Mail delivery has certainly changed over the years. It seems that early mail service in
Honeyville was rather infrequent. At first BH Tolman served as the postmaster
staring in 1879. He would have to wait for the mail train, which was generally
late, in some cases by a week or more. Once per week he would go out in the
evening after the day’s chores and deliver the mail. In 1883 the mail started
to be delivered daily, generally during the middle of the night, which could be
quite taxing to someone who still had work to do in the day and mail to deliver
in the evening. Although mail was supposed to be daily the postmaster would
have to wait nightly for the mail train only to find out that there was often
no mail for Honeyville. Mary Tolman took
over as postmistress in 1891 and staffed the first post office when it was
built. There seems to have been several
residents opposed to a post office, with the Box Elder New Journal reporting that
some citizens were writing to Washington to forestall the opening of a post
office. The post office did open July,
1915. The first post office was located
across the street to the north of the Tolman and Son’s building. The asphalt that ran to the front of the post
office is still there. An excerpt from Mary Tolman’s biography states, “In July
1891 she was appointed Postmaster and held this position at different intervals
but for a total of 18 years. During this time it was necessary for her to put
mail on and take it off the midnight train. Not far from the station lived a
boy who was mentally deficient and every night while she kept her lonely vigil,
he would wait in the shadows of the station. As soon as the train left, she
would grab the mail sack and run for the safety of her home and every night he
would chase her and stand pounding on the door demanding his mail.” Mary lived
in a home built by Franklin Hunsaker, and still standing at the corner of 6980
N and 2750 W.
Not long after the new
post office was built Mary’s daughter, Paulie Boothe, and Paulie’s husband Hyrum,
who lived in the same house, took over the mail service and eventually made a
little attachment to their home which served as the post office for several
more years.
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| courtesy: Honeyville centennial DVD |
Over the years other people would take over the post office from
time-to-time or take on rural routes as that became a necessity. At some date
of which I am not sure the post office was moved to vacant building near the
Honeyville store for a short time before the present post office south of the
church was built.
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| Honeyville Post Office - 2014 |
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