A Brief History
of
PONDER, TEXAS

Time Line

A lot more has happened in Ponder than just these items, but these are the most interesting (in my own opinion, of course):

1855 Silas Christal settled west of Ponder.
1855-1858 Eakins Cemetery was established after a neighbor was fatally burned by a cooking fire.
1861 Earliest marked grave in Eakins Cemetery.
1886 Santa Fe Railroad bought land for right-of-way and established the town of Gerald, Texas.
1887 First passenger train came to Gerald.
1889 Gerald was changed to Ponder when it was discovered that another Texas town named Gerald existed. The town was named after W.A. Ponder, who owned a lot of acreage, was a Denton banker and served on the local Board of Education. He was appointed by the State Board for North Texas Normal College (UNT) and was prominent in getting the College of Industrial Arts (TWU) located in Denton.
18?? Ed Deussen arrived in Ponder to work for his brother Alex, who was a geologist in Houston and traveled back and forth to Ponder by train. Deussandale was a 1300 acre ranch. It is now owned by an unrelated family, but the name of Deussandale Ranch is still used.
1893 First store was a grocery and post office in a 14x20 foot building.
1897 The second place of business was a blacksmith shop. The third business was a cotton gin moved in from Stony.
1903 The townsite of Ponder was surveyed and a town map was drawn up and is filed in the Denton Tax Office.
1908 Ponder Bank was built.
1910 Ponder Bank opened for business.
1912 The Ponder water works were built.
1917 There were seven businesses in Ponder by this time.
1934 Bonnie and Clyde attempt to rob the Ponder State Bank, only to discover it had gone broke the week before! 1935 Ponder Bank voluntarily liquidates itself.
1937 The gym was built and the Ponder Volunteer Fire Department was organized.
1938-39 The fire department got their first firetruck.
1939 The first Ponder Rodeo was held.
1942 The Ponder Rodeo arena was dismantled and moved to Denton. Reason given was that people could not drive out to Ponder because of gas and tire rationing during the war.
1946 The "Best Little Rodeo in the World" returned to Ponder.
1948 Bailey Street was paved for the first time.
1948 Grace "Pete" Jackson opened the Ranchman's Restaurant in the old Brock building.
1949 Farming, cotton, and cattle raising were the leading industries in Ponder.
1950 The Denton rodeo began, and fans didn't know which one to attend, and the cowboys tried to compete in both on the same day!
1952 The last Ponder Rodeo was held.
1966 The town of Ponder was incorporated.
1966 Warner Bros. began filming in Ponder for the movie "Bonnie and Clyde".
1978 Water tower is built.
1985 Ponder has about 400 residents within the city limits, the school has about 300 students, gathered from beyond the city limits, including students from Stony and Drop.
1996 Second water tower is built. First one is left standing because it was too expensive to tear it down.
1998 Grace "Pete" Jackson, founder of the Ranchman Cafe dies. It makes the national news.

More Information on Ponder, TX

Stony, Texas

The histories of Stony and Ponder are rather heavily intertwined. The two towns are six miles apart via the Old Stoney-Ponder Road. A settler named Stony McSpadden created a post office and somewhere along the way gave the area (then known as Denton Creek Settlement) the name of Stony. At one time, it had two cotton gins, a blacksmith shop, an apothecary, two doctors, a school, a Baptist church and a Methodist Church.

Presently only the one-room school house (the third building on the same spot), the general store building, and the Methodist Church are all that is left of Stony, although one residential cabin (Vaughan-Christal Cabin) has been moved 2 miles from its original site and restored - piece by piece.

I haven't been able to find out much about this building except that it was once the Stony General Store.

The Stony Methodist Church is the only building in Stony that is still in use.

This Stony School House is the third building built on the same spot. The first school was torn down and the second one was destroyed by fire.

This distinctive building appears to be a belltower, with a church being built behind it. It's hard to tell whether this is supposed to be a restoration or a new construction. As yet, I do not know and I have been puzzled by it for years.

This building is across the street from the Stony General Store, but what it was remains a mystery at the moment, as well as the reason why it has been left there and not carted away. It is because the lot has not been cleaned off, and its location, that makes me wonder if this was once an important site.

Stony, TX, Time Line

1839 The Vaughan-Christal cabin was built, though it MAY have been built earlier. It is believed to be the oldest house in Denton County, even older than the county itself.
1850 A school was established at Stony.
1854 The Denton Creek Settlement extended from present day Stony south up and down the creek.
1884 The third school building was built.
1900 The Rippy family were the only ones in Stony to have a windmill and people would come to them to get water from their well.
1918 Stony Post Office was discontinued.

More Information on Stony, Texas

Seals, Nita. Ponder The Little Town With The Big Rodeo. Spine title: Ponder Rodeo. 1985. Gainesville Printing Company, Gainesville, TX.

Stony Memories. Available in the Ponder Library Reference section.
Vaughan-Christal Cabin - Nice photos and a history of the Vaughans, the Christals, and Burk Burnett.
Stony (Green) Cemetery Records
Denton County Postal History

Return to Ponder

Drop, Texas

The town of Drop, 5 miles to the south of Ponder, didn't fare much better than Stony. All that is left of it are the ruins of an old stone general store.

The highway sign on FM 156 says "Drop 5 (miles)", but if you use your odometer to find the store, you will miss it, because it is actually 4.8 miles from that sign. It took me 4 tries to find this place, at the intersection of Oliver Creek Road and FM 1384.

I think the building's stones are fascinating in themselves because they are filled with local fossils, and the front doorway has a HUGE ammonite decorating it.

This is not the original school building, but it was built on the same spot as the original. I'm still trying to find out when this one was built.

This is Oliver Creek in Drop, Texas, a small offshoot of Denton Creek.

Drop Slab is part of the road that crosses Oliver Creek. It is a local swimming hangout for the kids (and a few adults) during the often hot weather.

This appears to be a historic house, simply because it has never been torn down, but I don't yet know who it once belonged to. Do you?

Drop, TX, Time Line

1857 A school house was built on Oliver Creek.
1886 Drop Post Office established January 6.
1889 First recorded use of postmark from the Drop Post Office (Jan 30)
1905 Drop Post Office discontinued September 30. Mail service was taken over by the post office in Justin.