The Ionia Post Office
The Ionia Post Office, the seventh post office in Jewell County, was organized on April 13, 1871. It served the Ionia area until it was discontinued on Aug. 6, 1982. Seneca Sumner was the first postmaster; 12 other men and women would follow him.
Sumner had been born in Ohio on March 7, 1846. He is found in the 1870 U.S. Census in Washington County, Kansas as an artist-photographer. He first appeared in Jewell County records when he was appointed postmaster on April 13, 1871.
The story goes that the early day Ionia postal customers needed to find Sumner if they wanted their mail. He carried the mail in his pockets! (Prairie Jewels, Shute and Dillon). He died on Nov. 4, 1873, of unknown causes and was buried in the Ionia Cemetery. His stone is still standing and still legible.
George Barnett was the second Ionia postmaster. He was born on Christmas Day, 1848, in Illinois. Like Seneca Sumner, he is first found in Jewell County when he was appointed postmaster. He was appointed on Jan. 21, 1874 and served until June 21, 1878. Unlike Sumner, he was a homesteader and a Civil War veteran.
Barnett proved up on 160 acres in Sections 13 and 24 of Odessa Township. Married to Sarah Hoffines in 1877, the couple had two daughters before they moved to Brown County, Kansas in 1895. They moved west to Santa Ana, California, around 1915 and lived the rest of their lives there.
The third Ionia postmaster has a familiar name, Colson. Herman Colson actually served three times as Ionia postmaster. He was the third, fifth and ninth postmaster. Stan Colson (Ionia) is a great-nephew of Herman Colson.
Born in Massachusetts in 1846, Colson lived in West Virginia in 1870 but came to Jewell County in 1873. He married his wife, Emma Ely, in 1880. The couple had six children and lived the rest of their lives in Jewell County. Herman died in 1931 and Emma in 1957. Both are buried in the Ionia Cemetery.
As the third Ionia postmaster, he served from June 21,1878, to Feb. 23, 1882. From May 16, 1882, until Nov. 28, 1883, he was the fifth postmaster. Then from Dec. 20, 1904, until Jan. 17, 1929, Colson was the ninth Ionia postmaster. Colson served more than 39 years as Ionia postmaster – the longest serving of the 13 postmasters.
The fourth postmaster, Benjamin F. Pound, served only three months. Appointed on Feb. 23, 1882, his duties ended on May 16, 1882, when Colson took over again. Pound was also a Civil War veteran having served in Company F of the 73rd Illinois Infantry.
Pound and his wife, Sarah, came from Ohio and were in Jewell County by 1875 when they are found in Browns Creek Township. Both died in Jewell County, Sarah in 1884 and Benjamin in 1896. They are buried in Wallace Cemetery east of Jewell.
Colson, the fifth postmaster, served until Will J. Alcorn (William Joseph Alcorn) took up the postmaster duties on Nov. 28, 1893. William Joseph is related the late Doyle "Hooley" Alcorn. William Russell Alcorn is Hooley's great-great-grandfather and William Joseph Alcorn's grandfather.
Hooley's family stayed in Jewell County but the William Joseph who served as the Ionia postmaster until Oct. 21, 1897, did not stay in Jewell County. William Joseph and his wife, Pearl McCollough Alcorn, took their seven children to Wyoming and were enumerated in Rawlins, Wyoming, in the 1910 U. S. Census. He died there in 1911. Pearl left Wyoming and died in California in 1924.
Ionia Post Office's seventh postmaster was Clement W. Mullin. Mullin came to Jewell County in the early 1870s, when he was a child. He graduated from Campbell University in Holton, Kansas, and from Omaha Business School. A member of the Ionia Methodist Church, he was also a school teacher. He taught several years in Ionia and Glen Dale schools.
After his appointment as postmaster ended on July 23, 1902, he was elected as the Jewell County registrar of deeds and served for 10 years. Married to Mary Margaret Strickland in 1911, the couple had two sons. They moved to Oregon in 1913 and lived there until their deaths. Clement died in 1939 and Mary in 1968.
The eighth postmaster was Postmistress Mary E. Yapp. She served from July 23, 1902, until Herman Colson took over on Dec. 20, 1904. Yapp was born in Illinois in 1849. She came to Jewell County in the early 1870s with her mother and brothers.
By 1879, Mary Yapp had homesteaded two quarters. Her mother, Armida, and her brothers, James and George, also homesteaded. All homesteads were in Ionia Township in Sections 3, 4, 10, 11, 24 and 30. She never left the area, upon her death on Jan. 25, 1939, she was buried in the Ionia Cemetery.
Herman Colson served his last appointment as Ionia postmaster, over 25 years, from Dec. 20, 1904 until Jan. 17, 1929. Taking over after Colson was C. Vernon Collie – Cassius Vernon Collie. Collie, the 10th postmaster, was the "Acting Postmaster" for more than 15 years, until Nov. 11, 1944.
Collie was born in Jewell County and his parents were born in Jewell County. His father Walter, in 1874 and his mother, Carrie, in 1876. Save for a brief time the family lived in Salina, he was always a Jewell Countian. He graduated with the Class of 1920 from Jewell High School. Collie is buried in the Ionia Cemetery.
Raymond Holloway, the 11th postmaster, took over as "Acting Postmaster" from Collie but was appointed "Postmaster" on Sept. 7, 1945.
Holloway was born on June 15, 1911, in Jewell County and lived his entire life in the county. A 1930 graduate of Athens High School, he married Clara Evelyn Dean on May 4, 1932, in Russell, Kansas. Clara died in 1958, Raymond in 1973. Both are buried in the Ionia Cemetery.
Earl O. Hall was the 12th postmaster at the Ionia Post Office. He was born on May 3,1913, in Lebanon, Kansas. Most of his life was in Smith County. He was the Ionia Acting Postmaster from June 20, 1946 to Feb. 15, 1948. Hall was married to Mayme Reinert and the couple had four children. He died, aged 36, of a cerebral hemorrhage on Nov. 19, 1949. His funeral was held at the Ionia Church and he was buried in the Odessa Cemetery.
Taking over as Acting Postmaster on Feb. 15, 1948, was the 13th postmaster, William Isaac Alcorn. Born in Kentucky, he was the grandson William Russell Alcorn and thus a first cousin of William Joseph Alcorn. The two are first cousins twice removed of the late Hooley Alcorn.
William Isaac was married to Verda Marie Hayman. They both lived in Jewell County until their deaths. William Isaac died in 1955 and Verda in 1969. Both are buried in the Ionia Cemetery. Their daughter was the late Wanda Alcorn Thummel.
The 14th postmaster was Postmistress Dorothy L. Stites. She took over from William Isaac Alcorn on Oct. 20, 1948 and served until April 29, 1954.
Stites was born in Cawker City on March 29, 1922, to Fred and Georgia Coad Wideman. She married Ralph Stites on Aug. 1, 1940. They moved to Salina in 1955 where they reared their four children. Ralph died in 1977, Dorothy in 2006. Ralph Stites was the brother of Lester Stites the author of History of Ionia, Kansas.
The 15th and final Ionia postmaster was Postmistress Ruby Rooker Sutton. Born Ruby Charlotte Ault on Dec. 28, 1916, in Chase, Nebraska, she was the daughter of Lyman and Nellie Fuqua Ault. Ault is another familiar name in the Ionia area.
Ruby graduated from Ionia High School with the Class of 1935 and married Arthur Rooker in 1940. He died in 1970, and she married Don Sutton in 1976. Ruby took over the postmaster duties at Ionia on April 29, 1954, as the Acting Postmaster. She was appointed postmaster on Aug. 31, 1954, and served the Ionia community until the Ionia Post Office was discontinued on Aug. 6, 1982. The Ionia Post Office window and mailboxes are now in the Jewell County Historical Society Museum in Mankato.
Ruby Ault Rooker Sutton died in 2017. She was buried beside Art Rooker in the Athens Cemetery.
For 28 years, Ruby served the postal customers of Ionia from her home. She was the postmaster and the telephone office was also in her home. Her home was a community gathering place. People socialized, children played, women quilted and magazines were exchanged. It was a special time in a special community.
Reader Comments(0)