Pflugerville
Pflugerville, Travis County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Henry Pfluger (1803-67), who migrated from Germany to Texas in 1849-50, moved his large family here in 1853. Other settlers joined them, and in 1872 a school was begun on Henry Lisso's farm. Immanuel Lutheran Church was founded in 1874. Primarily a farming settlement, Pflugerville had no commercial business until 1890, when Louis Bohls built a general store. A post office was opened there in 1893 with Bohls as postmaster. In 1891 two community organizations were formed: the German-American Mutual Assurance Association, to insure townspeople against natural disasters; and "Pflugerville Schuetzen and Kegel Verein," a shooting and bowling club. The village began to grow when the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad arrived in 1904. George Pfluger (1834-1910) and his son Albert (1878-1969) platted the townsite, and George donated land for a train depot and a school. Early businesses included drugstores, groceries, a hotel, grist mill, cotton gin, ice factory, and a blacksmith. In 1907 La Rue Noton and Archie Ward started a telephone system. Farmers State Bank, chartered in 1906, became First State Bank in 1933. A newspaper, "The Pflugerville Press," was published from 1907 until 1942. In 1958-62, the Pflugerville High School football team gained national fame by winning 55 consecutive games. (1976)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
German immigrant Henry Pfluger brought his large family to this Blackland Prairie farmland in 1853, and other settlers followed, founding a school and Immanuel Lutheran Church within two decades. The village stayed purely agricultural until an 1890 general store and the 1904 arrival of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad spurred a proper townsite, banks, a newspaper, and mutual-aid and shooting-and-bowling clubs that reflected its German character. Decades later the town even earned a footnote in football lore with 55 straight high-school wins.
Why it matters
Pflugerville is a textbook example of how German immigration and the railroad together turned isolated Central Texas farmland into a thriving community.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Henry Pfluger
- · George Pfluger
- · Louis Bohls
Related events
- · Arrival of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad (1904)
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Klattenhoff House
Hutto, TX
German-born William Klattenhoff immigrated to Texas in 1872 at seventeen, and work on the International and Great Northern Railroad brought him to Hutto, where he bought land in 1876. After marrying Alvina Plattow he built a first home, then a grander second house in 1896 as his success as farmer, rancher, and businessman grew. The homestead stayed in the family into the 21st century, a marker of German settlement in the region.
Round Rock
Round Rock, TX
Settlement gathered here in the late 1830s, and by mid-century former Austin mayor Jacob Harrell was selling lots near the Stagecoach Road crossing at Brushy Creek. A post office opened in 1851, and the community soon renamed itself Round Rock for a distinctive limestone ford; immigration from several states and Sweden doubled its population in the 1850s. When the railroad built a new townsite to the east in 1876, "New Town" quickly eclipsed the old settlement, and Round Rock briefly rivaled Austin as a commercial hub before growing, a century later, into one of the nation's fastest-expanding cities.
Pflugerville Schools
Pflugerville, TX
German immigrants who settled northeast Travis County in 1849 prized education, opening a one-room school on a farm in 1872 with lessons in both English and German. A brick school rose in Pflugerville in 1907 on land donated by George Pfluger, and the community's district was chartered in 1919. Through consolidations, a WPA-built rock gym, and a record-setting football team, the schools grew into a district serving more than 23,000 students, integrating in 1965.
Immanuel Evangelical Lutheran Church
Pflugerville, TX
Circuit riders first brought services to this area in 1852, and in 1869 the Texas Synod sent Pastor F. Ernst to preach to local Lutherans, many of them German settlers. A congregation formally organized in 1874, and landowner William Bohls donated five acres for a church and cemetery. A frame sanctuary dedicated in 1875 gave way to a brick edifice in 1909; after fire destroyed it in 1928, the present church rose in its place.