Eldridge Post Office

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Eldridge Post Office, out in Gray County. Now, every good Texas story starts with somebody solving a problem, and this one's no different. On March 20, 1886, the first post office in all of Gray County opened for business.

They called it Eldridge. The locality itself had gone by Elfin Grove before that, which is a fine name, but the post office never took it on. Eldridge it was, and Eldridge it stayed.

For a while. Now before this little post office showed up, area ranchers had a twenty-mile ride to Mobeetie just to pick up their mail. Twenty miles out, twenty miles back.

For a letter. So you can imagine that when Eldridge opened, folks out on those ranches were not exactly broken up about it. Then in 1888, the post office packed up and moved one mile north of its original site, landing about a half mile west of where this marker stands today.

It set up near a blacksmith shop on McClellan Creek, which seems like exactly the right kind of neighbor for a frontier post office. A place where things get fixed, things get made, and word travels. But the story doesn't end there.

About 1902, the post office pulled up stakes again and moved several miles south to the railroad. And when it got there, something changed. Eldridge became Alanreed.

The first post office in Gray County, born as Eldridge, finished the journey with a different name entirely. That's the kind of ending only a Texas road will give you.

What the marker says

The first post office in Gray County, Eldridge was established on March 20, 1886. The locality was first called Elfin Grove, but the post office was never known by that name. The new facility spared area ranchers a 20-mile ride to Mobeetie to pick up mail. Eldridge Post Office moved in 1888 one mile north of its original site to a spot 1/2 mile west of this location. It stood near a blacksmith shop on McClellan Creek. About 1902 the post office moved several miles south to the railroad, where Eldridge became Alanreed.