While researching, the Ear came across some postal oddities in “Oregon Geographic Names: IV; Additions since 1944” (bit.ly/weirdpo). Pictured, Astoria’s first post office. 

Did you know there was an Albert post office? It was in a small community of the same name “on the upper reaches of Blind Slough a little to the south of Aldrich Point.” 

The place was established on Sept. 11, 1901, with Nels Haglund settled in as first postmaster, but it was Albert Berglund, the second postmaster, that the place is named after. 

When the office closed on Sept. 15, 1913, the mail then went to the Blind Slough post office, established in 1910, which had four postmasters before it closed in 1924. (bit.ly/bslough).

Bet you didn’t know there was a Chadwell post office, either. Chadwell is described as a “locality on Lewis and Clark River, about 4 miles south of Miles Crossing and south of Astoria.” 

Early settlers William True and his wife settled there, and named the place after their former hometown Chadwell, England. The post office was established on Feb. 20, 1882, with True as the first postmaster. 

The 1884 “Oregon, Washington and Idaho Gazetteer and Business Directory” describes Chadwell as follows: “It contains a steam shingle mill (probably Sackett Bros.), and ships logs and farm produce. Population, 25. Mail, weekly.” (bit.ly/OWIgaze). The date of the post office’s closure is not certain.

And then there was the Wise post office, in the Tucker Creek District, south of Miles Crossing, which opened in June 1895, with postmaster Hugh McCormick in charge, and closed in May 1903. This post office was very likely named after Herman Wise, Astoria’s longtime postmaster (bit.ly/hwise).

Wise, whose house still stands at 1064 Harrison Ave., was an Oregon pioneer businessman who also served as mayor of Astoria from 1906 to 1910, as well as owning a thriving clothing business: “You can’t look foolish when you wear a Wise suit” (bit.ly/hwise01). (In One Ear, 9/12/2019)