Union Cross Roads/Oakland 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 Union Cross Roads (later Oakland) 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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UNION CROSS ROADS POST OFFICE ESTABLISHED:
    7 May 1852

HISTORY OF UNION CROSS ROADS POST OFFICE, 1852 - 1874:
    discontinued 26 June 1867
    re-established 10 March 1868 
    name changed to Oakland on 6 April 1874


POSTMASTERS OF UNION CROSS ROADS, 1852 - 1874:

George Everett, 7 May 1852 - 18 April 1854

William D. M. Bruton, 19 Apr 1854 - 1 Feb 1855

John P. Everett, 2 Feb 1855 - 13 Jan 1856

Garland M. Ivy, 14 Jan 1856 - 9 Mar 1857

Washington J. Pickel, 10 Mar 1857 - 25 June 1867

     [office closed 26 June 1867 - 9 Mar 1868]

Miss Nancy L. Pickell, 10 Mar 1868 - 5 July 1868

Henry Rogers, 6 July 1868 - 4 Oct 1868

Mrs. Dettie A. Goldsby, 5 Oct 1868 - 5 Apr 1874

     [office name changed from 'Union Cross Roads' to 'Oakland' on 6 April 1874]

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POSTMASTERS OF OAKLAND:

Mrs. Dettie A. Goldsby, 6 Apr 1874 - 7 Feb 1875

Joseph H. Slade, 8 Feb 1875 - 14 Dec 1881

Thos. H. McFadin, 15 Dec 1881 - 21 Apr 1892

George E. Murphy, 22 April 1892 - 17 July 1904

Fred Tucker, 18 July 1904 - 12 May 1907

Chas. W. Toler, 13 May 1907 - 7 Apr 1908

Alley A. Vestal, 8 Apr 1908 - 26 Mar 1909

Henry H. Holbert, 27 Mar 1909 - 25 Jan 1915

Wm. T. Smith, 26 Jan 1915 - 21 Nov 1910

Alice Phillips, 22 Nov 1910 - 8 Apr 1915

Butler Phillips, 9 April 1915 - 7 Nov 1923

Alice Landers, 8 Nov 1923 - serving in 1930

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COMMENTS:

#1
This office was located in the modern community of Oakland, S10, T23N, R1E, just 
0.75 miles south of the Arkansas state line. 

#2
Confusion may arise regarding this post office and the Spring Hill Post Office located 
quite a distance south of Union Cross Roads. 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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