Tryškiai (Trischki, Trishki) is a small town in Žemaitija, in 1923 pop.1400, which acquired a post office in the czarist period, some time after 1900. In WWI, when the German army undertook a swift offensive into Žemaitija and Courland on the morning of April 27, 1915, Tryškiai was vacated by Russian troops at 1 pm on April 29, and was entered a little later by units of German 33rd Cavalry Brigade (6. Kavallerie-Division). There was no post office at Tryškiai during the German occupation.
German army’s retreat from Russia at the end of 1918 was followed by Red Army’s advance into Lithuania as far west as Telšiai. Units of so-called International Brigade entered Tryškiai in mid-January 1919 but were pushed out in early March by parts of Detachement Schlenther during the German volunteer Grenzschutz drive to re-capture Riga.
Opening of Lithuanian post offices was usually done in consultation with local self-government bodies (savivaldybė, miesto ar valsčiaus komitetas, and the like) which arranged for suitable premises and sometimes helped out with associated expenses. Formally, in Tryškiai a post office was opened on or about April 15, 1920, its first postmaster (organizatorius) being Stasys Varnilavičius with a monthly salary of 600 auksinai. But postal services in Tryškiai began at an earlier date at the initiative of the local “Valsčiaus Komitetas” which arranged for collection and distribution of local mail.
Shown below is a postcard containing season’s greetings addressed to a nearby manor and prepaid correctly at the local rate of 10 skatikai. [colln. Doniela]. For postcards, at that time domestic rate was 20 skatikai and foreign rate 40 skatikai. The first Lithuanian stamps available here were values from the Fourth Berlin Issue, soon followed by the Sėjėjas Issue and so forth. As no normal postmarker was available, early cancelling was done by making use of the “Tryškių Valsčiaus Komitetas” seal, applied in violet ink. A similar early practice has been noted at least in Kybartai and Andriejavas. A regular calendar-type postmarker was supplied to Tryškiai in late1920 or early 1921.
Known provisional markings:
Cancelling by “Valsčiaus Komitetas” seal:
[1919] card to a nearby manor, Berlin IV 10 [colln. Doniela]