Point Pleasant
Clarksville City, Gregg County, Texas
Marker Inscription
From about 1850 until 1871, a post office, which served the Point Pleasant community, operated near this site. The area was known as Gilead under the first postmaster, L. B. Camp, who earlier had established a ferry crossing the Sabine River (2 mi. W). when the name Point Pleasant was adopted in 1852, J. K.Armstrong (d. 1860) was named postmaster. Other postmasters who served Point Pleasant were William W. Walters (d. 1885), who operated the stage stop where the post office was located, Claiborn Halbert, and Joshua W. Monk. Elisha A. Mackey was Point Pleasant's last official postmaster. During its 21 years of existence the Point Pleasant Post Office served approximately 48 families including those of Jarret Dean, James Hendrick, Mason Moseley, Augustus Moseley, A. H. Abney, A. C. Williams, Jacob M. Lacy, A. G. Rogers, and A. T. Wright. The Point Pleasant School (called Possom Trot and still operating in 1908 with Trustees R. A. Hendrix, E. W. Clements, and Mr. Phillips) and Moseley Cemetery also served these pioneers. When the railroad came through in 1873, the new towns of Gladewater and Longview drew residents away from the Point Pleasant area. Clarksville City, created by the 1931 East Texas oil boom, later developed at the site of the Point Pleasant community. Incise on back: In memory of our mother Minnie Clements Phillips (1892-1973)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
From about 1850 to 1871 a post office served the Point Pleasant community near a Sabine River ferry crossing first established by postmaster L. B. Camp. Renamed Point Pleasant in 1852, the settlement supported roughly 48 families, a stage stop, a school nicknamed 'Possum Trot,' and a cemetery through two decades of frontier life. When the railroad passed it by in 1873, residents drifted toward the new towns of Gladewater and Longview, and the site eventually gave way to Clarksville City, born of the 1931 East Texas oil boom.
Why it matters
Point Pleasant's brief life and quiet disappearance show how ferries and post roads once made a community—and how the railroad and, later, the oil boom could just as easily unmake and remake it.
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Related people
- · L. B. Camp
- · J. K. Armstrong
- · William W. Walters
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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O. H. Methvin, Sr., Founder of Longview
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