Pleasant Point

Pleasant Point was a small rural settlement in northeastern Johnson County fifteen miles northeast of Cleburne, the county seat, on Farm Road 2738. Originating with the construction of a gristmill and general merchandise store in 1875, Pleasant Point was reportedly one of the first communities established in the county. Situated on the "ragged edge" of the blackland prairie east of the Cross Timbers, it experienced some growth during the late 1870s. A post office opened there during the community's first year, and by 1879, in addition to the general store and the mill, Pleasant Point had a drugstore, a grocery store, and two blacksmith shops. A school and a church also served area residents. By 1885 fifty people lived in Pleasant Point. Almond Bugbee was the first teacher of the public school in Pleasant Point. His son, Lester Gladstone Bugbee, a Texas historian and cofounder of the Texas State Historical Association, attended school there, and in the spring of 1900, he taught at Pleasant Point. Following the extension of rail lines through Johnson County during the 1880s, the settlement declined rapidly as its residents and business owners relocated to the nearby rail town of Lillian. Pleasant Point's post office closed in 1904. In 1978 scattered dwellings and a cemetery were at the site.