UTICA, TEXAS. Utica was just southeast of Red Springs, south of the intersection of the Dallas-Shreveport road and a trade route that extended from Tyler, and thirteen miles north of Tyler in northern Smith County. A post office opened there in 1890, with Dayton Balfour as first postmaster. By 1892 Utica had a population of 100, three flour mills, three cotton gins, a wagonmaker, a druggist, and a lumber manufacturer. In 1904 its population was estimated at 100, but no businesses were reported there. Its post office closed in 1905, and thereafter the community disappeared from Smith County records and maps.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: "Post Offices and Postmasters of Smith County, Texas: 1847-1929," Chronicles of Smith County, Spring 1966. Smith County Historical Society, Historical Atlas of Smith County (Tyler, Texas: Tyler Print Shop, 1965). Albert Woldert, A History of Tyler and Smith County (San Antonio: Naylor, 1948).
