Mount Pleasant, Texas

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History of Mount Pleasant

Mount Pleasant, TX RoadyGoat

Mount Pleasant, settled atop its namesake hill in 1848, feels like a place where time slows down a bit. Interstate 30 might skirt the southern edge, linking us to the hustle of Dallas and the timber country near Texarkana, but here, life unfolds at a more deliberate pace. It's easy to imagine the town's early days just by walking around the square. They say the original brick street is still under the asphalt downtown, a hidden reminder of what came before. Loblolly pines surround the town, and Lake Bob Sandlin, a short drive away on Cypress Creek, is a great place to unwind. Of course, Mount Pleasant has also sent some remarkable people out into the world.

Mount Pleasant, TX RoadyGoat

Mount Pleasant sits a little higher than you might expect, a gentle rise in the rolling East Texas landscape. You can imagine why the early settlers chose this spot back in 1848 – a pleasant hill, they called it, and the name stuck. For years, the town grew slowly, drawing its life from the land. Even today, driving around, you’re surrounded by loblolly pines, and you know agriculture, especially poultry, keeps a lot of families going. Underneath the asphalt downtown, there's still a brick street, a century-old reminder of how things used to be. Of course, time changes everything. Interstate 30 now runs just south of town, connecting Mount Pleasant to Dallas and Texarkana. Lake Bob Sandlin, not far away, brought recreation and new faces. Though it's a small town, it’s had its moments in the spotlight. Despite the changes, Mount Pleasant has held onto its friendly, small-town feel, a welcoming place in the heart of East Texas.

Mount Pleasant, TX RoadyGoat

Mount Pleasant, sitting just a bit higher than the rolling hills around it, has always been a crossroads. Established in 1848, it drew folks from across the South looking for fertile land and a fresh start. You can still see echoes of those early settlers in the architecture around the downtown square – simple, sturdy buildings meant to last. Though the accents might have softened over time, that slow, deliberate way of speaking, common across Northeast Texas, hints at those Southern roots. While the brick street they say is hidden under the asphalt downtown might be invisible now, you can still taste the past in the food. Down-home cooking is everywhere, and while you might not find it advertised, there's a distinct influence from the African American community who worked the land for generations. You'll find that same spirit in the music, too, even if it's subtle. And even though Interstate 30 rushes by just south of town, there's a comforting, small-town feel that reminds you this is a place where people still value those old traditions.

Towler, Annie McLean Moores

1893

Annie McLean Moores Towler, banker, clubwoman, and the first female president of a national bank in Texas, was born in Texas on April 7, 1860. She was the firstborn child of William Pinckney McLean and Margarette Batte McLean. The 1870 U.S. census recorded the McLean family in Mount Pleasant, Titus County, Texas, where she attended school. Annie McLean married her next-door neighbor, Charles Washington Moores, in the early 1880s. They had no children. In 1883 her husband co-founded the first private bank in Mount Pleasant with J. T. McDonald, Thompson Morris, and C. C. Carr. After her husband died in 1888, Annie Moores served as a director and an officer with the bank, including as president of the private bank. The private bank became a national bank on March 28, 1892. When it formed, she was one of nine stockholders to serve on the bank's board of directors and would retain that directorship position until her death. C. C. Carr served as the first president for the rest of 1892 until the board elected her to that position on January 1, 1893. Thus Annie Moores became the first woman president of a national bank in Texas, and some sources credited her as the first in the United States. The First National Bank of Mount Pleasant joined the Texas Bankers Association . The 1893 Banking Law Journal called her the "youngest bank president in the state of Texas." Moores served as president of the First National Bank of Mount Pleasant from 1893 to 1899 and 1906 to 1915. She served as vice president from 1900 to 1905. The Texas Bankers Association named "Mrs. Annie M. Moores, Mt. Pleasant" to the 1900-01 standing Committee on Finance and Auditing. She became the first woman appointed to a statewide office within the Texas Bankers Association. With the death of her sister, Ida (wife of C. C. Carr), in 1900, Annie devoted the next few years to raising her nieces and nephew. From the mid-1890s to 1907 Moores divided her time between two homes-she spent some of her time attending to business affairs in Mount Pleasant but also lived with her parents in Fort Worth, where she was active in social affairs and often mentioned in society news. In 1894 she attended and spoke at the first annual Texas Women's Press Association ( see TEXAS PRESS WOMEN ) meeting. She partly owned the Titus County Times , which ultimately became the Times Review of Mount Pleasant. In the late 1890s she served on the board of the Fort Worth Public Library Association. She was also active in the Woman's Wednesday Club of Fort Worth. In April 1898 Moores gave a well-received address at the opening evening of the first annual convention of Texas Women's Clubs ( see TEXAS FEDERATION OF WOMEN'S CLUBS ). Her speech on free public libraries contained historical references and quotes from great writers and reflected the breadth of her education. She had studied piano, voice, and elocution at the New England Conservatory; literature and sociology at Stanford University; Spanish in Mexico; and French in New Orleans and France. In 1902 Annie Moores served as the secretary of the General Federation of Women's Clubs and the Texas Federation of Women's Clubs state secretary to the General Federation of Women's Clubs. She spoke often at the annual state and national meetings. The 1902 meeting in Los Angeles noted attendees would be "honored with addresses by several of the world's most noted women." Annie spoke on the topic of traveling libraries and traveling art collections. In November 1902 the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Commission appointed Moores to the Board of Lady Managers for the St. Louis World's Fair. Named to the executive committee of the board, she was called "one of the most prominent members" of the board and described as "bright, witty and entertaining in the extreme." She served on the Committee for Foreign Relations and headed the committee to select a design for a pin for the Board of Lady Managers. She was one of the seven members of the twenty-four-member bo

Crabtree, Riley

1912

Riley Crabtree, country music artist and regular performer on Big D Jamboree , was born on a farm in Mount Pleasant, Texas, on February 19, 1912. The youngest of eight children, he was stricken with polio when he was two years old, and the effects of the disease resulted in his dependence on crutches for the rest of his life. As a young man, he was inspired by the music of Jimmie Rodgers , and Crabtree’s heartfelt and bluesy vocal earned him first place at a singer’s convention on KPLT radio in Paris, Texas, in 1938. He toured with various acts through the World War II years, and around late 1945 he formed his own group, the Hillbilly Ramblers. They built up a popular following with their performances on KIMP radio in Mount Pleasant. In 1949 Crabtree signed with the Talent (later known as Star Talent) label in Dallas and recorded at engineer Jim Beck ’s studio. Crabtree chose to lay down songs by his idol Jimmie Rodgers during two sessions and also cut and released his own song, “Free From Shackles and Chains,” which achieved notable success locally. Impressed by Crabtree’s talents, producer Don Law signed him to Columbia on November 13, 1950. His remake of “Shackles and Chains” paired with “Get Away From It All” was also successful and gained Crabtree notice by Nashville and an invitation to join the Grand Ole Opry as a regular cast member. He chose not to move to Nashville but opted instead to remain in Dallas and join the cast of Big D Jamboree —a country program broadcast on KRLD every Saturday night. He based his decision in part out of responsibility to support his wife and two children with his day job as an auto mechanic—as his record contract never provided enough money to make a full-time living. On the Jamboree , Crabtree performed with an impressive cast of regulars as well as rising stars, including Sonny James, Hank Locklin, Sunshine Ruby, Charline Arthur , the Light Crust Doughboys , Billy Walker , and many others. His contract with Don Law and Columbia ended in late 1953, but he signed on with the Ekko label out of the West Coast two years later. From the later 1950s through 1965 Crabtree appeared on a number of independent labels, including Country Picnic (where he released “Tattle Tattle Tale” in 1957), Security, York, and Country Hit. He also branched out into rockabilly. He suffered a stroke by the end of the 1960s and consequently was confined to a wheelchair for the remainder of his life. He died in a fire caused by a defective electric blanket on April 1, 1984. He had apparently remarried, and his wife was able to escape the blaze and survived. Crabtree’s songs reached new audiences in the early 2000s with the release of two CDs, Riley Crabtree—28 Original Tracks and The Rare Riley Crabtree Radio Sessions on two German labels, as well as a number of tracks on The Guys of Big “D” Jamboree in 2002.

Jones, Dudley William

1861

Dudley W. Jones, Confederate Army officer, one of five children of Henry and Martha (Heron) Jones, was born in Lamar County, Texas, in 1840. He was the grandson of Jesse Jones, one of the first settlers of what is now Lamar County, where the family settled in 1836. In 1840, the year of Jones's birth, the family moved to the Titus County community of Mount Pleasant. Jones was primarily educated by his mother and in the common schools of the area and then attended Maury Institute at Coffeeville. He was said to be "a great ladies' man." At the outbreak of the Civil War he returned to Mount Pleasant and enlisted as a private in the Titus Greys, Company I of Col. William B. Simms's Ninth Texas Cavalry. When the regimental adjutant, named Bell, was "accused of Abolitionism and Bigamy-the latter being pretty strongly proven upon him," the men of the regiment hanged him and elected Jones first lieutenant and adjutant in his place, on October 14, 1861. During the first year of the war his regiment served with Gen. Benjamin McCulloch 's Army of the West in Arkansas, Missouri, and Indian Territory. After the battle of Elkhorn Tavern in March 1862 the regiment was transferred to Mississippi, where it was reorganized near Corinth on May 26. In this reorganization Jones, although only twenty-two, was elected colonel, replacing Nathan W. Townes, who had resigned soon after superseding Simms. At this time the regiment became part of Lawrence Sullivan Ross 's famed brigade. Commanding the Ninth Texas Cavalry on March 5, 1863, Jones distinguished himself in the defeat and capture of a strong federal reconnoitering expedition at Thompson's Station, Tennessee, and in the defeat of the federal cavalry raid against railroad communications at Lovejoy's Station, Georgia, in the latter part of July 1864. For the final few weeks of the war Jones commanded Ross's brigade. After the war he traveled about the United States for about a year before returning to his father's farm in 1866; he was elected to the Constitutional Convention of 1866 . He was also president of the Texas Club, an organization of former Confederates, and a member of the committee that oversaw the removal of the remains of Albert Sidney Johnston from New Orleans to Austin in 1867. In 1867 he moved to Houston, began the practice of law in the firm of Jones and Barzizer, and edited one of the city's first daily newspapers, the Ku Klux Vidette . He died of a "hemorrhage of the bowels" on August 14, 1869, and is buried in Houston.

Dellwood Park

1830

Before 1830, Caddo Indians had campgrounds here around mineral springs flowing red, white, and blue waters. First home at future Mount Pleasant was built here in 1830s by Benjamin Gooch. A health-recreational resort by 1895, springs area was site (1909-16) of the lavish Dellwood Hotel, built by the Red Mineral Springs Development Co., headed by Dr. T. M. Fleming. These steps are from Dellwood Hotel, which burned. Favorite spot for Confederate conventions, political rallies, and other meetings, the site was acquired 1951 by city of Mount Pleasant, as Dellwood Park.

Titus County C.S.A.

1846

Created and organized in 1846. Named for pioneer resident Andrew Jackson Titus (1814-1855), who opened county's first road, to river port in Jefferson. Until after the Civil War, Titus County also included areas of present-day Franklin and Morris counties. Six mail routes going by horseback, had pack mules to follow lead horse. High waters in creeks and Sulphur River often halted travel. Record time to haul cotton to Jefferson was 5 days by ox wagon. In 1860 had 9,648 people. Voted 411 to 275 in favor of secession. Sent 10 military companies to Civil War. While home tables drew heavily on game foods (deer, wild turkeys, pigeons, bear), county furnished Confederate commissary with beef, butter, corn, rice, cotton, oats, sweet potatoes, flour, cornmeal, leather, lumber, pottery, tobacco, whiskey and wool. Wartime manufacturing plants included 9 sawmills, 8 gristmills, tanneries and a steam powered distillery. Mount Pleasant had a Confederate transportation depot employing blacksmiths, carpenters, harness makers, wheelwrights. It procured equipment and horses and mules, and made gear, harness and wagons for the purpose of moving men, army supplies and government owned cotton.

First Presbyterian Church of Mt. Pleasant

1881

This church was organized by the Rev. William Waldo Brimm (b. 1837), an early area evangelist, on Aug. 14, 1881. Two years later the congregation bought the land at this site and soon after began constructing a white frame church building. Despite hardships in its developing years, the church grew rapidly in the 1900s. The frame structure was moved to another location and replaced by a brick building in 1923. Continued expansion led to the need for an educational facility, built in 1955. For over one hundred years this church was continued to be a vital part of community life.

Sports in Mount Pleasant

⭐ HOMETOWN LEGENDS Class 5A · Football

Mount Pleasant Tigers — Mount Pleasant — a college & pro athletic pipeline

3 alumni who reached major-college or pro sports

Mount Pleasant High School, a Class 5A institution in Northeast Texas, has a proud tradition of athletic excellence. The Tigers have seen several of their own go on to achieve success at the highest levels of sports, representing their hometown with distinction. These former student-athletes exemplify the dedication and skill fostered within the school's athletic programs, inspiring current and future generations of Tigers.

Among the notable alumni who have continued their athletic careers in major college or professional sports are some familiar names. Maury Buford, a former NFL punter, stands out for his professional achievements. He is joined by Barry Minter, a former NFL linebacker, and Chaun Thompson, also a former NFL linebacker, who each made their mark in professional football after their time as Tigers.

Pro/D1 alumni
3
Class
5A
Key Players
  • Maury Buford, former NFL punter
  • Barry Minter, former NFL linebacker
  • Chaun Thompson, former NFL linebacker
The moment

Maury Buford went on to become a former NFL punter.

Sources: Wikipedia

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