this week by the Ashland division offices at Antigo that the Northern Lakes Special, summer night train which has not been operated since the start of World War II, will be put back into service this year. It will operate weekends only between Chicago and Watersmeet, Mich., entering the Ashland division at Oshkosh and proceeding north through New London and Clintonvllle to Eland, thence through Antigo and Monico. The train will leave Chicago on its first trip May 28, arriving in the north on May 29. Return trips will be made on Sundays, arriving in Milwaukee at 4:05 a.m. Going north, the train leaves Milwaukee at 9:45 p.m. On the days it operates, the Northern Lakes Special will replace other train service between Monico and Watersmeet.

The Flambeau will make its first northbound trip on May 28, and its first southbound trip on Monday after Memorial day. After that it will make northbound trips Fridays and Saturdays, and return trips on Saturdays and Sundays. Daily service, to continue until Labor Day, will be instituted Tuesday. July 6.

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Posted 02/22/2015 1:15 pm

Once again, thank you for the information! It's always nice to add something extra about a postmark in my collection.

wt1, thanks for the link! It was interesting!

I imagine they didn't change cancel devices too often so that explains the poor quality of my postmark. It certainly is a later use for an 851-X-1. Does MPOS keep track of earliest and latest use?

Dan

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1106 Posts

Posted 02/22/2015 1:28 pm

Quote:
Return trips will be made on Sundays, arriving in Milwaukee at 4:05 a.m.

I take that to mean 4:05 a.m. on Monday?

October 15, 1934 was a Monday. So it was postmarked on a return trip of train 12 or they had daily service then?

This is interesting to me since I used to live in that neck of the woods.

Dan