S. J. Bascom

[W. Gray]

S. J. Bascom was the post master for Elk River, Kansas, when that post office was open.

He also complained to whomever would listen about the time and effort it took for him to get to and from Peru, the county seat, when he had to pay his taxes.

He once went to check on his cattle and discovered a lone buffalo living with his herd.

This buffalo may or may not have been the last buffalo killed in southeast Kansas when that buffalo was killed on Wabash street in Howard City in 1874 by a group of young boys, one of whom was democrat Fred Flory. This teenager later became republican Thomas E Thomson's rival by being the editor of the Howard Citizen. Years later each had an office in the newspaper building on south Wabash, which belonged to Flory and they shared the same printing press.

Coffeyville Daily Journal, May 26, 1920