“You may think it not very smart in me …” Postmaster Egbert B. Willison wrote in his lengthy letter to the U. S. Post Office Department as he explained his response to a request for information from that department. The government agency had sent him a form to fill out and they also wanted him to draw a site map of his office and the surrounding area.
Willison was postmaster in Indianola, Illinois, and also a merchant in the small village of 365 people. The year was 1911 and he had first been appointed postmaster in 1897. His years as postmaster there made him a veteran of the stamp and letter occupation. It was clear from his letter to the U.S.P.D. he was a dedicated employee who wanted to answer the request with correct information.
The Post Office Department topographers were drawing up new maps and they requested an updated description of the location of the Indianola post office in relationship to other nearby post office locations. The department had hired its first topographer in 1837 and had been regularly drawing up new maps for nearly 75 years. One of the leading questions asked of postmasters was the distance from their post office to the next nearest one.
There are countless drawn maps from local postmasters in the national archives reflecting their artistic ability as well as their lack there of. The maps are accompanied by a multitude of forms where postmasters answered various questions, including the distance to the nearest post office from the one where they held forth. It is clear from many of these ink and penciled renderings and the questions answered, that many postmasters did not spend a lot of time pondering a response to the U.S.P.D. Certainly not like Willison did.
The dedicated Willison had questions. Did the hierarchy in Washington City want the nearest post office by postal route, or did they just want the nearest post office? Then, there was a question of the type of road. Did they want the distance measured on wagon roads, which were not as good as other roads?. In his two page letter to his leaders he requested more clarity on these issues.
He did send a precise map back to Washington City, along with his letter and the form. It showed nearly an equal distance to the post offices in Ridge Farm and Vermilion Grove. It also included the roads to Georgetown and the one to Sidell.
“I will explain the sketch map a little,” Willison wrote, “the main roads are marked in Red ink and my office is the Square in red ink.” He went on to explain the difference in miles by traveling the “wagon road” or the sections road to the Georgetown post office. He estimated it was nine miles from his post office to Georgetown by the sections road and 7 miles by the wagon road, because “it angles a little.” He observed the Vermilion Grove post office was farther by the wagon road, but he did not write any miles, other than to Georgetown.
In his lengthy letter Willison detailed the location of nearby rivers and streams and noted, “Swanks Branch, as we call it, goes through the town north east of my office.” He did not identify the nearest village post office but he did note the closest railroad post office. It was the Chicago & Eastern Illinois depot located 122 rods from his office. During that period of time, the Postal Department’s Railway Mail Service ruled mail transportation and distribution with Railway Post Office cars.
Willison closed his letter by stating, “You may think it not very smart in me not able to fill out these Blanks. I could fill them but probably not right.” Evidently the Post Office Department was satisfied with the information he provided, for there was no further correspondence located on the matter.
They should have put a star for effort by the dedicated postmaster’s name in the record book.
Willison died in 1935 at the age of 80 and he and his wife Martha were laid to rest in Woodlawn Cemetery.