Editing Atoka, Tennessee (section)

===United States Postal Service, Rural Free Delivery in Atoka===
{{Main|Rural Free Delivery}}

The official stance of the [[United States Postal Service]], according to an article published by the Historian of the United States Postal Service in April 2008, is that Atoka was the first [[post office]] with rural free delivery in [[Tennessee]] starting on January 11, 1897.<ref name="USPS2008">{{cite web |last= United States Postal Service Historian |title= Tennessee: Dates that First Rural Routes Were Established at Post Offices, through 1904 |url= http://about.usps.com/who-we-are/postal-history/first-rfd-tennessee.pdf |publisher= United States Postal Service |access-date= June 28, 2013}}</ref> But according to an article in Tipton County's local newspaper, published in 1936:
<blockquote>'''ATOKA ROUTE ONE IS THIRD IN UNITED STATES'''<ref name="Leader50th"/>
The first rural route established in the South and the third established in the United States was set up at Atoka in 1895. At that time the United States Post Office Department was experimenting with rural routes. They established one in the North, one in the East, and one in the South at Atoka... The first route, which was Atoka Route 1, was 16½ miles long... Route 1 was later combined with route 2, which covers the territory from Atoka to the Mississippi River.</blockquote>

Another article from 1936 describes more about the post office:
<blockquote>Atoka's first postmaster was D. Bowden. With the development of the United States' splendid rural delivery system in her post office department, the Atoka post office grew in importance. Today there are two rural routes reaching out from the town, serving that section from the Mississippi river on the west to Salem on the east. All mail for Munford, Drummonds, Richardson's Landing, Randolph and other communities passes through the post office at Atoka, whose postmaster is E. M. Quisenberry and whose rural carriers are J. E. McQuiston and R. S. McDill.</blockquote><ref name="Leader50th"/>