Pluck, Texas. (original) (raw)

History in a Post Office Box

Settlement dates from the 1850s but things didn�t really get started until the railroad arrived in 1882 to exploit the timber in the region.

A Houston company set up a sawmill there and the community that grew around it became known as Stryker, after the mill�s manager. A post office opened under that name in 1885 and with the available lumber, a school, church and residences were built. As the timber played out, the people moved on and by the 1890s the sawmill closed shop. By 1913 the post was discontinued and the town sat in limbo for five years � without a post office and unsure of their name.

In 1918 a new post office was applied for and application after application was rejected by the postal authorities as unsuitable. Impressed by the persistence of the populace and wishing to end the naming process, the Post Office Department simply assigned the town a name. Pluck.

Another story attributes the name to a man who complained that the rough life there required �pluck� from the residents. The population remained below 30 people and the second post office closed in 1953. Eventually the town disappeared from maps and today is a mere footnote in Polk County history.

1907 Polk County Postal Map showing Stryker (Pluck)
(Above "K" in "POLK")
Courtesy Texas General Land Office

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