Yes! I'm sorry - I've always heard them referred to as "canoes" - maybe it's a local term! They usually have a number, or sometimes a letter in them. I have many with numbers 1 through 7, and one with a letter K.
I have most often heard this called football killers (the killer being the part of the cancel that marks the stamp so it cannot be reused).
As to your original question, the number in the cancel is the postal station number. In a big post office in a big town you could have 30 or more postal stations with postal workers cancelling mail by hand. Each station is numbered and that number is reflected in the killer of the cancel.
Some small towns may have a star in the center as they only had one station.
For more information on Ellipse cancels check The American Philatelist. There was a series that ran from January 1935 to April 1936 titled "Standardized Hand Stamp Cancellations on the Bank Note Issues" by Gilbert M. Burr. This series of articles was put in book form in 2004 by The US Cancellation Club. If you are interested I can check to see if any copies are still for sale.
Here are scans of the index for the US Cancellation Club's News Letter. It covers issues up to #273, November 2009. Most back issues are available from The US Cancellation Club. Issues run from $2.00 - $6.00 depending on year. I am happy to send you or anyone else that would like a back issues free to see if you may be interested in joining.
Off topic here, but thanks Vinman for the reference to wrdv.org - I am a huge fan of big band and swing, and did not know this station existed - I'll be listening online daily!
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