From the Calendar: Woodland Postal Service

Brigham Young sent ten families to settle the Upper Provo River Valley in 1867.  Five more settled in 1868.  Many of the families lived along the six-mile river valley created by the Provo River but some lived on the bench to the south of the river, an area known as Bench Creek.

In 1875, the first post office was established in Woodland in the home of Thomas Pullen Potts.  Mr. Potts and family were one of the original ten families sent to settle Woodland or what was then called Bench Creek.  It isn’t clear where exactly the Potts home was located, but it was likely near the corner where Bench Creek Road turns east and Aspen Hollow Road heads up the mountain.  The Thomas P. Potts family would move several times around Woodland and his sons built part of the Winterton home located at 1538 East Lower River Road.

The next postmaster that is mentioned in the record is Robert Michie.  Robert was married to Thomas Potts’ sister, Frances.  The Potts family lived with the Michie family when they first moved to Woodland. The location of the post office at this time is still not exactly known but it was somewhere near 3100 Bench Creek Road.  The Salt Lake Tribune reported in 1894 that Robert Michie had been commissioned as postmaster and the post office had been moved one mile east to his home. 

In 1901 Robert Michie resigned as postmaster and the post office moved into the home of Fred and Louisa “Lucy” Peterson where it stayed until 1905.   Today this home is known as the Woodland Inn Bed and Breakfast and is located at 2602 East State Road 35.  Fred and Lucy were ranchers and mainly ran sheep on the adjoining farmlands.  Cattle and dairy cows would eventually round out the agricultural operation.  It can be assumed that either Fred or Lucy were postmaster during the four years the post office operated out of their home.

The final stop for the post office before it moved to rural home delivery was to the home of Joseph Hyrum Moon.  Hyrum was the son of Henry Moon and his second wife, Temperance Westwood.  Henry was one of the ten original settlers to Woodland but Temperance never lived in the valley.  Henry’s third wife, Mary Ann Thayne, moved to Woodland in 1882, a move made easier by the fact that her father and younger brother were already living there.  It is reported by Hyrum’s daughter, Lovina Moon Murphy, that Hyrum served as postmaster and she as his assistant from 1905-1910.  She wrote, “I assumed most of the duties such as reports, ordering supplies and transmitting the money to the dispensing office.”  The Moon home was located at 3324 East State Road 35.

It is difficult to fully write the history of postal service in Woodland.  It is not clear in the records if the postal service was continuous from 1875 to the end of 1910 or if residents had to make arrangements to pick up mail in neighboring towns.  What is clear is that the mail service was slow and inconsistent.  The men and women discussed here were trying their best to improve upon the rural lifestyle that they  

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