Our thanks to Eddy Phillips for allowing us to add his wealth of information to the Gregg County web site.

On 18 January 1848, Isaac R. Vannoy, a veteran of Sam Houston's army, and William Welborn agreed to "bind themselves in good faith." Vannoy was to bring into trade a good new steamboat on the Sabine River. One month later, on 9 February 1848, William Welborn became the first postmaster at Pine Tree, Upshur County, Texas, not far from Hawkins Creek and the Cherokee Trace in present day Gregg County, Texas.

Upstream on the Sabine River past Glade Creek in Upshur County, Isaac R. Vannoy established a post office called Red Rock, Texas, and was appointed first postmaster 20 July 1849. The last postmaster there was C.C. Halbert who served from 3 February 1860 until 4 August 1860.

Down the Sabine from the Cherokee Trace, the Fredonia Post Office was established on 22 February 1849 on the Rusk County side of the Sabine River. James H. Thompson was the first postmaster and the last postmaster was James N. Waide in 1859.

No doubt, Vannoy's "good new steamboat" made trips from Fredonia to Red Rock - and even farther.

Between the Cherokee Trace and Glade Creek is Moody Creek which was named for Isaac Moody, who settled early near West Mountain in Upshur County. West of Moody Creek, near where Glade Creek empties into the Sabine River, Little Berry Camp (also a veteran of Sam Houston's army) established a ferry crossing the Sabine River, probably adjoining the Martha Dillard Survey in present day Gregg County. Little Berry Camp was appointed first and only postmaster of Gilead on 14 January 1850.

On 9 December 1852, this post office name was changed to Point Pleasant, with John K. Armstrong as postmaster until 24 August 1858. John K. Armstrong lived just west of Moody Creek on what is now called Old Highway 80. He died in 1860 and is buried in his family cemetery (now called Rosedale Cemetery) east of present day downtown Gladewater, Gregg County, Texas.

William Walters was appointed postmaster of Point Pleasant, Texas, 24 August 1858, and served until 30 January 1860. William W. Walters was awarded his land east of Moody Creek by the State of Texas, and on 1 March 1850, he was appointed "Overseer of Roads" by the County of Upshur for the district between Camp's Ferry and Hawkins Creek. Some of his neighbors in the general area were L.B. Camp, Jarret Dean (farmer), John K. Armstrong (farmer), James Hendrick (merchant), Mason Mosley (farmer-merchant), August Mosley (farmer), A.H. Abney (teacher), A.C. Williams (miller), Jacob M. Lacy (blacksmith) and J.W. Monk (wheelright). William W. Walters' first house still stands within the barn now owned by Jackie Earp. His postoffice and stage coach stop stood just across the road (Old Highway 80) from where Mrs. George Clark now lives in present day Clarksville City, Gregg County, Texas, in the G.A. Thompson Survey. William W. Walters died in 1885 and is buried in Mosley Cemetery along with his first wife, Marietta Swift, and some of their children.

Claiborn D. Halbert was appointed postmaster 30 January 1860 and resigned 12 July 1867. C. D. Halbert was a clerk for George Potts, a hatter in 1860 (census). He died in 1875 and is buried at Red Rock, west of Gladewater.

Joshua W. Monk, a wheelright, was postmaster, C.S.A. appointed 23 November 1867, and served until after the Civil War, 5 November 1866.

Elisha A. Mackey, a teacher, was the last official postmaster of Point Pleasant, Texas. He was appointed 27 March 1867, and the post office was demized 17 October 1870.

After the Civil War and during the Reconstruction, it became necessary to re-establish many records. Under date 22 June 1869, Postmaster Elisha A. Mackey filed with the Post Office Department their form 40 which gave the location of Point Pleasant, Texas, post office as "3 1/4 miles from the Sabine River on it's N.E. side and 1/2 mile on the east side of Moody Creek....in Upshur County, Texas". Such location was undoubtedly that of the Walters stagecoach stop.

Unofficially, the Point Pleasant post office changed names but continued to operate for a short while. William Walters sold his stage stop to Warren P. Victory about 1868. When the railroad came through about 1873, it established a water stop on Campbell Creek which was called St. Clair, and W.P. Victory distributed mail from the old Walters trading post/stage stop now known as St. Clair. No official post office records show St. Clair as having been a post office.

About forty-eight families received their mail at Point Pleasant, and almost all of them lived within the lower watershed of Moody Creek - from near West Mountain and old Union Grove (still in Upshur County), south to the Sabine River.

The area was in a prime location for progress since it lay near the Cherokee Trace and at the gateway from populated Marshall to the capitol at Austin. A school was built at Point Pleasant, approximately one-half mile slightly northeast of the stagecoach stop (the school was called "Possom Trot"). The Mosley Cemetery served as a nearby burial site. Both the school site and the now abandoned cemetery location are in present day Clarksville City, Gregg County, Texas.

Available transportation played a major role in the settling of all of America. People settled near creeks and rivers to avail themselves of their offer of transportation. Railroads marked a turning point for the entire country. The very earliest records of efforts to extend the railroad west from Marshall, Texas, are lost in history. The Fourth Texas legislature of the State of Texas on 7 February 1853 added seven names to the Commission to an Act to Incorporate the Vicksburg and El Paso Railway. Three of these men should be noted: C.D. Holbert, a postmaster of Point Pleasant; Mason Mosley, a veteran of Sam Houston's Army and a resident of Point Pleasant, Texas; and Jacob Fisher, second postmaster of Pine Tree.

When the railroad began operation in 1873 in Point Pleasant, Texas, area, it's effect was dramatic, and the area changed rapidly. Railroad people named new towns called Longview and Gladewater, and erased forever Point Pleasant, Earpville, and others. Only the event of the discovery of oil in 1931 could compare to the railroad's impact on the community formerly called Point Pleasant, Texas.

Today the only hint there was a Point Pleasant in the area is the name of a county road. Beginning off George Ritchie Road just west of Bozeman Corner (Warren City, Gregg County, Texas), North Point Pleasant Road meanders north, across Moody Creek into Upshur County, past Union Grove Cemetery and well known O'Byrne Mill, to the Gladewater-Gilmer Highway.

REFERENCES:

 1. 1850 Upshur County Census
 2. 1860 Upshur County Census
 3. 1870 Upshur County Census
 4. 1850 Upshur County Slave Census
 5. 1860 Upshur County Slave Census
 6. Tax Records for Upshur County 1845 forward, Texas State Archives, Austin
    Texas
 7. Newspaper: Gilmer Mirror, L.B. Johnson Library, Austin, Texas
 8. Maps of Texas, Texas Land Office and L.B. Johnson Library, Austin, Texas
 9. Quarterly: Records of East Texas by John W. Wilkins, Waco, McLennan
    County, Texas, Library.
10. History of Upshur County, Texas, by D.T. Loyd
11. Baylor University, "Texas Collection", Waco, Texas, POSTMASTERS OF TEXAS
    and miscellaneous early Texas Records and Maps.
12. Upshur County Records, County Clerk's office, Gilmer, Texas.
13. Gregg County Records, Longview, Gregg County, Texas Courthouse
14. Waco, Texas, Library: Early tax records, marriage records, and land
    deeds for Upshur, Gregg, Rusk, Harrison and Nacogdoches Counties, Texas.
15. Private Family Records and family tradition (Walters, Clements,
    Phillips).
16. H.P.N. Gammel, THE LAWS OF TEXAS 1822-1897, Vol. 1 thru 10, Texas
    Collection, Baylor University, Waco, Texas.
17. Texana Map, Lee Library, Gladewater, Gregg County, Texas.
18. 1854 School Census, Upshur County, Texas.