Spring Hill Post Office, Union Parish Louisiana

Submitted for the Union Parish Louisiana USGenWeb Archives by T. D. Hudson, 8/2004


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Early Postmasters of Spring Hill Post Office, Union Parish Louisiana
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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. 

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SPRING HILL POST OFFICE ESTABLISHED:
    1 May 1852

HISTORY OF SPRING HILL POST OFFICE:
    discontinued 13 July 1855
    re-established 28 August 1855
    discontinued 8 May 1857

POSTMASTERS:

James Madison Turner, 1 May 1852 - 12 July 1855

     [office closed 13 July 1855 - 27 Aug 1855]

James Edwards, 28 Aug 1855 - 7 May 1857

     [office permanently closed 8 May 1857]


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COMMENTS:

#1
This post office was almost certainly located near the home of the original 
postmaster, James Madison Turner. From the 1840s until about 1857, Turner 
lived on the southwest side of Bayou D'Loutre, just off the Ward's Chapel 
Road (Louisiana Highway #828) in the N 1/2 of Section 29, Township 21 North, 
Range 2 East. The next postmaster, James Edwards, lived in Section 15, 
about 2 miles northeast of Turner's plantation, across Bayou D'Loutre. 
Thus, the Spring Hill Post Office was located in this vicinity, some nine 
or ten miles east/northeast of Farmerville and seven miles south of Marion.

#2
Confusion may arise regarding the Spring Hill Post Office and the Union Cross 
Roads Post Office located quite a distance north of Spring Hill. The Spring Hill 
Post Office was permanently closed on 8 May 1857, and postal records do not show that 
any Union Parish post office carried this name after that date. However, the 1860 
census enumerator identified a number of families as having the post office of 
Spring Hill. Although we have no way to know why he used this name, it was 
technically incorrect, and those families listed with this office on the 1860 
census did not live anywhere near the location of the former Spring Hill Post 
Office. The post office identified as Spring Hill on the 1860 census was actually 
the Union Cross Roads Post Office. The most logical explanation was that the 
Union Cross Roads Post Office was located very near the Springhill Baptist Church 
founded by Rev. George Everett in 1849 (Everett had also served as the first 
postmaster at Union Cross Roads). Perhaps the enumerator became confused, or, perhaps 
local residents wanted to use their post office name to match their local Baptist 
church. In any case, no one officially changed the name of the office to 
'Spring Hill'; it remained 'Union Cross Roads' until it was changed to 'Oakland' 
in 1874.

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