TAOPI – Not content to have one of the summertime’s best celebrations, this tiny community’s 125th anniversary is headed for the record books.

Thursday, September 28, 2000

TAOPI – Not content to have one of the summertime’s best celebrations, this tiny community’s 125th anniversary is headed for the record books.

The record to be set: most U.S. Postal Service commemorative cancellations by a single community under 100 population.

"I never dreamed it would amount to something like this," Taopi Postmaster Marvel Oxley said.

The commemorative cancellations ended Tuesday.

How many has Oxley and her assistant Sherry Miller made? Answer: More than 1,000.

In fact, Oxley said, "Way over 1,000."

The rush for postal cancellations began Aug. 26, when Taopi celebrated its 125th anniversary.

With a population of less than 100 residents, it is one of the smallest communities in Mower County. Thus, the fact that the small number of hard-working citizens could orchestrate such a near-perfect celebration was even more notable.

Every event – parade, car show, antique tractor pull, old-timers softball game, Windsor pork chop dinner and street dance – was well-attended.

The celebration left everybody buzzing about what a great time they had in Taopi and townsfolk were pleased and proud they could enhance the image of their community.

It all began with a commemorative postal cancellation in the Taopi City Park.

"We had 500 postcards and we sold out of those and people were canceling other cards, too," Oxley said.

Oxley and Margie Meier, a Prairie Visions volunteer and the author of Taopi’s 125th anniversary history book, designed the cancellation. It depicts a steam-engine train, depicting the days when Taopi was a hub for both Great Western and Milwaukee Road trains, plus Chief Taopi, for whom the town is named.

Since the Aug. 26 celebration, requests for the cancellation have continued.

"Every day, they come in," Oxley said. "I’ve gotten them from all over the world: Australia, Guam, France and other countries, as well as just about every state in the union.

"I don’t know how so many people found out about it. It was in the U.S. Postal Service bulletin and on the Internet, I suppose."

Oxley’s post office at Taopi is a tiny building with a small lobby, where residents come each morning to collect their mail from boxes or Oxley.

In the rear office area, her desk and tables are full of the stamped cancellations on postcards and letters.

"It’s been overwhelming," she said. "I don’t know of any other community around here that has done something like this. Pat Graves did it when the farm show was held at Rose Creek, but this has been something else at Taopi."