Do you know of Middle River ???

This page is an orphan - a placeholder until we can discover more about Middle River. When we encounter a name that is new to us, we add it to our Gazetteer with the hope that we'll discover more information in the future. Such is the case with Middle River.

Our sources for Middle River (see Mentions and References below) indicate that it was a community with a post office by the same name. Unfortunately our sources aren't clear about the location of Middle River other than they indicate that Middle River would be found somewhere in San Joaquin County, California.

From the Blevins / Hellbock List: The post office opened in 1915 and closed in 1944.

This entry could have originated in error. It might be that a source had a misprint, was simply wrong or we made a transcription error while referencing it. Many of the documents we reference are from the 1800s and the early 1900s, with some easier to read than others.

Part of the difficulty in identifying whether a name is a post office or a community lies with how Post Offices were named. We've prepared an article with our understanding of how post offices were named: Naming of Post Offices.

Communities Also Named Middle River ...

We found nine communities that share the name Middle River.

Within California, the name Middle River is unique.

Beyond California, we know of another nine communities that are located throughout in the United States and Canada. Of these nine communities, six are located in the United States and four are in Canada.

Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
- British Columbia
  - Please visit our profile page for the British Columbia community of Middle River.
- Florida
  - Broward County
  - Please visit our profile page for the Florida community of Middle River [Broward County].
- Iowa
  - Madison County
  - We found mention of this community, but have little information.<1> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Iowa community of Middle River [Madison County].
- Maryland
  - Baltimore County
  - Please visit our profile page for the Maryland community of Middle River [Baltimore County].
- Minnesota
  - Marshall County
  - Please visit our profile page for the Minnesota community of Middle River [Marshall County].
- New Brunswick
  - Please visit our profile page for the New Brunswick community of Middle River.
- North Carolina
  - Brunswick County
  - Please visit our profile page for the North Carolina community of Middle River [Brunswick County].
- Nova Scotia
  - Please visit our profile page for the Nova Scotia community of Middle River.
- Virginia
  - Augusta County
  - We found mention of this community, but have little information.<1> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Virginia community of Middle River [Augusta County].

Miscellaneous References and Mentions for Middle River ...

We've created the following list to keep track of the sources that proved useful in adding to our knowledge about Middle River:

Found in a comprehensive list of Post Offices that was created by Cameron Blevins and Richard Helbock.<2>

SPV's Comprehensive Railroad Atlas of North America - California & Nevada
Written by: Walker, Mike
Published by Steam Powered Video (SPV), 2002
(Available from Amazon.com)

The FIPS database contains an entry for Middle River.

Referenced FIPS Records ...

FIPS Code: 06/47318 (Place Name: Middle River)

County: San Joaquin (FIPS State/County: 06/077)

Class: U8

Identifies a populated place (in this case, Middle River) located wholly or substantially outside the boundaries of an incorporated place or CDP (Census Designated Place) but whose name has not been verified as authoritative by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).

More Orphans in San Joaquin County ...

Can you help?

As we explained above, when we encounter a name that might be a community or a post office we add it to our Gazetteer. If we have little information to go with the name, we call them Orphans. Below are Orphans that we believe to be located in San Joaquin County.

Footnotes ...

<1>

If we encounter the name of what might be a community, our methodology is to add that name to our Gazetteer as a placeholder. As we find more information about that community, it will be added to our Gazetteer.

Just as a reminder: Our definition of a community is rather broad and includes those places (or areas) where several families lived and had a name which identified that place. For example, you might hear somebody say that they are going over to Bird Creek to see Pete ... Bird Creek is just a gas station and a couple of homes at the crossroads. While it might not be on the map, everybody in the area knows it by that name.

Places of interest include buildings at a crossroad, several families clustered in a hollow or maybe the location of a way station. It also includes places like mines, lumber camps, ferry crossings, etc. The community might still exist, is now gone or only existed for just a short period of time.

Also keep in mind that Middle River could have been on the original document by mistake, misspelled, the original/alternate name of a community that we've listed elsewhere or was placed in the wrong county. Sometimes a post office or train station would have a different name than the community where it's located, so two names might be referring to the same community - we're working to straighten it all out.

<2>

A copy of their list with background information can be found at:

https://cblevins.github.io/us-post-offices/data-biography/