Layton's First Post Office

Long before email, telephones, or even dependable local roads, receiving a letter was one of the few ways families in rural Utah could maintain connections with relatives, businesses, government offices, and communities beyond their immediate surroundings. For residents of what became Layton, even getting to the post office once required a trip to another town. The Layton area was originally part of Kaysville, and its residents received their mail through the Kaysville Post Office. Anyone expecting a letter or package generally had to arrange for it to be collected there. As settlement increased around the farms north of Kaysville, this arrangement became increasingly inconvenient. A partial solution appeared in 1882 with the establishment of the Farmers Union Store in Layton. Local residents arranged to have mail delivered to the store, where customers could pick it up. This was not yet an independent Layton post office—it was an additional service the store provided to the surrounding community. By the middle of the 1880s, the Layton area had grown enough that residents sought an official post office of their own. An application for a "Special Post Office" was submitted in September 1885. The proposed postal service would use the railroad that had transformed transportation through northern Davis County. Mail was to arrive on the Utah Central Railway at Kays Creek Station and then be handled through the new local post office. The application estimated that approximately 600 people would be served. It also contained something historically significant: the proposed name "Layton." The first application was not successful, and another petition was submitted in April 1886. On the second application, "Layton" remained the first-choice name, while "Thornley" was offered as an alternate. This is an important moment in Layton's history because the postal designation helped establish Layton as a distinct community identity at a time when the area was still closely associated with Kaysville. The second effort succeeded. On June 11, 1886, William A. Hyde was officially appointed the first United States postmaster of Layton. Hyde operated a small store in a frame building at approximately 52 North Main Street. He had constructed the store on land purchased from Thomas Sandall. The new Layton Post Office was installed inside Hyde's store. This combination was common in small nineteenth-century communities. Early postmasters frequently conducted postal business from their homes or businesses rather than from purpose-built government post offices. For Layton residents, Hyde's store now provided more than merchandise. It became the place where letters, newspapers, business correspondence, and other mail entered and left the community. Hyde remained postmaster until 1894. The post office then followed a pattern common to small towns of the period: when a new postmaster was appointed, postal operations could move with that person. Rufus Adams became Layton's postmaster and relocated the post office to the Adams and Sons store farther south on Main Street. Adams arranged a room in the southeast corner of the store so he could operate both as a merchant and as postmaster. The post office remained in Adams and Sons until 1915. That year, Postmaster Joseph Sill constructed a small temporary building measuring approximately 12 by 14 feet next to his home for postal use. Sill anticipated significant growth associated with construction of Layton's new sugar factory and even planned a hotel next door for the visitors he expected. The hotel plan never materialized. Postal service nevertheless continued expanding. Sill increased the number of lock boxes from only six to ninety-six, an indication of the rapidly growing volume of local mail service. In 1917, Layton's population and postal activity became sufficient for the post office to advance from fourth-class to third-class status. Decades later, continued population growth brought another milestone. In July 1963, Layton qualified for a first-class post office. By then the farming community that William Hyde's little store had served in 1886 had changed dramatically. The original Hyde building also acquired a second chapter in local history after the post office moved. Carpenters remodeled Hyde's former store for use by St. Jude's Episcopal Church. The congregation occupied the building until 1916, giving the site significance not only in Layton's postal and commercial history but also in its religious history. In 2009, the Daughters of Utah Pioneers erected Historical Marker #555 at 52 North Main Street to commemorate the location. Today the marker preserves the story of a deceptively important institution. Opening a post office may seem routine today, but in 1886 it represented something larger: Layton had acquired a recognized name, a direct connection to the national postal network, and another institution separating the growing community from its earlier dependence on Kaysville.

Modern Layton did not begin as an independent city. The farms and settlements that eventually became Layton developed within a much larger area associated with Kaysville. During the nineteenth century, residents depended on Kaysville for various civic and commercial services, including postal service. Transportation improvements gradually changed that relationship. Railroads running through Davis County made it possible to move passengers, agricultural products, manufactured goods, newspapers, and mail far more efficiently than had been possible using wagons and stagecoaches alone. Kays Creek Station became an important transportation point for the developing Layton area. By 1885, residents believed the population justified a local post office serving approximately 600 people. Post offices carried unusual importance in nineteenth-century American communities. They were not merely places to mail letters. Newspapers, government notices, business correspondence, catalogs, family news, and information from distant communities all moved through the postal system. Receiving an official post office could also help establish a community's geographic identity. That was especially relevant in Layton. The use of "Layton" on the postal applications helped formalize a name for an area that had previously been considered part of Kaysville. The postal service initially operated much differently from the modern system. Instead of constructing a dedicated federal building, the government appointed a local postmaster who could operate the post office from a convenient private business. William A. Hyde's store therefore became Layton's first post office in 1886. When Rufus Adams later became postmaster, the operation moved to Adams and Sons. Joseph Sill subsequently operated it from another small building. This mobile arrangement reflected the modest scale of early rural postal service. As Layton grew during the twentieth century—particularly with commercial development, agriculture, industry, and eventually the enormous population changes associated with nearby Hill Field—the postal system expanded with it. Layton's advancement from a fourth-class post office to third-class status in 1917 and finally first-class status in 1963 provides a simple measurement of how dramatically the community grew after William Hyde became its first postmaster.