10/27/2022
Garden Valley’s First Post Office of How It Received Its Names
In the early days, settlers in Garden Valley received their mail from Placerville. Anyone going to Placerville picked up the mail for himself and his neighbors. Jim Mills, a rancher and merchant, developed the habit of carrying the mail to and from Placerville on his weekly journey.
It was reasonable that when a post office was approved for the Valley on February 11, 1875, that it should be in the centrally located Mill’s home. The Mill’s home was the center for many of the parties, socials and dances held in the Valley, as well as being the Post Office.
Until that time, the Valley had been called the Upper Payette Valley, and was so recorded on the 1870 census. When it was time to choose a name for the new post office, Jim and two of his neighbors, Hugh Craig and M.B. McLaughlin, got together and came up with the name of Garden Valley. The name was approved, and Julia Mills was appointed postmaster. Julia came to Garden Valley in 1874 with her husband and two children from Granite Creek, where Jim had been a merchant. Both Julia and Jim were born in Ireland. Although she gave up the post office in 1901, Julia lived an active life until an accident caused her death when she was in her eighties.
