The Collector: Philatelist Charles Brondos gathered postmarks from each state’s smallest county

An abiding interest in history and geography, and a touch of admitted eccentricity led to an interesting addition to Charles Brondos’ stamp collection – a postmark collection. Not just any postmark collection, but a very specific one.

“In 1992, I started a project to have envelopes returned from the post office at the county seat of the smallest county in every state,” he said.

It took considerable research to target each county seat, and then he put some stamps to use.

“Each envelope had stamps from the centennial of the state, the state flag, the state bird and the state flower,” Brondos explained. “I ordered or found the stamps I wanted to send.”

For example, in 1992, the smallest county in Washington was Garfield County. Pomeroy is the county seat and the county’s only incorporated city. The envelope he mailed there featured stamps with Mount Rainier, the state flag, and a stamp with the American Goldfinch and a Rhododendron.

“Over the months the envelopes trickled in,” he recalled.

From Eutaw, Alabama, to North Hero, Vermont, Brondos eventually received replies from the smallest counties in all 50 states.

One of the stamps he included on an envelope sent to Mosquero, New Mexico, in Harding County, featured the famed Ship Rock. The rock formation juts nearly 1,583 feet above the high-desert plain of the Navajo Nation. Its moniker comes from the peak’s resemblance to 19th century clipper ships.

In his South Hill dining room, Brondos pointed out one of his favorites. It’s from Murdo, the county seat of Jones County in South Dakota. The stamp features the state flower, American Pasque, in the foreground and behind the lavender blossoms; a pioneer woman emerges from a sod house.

It’s details like these that made compiling his postmark collection so enjoyable.

Of course, as a philatelist, he’s got volumes of stamps that caught his eye including the history of World War II. Sheets of stamps beginning with 1941 trace the evolution of the war. Maps and battle locations are included in the special edition pages.

“When the series started stamps were 29 cents,” said Brondos.

He turned a page and pointed to the 1945 stamps. “Here they’re 32 cents.”

Another volume contains all of the presidential stamps. You won’t find Jimmy Carter or Bill Clinton, though.

“They don’t make stamps of living people,” he explained.

In addition to stamps and postmarks, Brondos has collected 200 postcards from places he’s visited, including one with a 1-cent stamp from Spokane dated 1905. It features a sepia-tinted mill on the roaring Spokane River with the Howard Street Bridge in the background. The spidery cursive is difficult to read.

And then there’s his collection of First Day Covers – envelopes affixed with a stamp or stamps on the first day that they are made available to the public. On the first day of issue, the envelope is stamped with a postmark and cancellation indicating the date and location that the envelope was received into the postal service.

The envelopes feature commemorative artwork, like a portrait of William F. Cody, aka Buffalo Bill. It’s postmarked from Cody, Wyoming, and has two Buffalo Bill stamps affixed to it.

He’s got a First Day Cover of Washington’s statehood centennial. The capitol and state flag are depicted. The postmark is Olympia, February 1989, and the stamp features Mount Rainier.

But his favorite First Day Cover is one commemorating Expo ’74. The artwork is a drawing of a smiling family with Riverfront Park and the Sky Ride as it appeared during Expo. The stamp features colorful artwork with the slogan “Expo ’74 Preserve the Environment.” The postmark? Spokane, April 14, 1974.

“We’d just moved here from Minnesota in 1974 and were able to go to the last month of Expo,” Brondos recalled.

As to his unique subcollection of postmarks from the smallest counties of every state in the U.S., when asked what inspired it, Brondos smiled.

I get weird ideas for all kinds of things,” he said. “I figured this would be something no one else would do.”