Shook's Bluff

Shook's Bluff was an early port on the east bank of the Neches River in southern Cherokee County. The community, on a small bluff overlooking the river, was named for Jefferson Shook, a native of Missouri who settled there in the 1850s and opened a mercantile establishment. Before the arrival of the railroad, Shook's Bluff was the northernmost port on the Neches and was a shipping point for area plantations. Steamboats made annual trips when the river was at flood stage, bringing supplies and carrying cotton and other produce to market. A post office opened at Shook's Bluff in 1858, and at its height just after the Civil War, the settlement had a store, a saloon, a school, a cotton gin, and a Masonic lodge. The community began to decline in the 1870s with the arrival of the railroads. The post office was closed in 1876, and by the 1880s most of the residents had moved away. A school continued to serve the community until the time of World War II, when it was consolidated with the Wells school. In the early 1990s only a few scattered houses remained in the area.