Blanchard

Blanchard is at the junction of Farm roads 3126 and 2457, eighty-two miles north of Houston in west central Polk County. Early settlers in the area called the community West Tempe after a local creek. Completion of the Beaumont and Great Northern Railway from Onalaska to Livingston in 1908 brought significant change in western Polk County. A railroad stop was established south of the West Tempe cemetery and named Blanchard by William Carlisle, owner of the sawmill at Onalaska, after his brother-in-law, Ben Blanchard, of New York. After the railroad had been finished, a stave mill was built at Blanchard. A post office was established there in 1908. The rail line was acquired by the Waco, Beaumont, Trinity and Sabine Railway in 1923 and abandoned in 1949. When Lake Livingston was constructed in 1968, a series of roads and parks developed in the area. Blanchard's population was estimated at fifty in the mid-1920s, mid-1980s, and early 1990s. In 2000 the population was listed as 200.

Adapted from the official Handbook of Texas, a state encyclopedia developed by the Texas State Historical Association (TSHA). It is an authoritative source of trusted historical records.