DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. This is the story of Pflugerville. It starts, as so many Texas stories do, with one man and a whole lot of family.
Henry Pfluger — born 1803, died 1867 — made the trip from Germany to Texas somewhere in the years 1849 to 1850. And then, in 1853, he moved his large family to this particular patch of Central Texas ground. That word 'large' is doin' some work there.
You get the sense this was not a quiet arrival. By 1872, enough settlers had followed that a school got started — not in a grand schoolhouse, mind you, but on Henry Lisso's farm. Two years later, in 1874, Immanuel Lutheran Church was founded.
This was, at its heart, a farming settlement. And it stayed that way, without so much as a single commercial business, all the way until 1890. That's when Louis Bohls built a general store.
Then, three years on — 1893 — a post office opened, with Bohls himself serving as postmaster. The man was clearly not short on initiative. Now 1891 produced something worth lingering on: two community organizations, born in the same year.
First, the German-American Mutual Assurance Association — formed to insure townspeople against natural disasters. Practical. Serious.
And right alongside it, the Pflugerville Schuetzen and Kegel Verein. A shooting and bowling club. You heard that right.
The same community that was bracing against floods and fires also wanted somewhere to bowl. I respect it enormously. The village stayed modest, though, until 1904, when the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad rolled in.
That changed things. George Pfluger — born 1834, died 1910 — and his son Albert, born 1878 and living all the way to 1969, platted the townsite. George donated land for a train depot and for a school.
Businesses followed: drugstores, groceries, a hotel, a grist mill, a cotton gin, an ice factory, a blacksmith. In 1907, La Rue Noton and Archie Ward started a telephone system — same year The Pflugerville Press began publishing. That newspaper ran all the way until 1942.
Farmers State Bank, chartered in 1906, became First State Bank in 1933. So by now you've got a railroad, a bank, a newspaper, a telephone system, and a bowling club. Pflugerville was doing just fine.
But the moment that apparently put this town on the national map had nothing to do with any of that. Between 1958 and 1962, the Pflugerville High School football team won fifty-five consecutive games. Fifty-five.
The marker says national fame, and it means it. That's the kind of run that makes people drive out of their way just to see the water tower. One man, one large family, one piece of ground — and a century later, the whole country knew the name.
What the marker says
Henry Pfluger (1803-67), who migrated from Germany to Texas in 1849-50, moved his large family here in 1853. Other settlers joined them, and in 1872 a school was begun on Henry Lisso's farm. Immanuel Lutheran Church was founded in 1874. Primarily a farming settlement, Pflugerville had no commercial business until 1890, when Louis Bohls built a general store. A post office was opened there in 1893 with Bohls as postmaster. In 1891 two community organizations were formed: the German-American Mutual Assurance Association, to insure townspeople against natural disasters; and "Pflugerville Schuetzen and Kegel Verein," a shooting and bowling club. The village began to grow when the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad arrived in 1904. George Pfluger (1834-1910) and his son Albert (1878-1969) platted the townsite, and George donated land for a train depot and a school. Early businesses included drugstores, groceries, a hotel, grist mill, cotton gin, ice factory, and a blacksmith. In 1907 La Rue Noton and Archie Ward started a telephone system. Farmers State Bank, chartered in 1906, became First State Bank in 1933. A newspaper, "The Pflugerville Press," was published from 1907 until 1942. In 1958-62, the Pflugerville High School football team gained national fame by winning 55 consecutive games. (1976)