Evans Ferry

Pittsbridge, also known as Evans Ferry and Pitt's Ferry, was on the west bank of the Brazos River thirteen miles northeast of Caldwell in extreme eastern Burleson County. It sprang up after the Civil War at the site of the first bridge to span the Brazos between Burleson and Brazos counties. A ferry was operated by Charles J. and T. C. Evans below the mouth of the Little Brazos River as early as 1868, when Burleson County extended the Evans Ferry Road to a point on the west bank about three miles downstream from the point where State Highway 21 now crosses the Brazos. A Mr. Pitt was superintendent of this road, which linked the towns of Caldwell and Bryan, and by 1870 Evans Ferry had been renamed Pitt's Ferry. Pitt's Bridge was built at the site of the ferry in 1875. By 1878 the settlement of Pittsbridge, on the western end of the span, had acquired a post office; it was discontinued in 1891. In the early 1890s a number of Italian immigrants reached Burleson County, many of them taking up farming in the Brazos bottomlands, including the Pittsbridge vicinity. The town remained a small agricultural community. The nearby bridge did not long enjoy its status as the county's only bridge on the river; by 1892 a new iron bridge had been constructed a few miles downstream at Jones Bluff, and another opened at Koppe's Ferry in 1908. Pitt's Bridge, a wooden structure, was rendered impassible by flood damage in the early 1890s and again in 1913, 1921, and 1926. In 1933 Pittsbridge had an estimated population of twenty and one business. Estimates remained at this level for decades; in 1967, the last year for which figures were available, the population stood at twenty. The community dwindled rapidly thereafter, and by the early 1970s Pittsbridge had disappeared. As recently as the mid-1980s two piers of Pitt's Bridge could still be seen below the confluence of the Little Brazos from Burleson County Road 227.

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Charles Christopher Jackson | © TSHA

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

Belongs to

Evans Ferry is part of or belongs to the following places:

Currently Exists

No

Place type

Evans Ferry is classified as a Town

Associated Names

  • (Pittsbridge)

Has Post Office

No

Is Incorporated

No