Midway Post Office, Union Parish Louisiana Submitted for the Union Parish Louisiana USGenWeb Archives by T. D. Hudson, 8/2004 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ************************************************ ================================================================================= Early Postmasters of Midway Post Office, Union Parish Louisiana ================================================================================= SOURCE: Records of Appointment of Postmasters, 1832 – September 30, 1971, located in the National Archives, identifed as Record Group 28, Microfilm Publication M841, Reels #51 & 52. T. D. Hudson transcribed this information from the original records and donated it to the Union Parish Archives in August 2004. ================================================================================== MIDWAY POST OFFICE ESTABLISHED: 13 February 1860 HISTORY OF MIDWAY POST OFFICE: Permanently closed 28 June 1866, along with many other Union Parish post offices. POSTMASTERS: James T. White, 13 Feb 1860 - 9 Jan 1861 D. P. Cook, 10 Jan 1861 - 27 June 1866 [Office permanently close on 28 June 1866.] ================================================================================== COMMENTS: I am unable to identify a specific location for this post office at this time. All we can say with certainty is that it was located somewhere in the northeastern portion of Union Parish in what was then Ward 2. James T. White lived in Ward 2 in 1860 and 1870, but he never purchased government land so the Union Parish deeds would have to be researched to identify the precise location of his farm. His post office was almost certainly located on or near his farm in 1860. Strangely, Don A. P. Cook, the second postmaster, does not appear to have lived near James T. White. Cook was a very early settler of Union Parish, arriving by 1837. He settled in northern Union Parish, near the modern village of Truxno, in Sections 32,33, Township 23 North, Range 1 East. This was just about 1.5 miles east of the Louisiana meridian, the imaginary north/south line that divides the state. This suggests a motivation for the name "Midway", since the office was located in near the meridian, or near the center of the state. My confusion arises with James T. White's location in 1870. He lived quite a distance from Cook, down in Township 21 North, Range 2 East (about 8 miles south of Marion). Perhaps he lived nearer to Cook in 1860 when he operated the post office, and then moved by 1870. Ironically, James T. White's son, Henry T. White, later opened the Raleigh Post Office and served as its only postmaster. ###########################################################