Clark V. Savidge
1870-1947
"Clark took a job with the Olympia post office in 1891, becoming one of the city’s first three mail carriers. Free delivery had just been established and numerous people applied for the job. Before that, people could only pick up their mail inside the post office.
As a mail carrier, Savidge delivered mail by horse, which was not without its misadventures. In 1891 he was recruited to herd stray cattle into the city pound. Another time, he suffered repeated thefts of the sack of oats he brought daily for his hardworking horse’s lunch. Described in a Morning Olympian article on June 24, 1895, the culprit “sack fiend” would slip into the shed near Seventh Street while Savidge was on his route. For the first few days, the culprit only took the sack, which had resell value, leaving the oats neatly in the feed box. Then, tired of being neat, he threw the oats everywhere before taking the sack.
Savidge ended up working for the post office for 19 years, serving also as a clerk and assistant postmaster. In 1910, he resigned from the post office to dedicate his time to the Knights of Pythias, a fraternal organization."
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