Pancake, Texas. (original) (raw)

History in a Pecan Shell

Mail delivery seemed to be a problem in Pancake - in fact most of what is written about the town in the Handbook of Texas involves postal infrastructure.

The name comes not from a flat-topped mountain or the terrain, but the first postmaster who had the unusual name of John R. Pancake. It opened in 1884 and closed in 1886.

Mail was routed through Jonesboro until the community tried again (1894) to have their own post office. The new post office was designated Bush, Texas.

The town had a population of 200 Pancakers or Bushes in the mid-1890s. The name reverted to Pancake in 1901 and by 1908 the post office had closed again - mail going back to Jonesboro.

The population of Pancake dwindled and the town had only twenty-five residents from the 1930s through the 1960s when statistics stopped.

Pancake is shown on detailed county maps, but the town never had a cemetery of its own. Nearby Jonesboro or Turnersville provided ground for Pancake burials.

Cornfield in Pancake
Photo courtesy M.M. Harris, 2007

Pancake, Texas Stories

• Legends of the Pancake Mine by Clay Coppedge
  Ike Pancake figured he was on to something big when he and his son, Jud, were knocking around their Coryell County property and found a rock with Jim Bowie's name and the date 1832 carved on it.... more
• Desperately Seeking Permission: A Coryell County Adventure by M.M. Harris
  It has been about a month since my last adventure in the back country of Coryell County, and I have been itching to go out to test my wilderness survival skills and increase my knowlegde of the history and anthropology of my home county in Texas... more

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