Pleasant Grove

Pleasant Grove is a rural community located 6½ miles west of Winnsboro on Farm Road 515 in northern Wood County. Though there were settlers in the area before 1870, the community, which was probably named for the large stand of oak trees at the site, was founded in 1872, when Henry Robinson built a blacksmith shop there. In 1874 a combination church and school was built, and in 1887 a store was established. Pleasant Grove had a post office from 1892 until 1907. In 1896 it had a population of 100, three churches, and at least eight businesses, including a general store, a blacksmith, a tannery, and grist and syrup mills. In that year Pleasant Grove's four-teacher school had 177 White students. In 1904 a two-story school was constructed, which the following year reported an enrollment of more than 200 White students taught by four teachers. For a time beginning in 1907 Pleasant Grove also had a college. In 1926 a new one-story school was built at the site of the 1904 structure. A fire in the early 1930s destroyed many stores in the town, and by 1936 Pleasant Grove reported a population of eighty-two, a business, a school, and a number of dwellings concentrated along the roads. After 1947 no population figures were available, and by 1960 all that remained at the site was a church and a few scattered dwellings. Though a few new dwellings appeared there in 1980, by 1988 the church had disappeared. In 2000 the population was listed as thirty.