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History · Plum

Half of Plum’s homes were built after 1989

Most of Plum was built recently: 9% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1989. Below: maps from 1958 on.

0on the National Register
9%homes built before 1940
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What stands out about Plum’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Plum are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.
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Start Plum’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Plum’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
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The story

How Plum came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Plum.

Read it all →

The area was initially settled by families from Tennessee on lands granted to Andrew Castleman in 1828 and John Cooke in 1831 and acquired the name Plum Grove. Plum Grove is the second oldest established community in Fayette County. The Hopewell (now Plum) Baptist Church was the first Baptist church in Texas established west of the Colorado River and the first in Texas to hold an ordination service and administer the ordinance of baptism. On July 8, 1861, the Plum Grove Rifles was formed under the command of Capt. Thomas C. Moore. Apparently the unit was designed for training, because its members were subsequently drafted or volunteered to join other regular units. In 1880 a post office was established, and by 1900 the community had two churches, two stores, two cotton gins, two blacksmith shops, a saloon, and a physician. By 1950 it had an estimated population of 280 and seven business…

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Plum, 1839 to 1958

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1839Post officeThe Plum Grove post office opens
  3. 1863Post officeThe Plum Grove post office closes
  4. 20th century
  5. 1958On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

Plum, decade by decade

Today2 recent
Plum TX Sts Peter and Paul Catholic2017Plum TX Sts Peter and Paul CatholicPlum TX Post Office2017Plum TX Post Office
On the map

Plum on the map, 1958 to 1981

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Plum. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Plum on the 1958 USGS mapPlum on the 1981 USGS map1958La Grange West sheet · 1:24,000

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Plum.

Places that used to be

Lost post offices

Another post office, Plum Grove, opened and closed inside today’s town.

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Questions about Plum’s history

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
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Sources

Where this page comes from

Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →

From Wikimedia Commons (2), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.