historic HARRISVILLE
In 1871 the Post Office Department in Washington D.C. approved establishment of a post office in a one-room adobe in Harrisville. Later it moved closer to what is now the Union Pacific RR tracks on West Harrisville Road. Through the efforts of postmaster, Richard R.D. Brown, it became the distributing center of what was termed the “Star Mail Route,” one of the largest routes in the territory. It received mail semi-daily and was sorted and sent to North Ogden, Pleasant View, Plain City and all points near.
In 1889 “big brother” Ogden was instrumental in getting the distribution center transferred to Ogden City. Thirteen years later (1902) post office in Harrisville was discontinued.
“Star Route service began in places too sparsely populated to warrant an official route. The postal service granted contracts to independent carriers to deliver mail with “celerity, certainty, and security.”
Weary of repeatedly writing these words in ledgers, postal clerks substituted three asterisks— * * * —and the phrase “Star Route” was born. What is a Star Route? | National Postal Museum