The following information was taken from historical documents from the High Prairie Historical Society.
High Prairie was first established as HIGH-LAND, October 20, 1880
Renamed WILDCAT, April 11, 1881
Renamed HARTLAND, July 20, 1881
Post Offices were located in homes
1) 1880, Chester Parshall
2) 1890, David K. Clark
3) 1899, Roena A. Clark
4) 1902, John W. Boston
5) 1909, William H. Butts
6) 1912, William Bridgefarmer
7) 1916, Albert E. Majors
8) 1919, Emma E. Kelleher
9) 1921, Birdie Ann Taylor
10) 1923, John A. Taylor
11) 1930, Discontinued and moved to Lyle
Post offices changed locations with almost every change in postmasters. Mr. Parshall, who had so much difficulty in deciding upon a name for his post office, conducted it in his farm home, (Section 24), located on the Lyle to Goldendale road which led east through Centerville. The Clarks were known to have operated a store about a mile NW of Parshalls (SE Section 14), with the post office located there. Mr. Boston took it to his farm home situated about 2 miles farther northwest (SW Section 11), but Mr. Butts brought it back to the site which present-day maps show as Hartland (Section 14). Bridgefarmer’s home was a short distance west (Section 23), as was Major’s.
Mrs. Kelleher had the aid of many patrons in erecting a small post office building beside her farm home (Section 12). The Taylor’s moved this building to their home (Section 23), where it is still standing, unused for almost a century. All of these sites are located around 10 miles from Lyle.
Mr. Clark’s son, Byrd, was still in his teens when he carried mail for contractor Van Sorensen in a one-horse cart three times per week from Lyle. There was just enough room for the driver, but Byrd sometimes squeezed in a passenger. He would leave his horse and cart at a Lyle livery stable, row a boat across the Columbia to Rowena, Oregon, to meet the night train from The Dalles at 11:00 p.m. Often he went to The Dalles, got the mail, and started his return trip by steamer about 5:00 a.m. Once the boat sprung a leak and began to sink, but it was run onto a sandbar where it rested with the lower deck underwater. In order to keep the mail dry, Byrd took the pouches on his back until a deckhand could get into a lifeboat and row him to Lyle. Sometimes mail was brought to Lyle by the steamer and Byrd had to make a hurried trip to Hartland and back to catch the returning boat at Lyle with outgoing mail. The road was steep, narrow and rough.