The evolution of Pflugerville’s postal system

The evolution of Pflugerville’s postal system

Written by Pamela Stephenson Wednesday, 07 November 2007

Gladys Pfluger and her friends rode their bicycles to the post office in downtown Pflugerville three or four times a day in the 1930s to check for mail.

“The trains would come through Pflugerville and we had an 11:30 train, a 2:30 train and then some came during the night, and every train threw off mail and picked up mail,” she said. “We didn’t have mail trucks. It all came in by train.”

In the community, the job of postmaster was an important position. The Postmaster General of the United States appointed postmasters. The local post office often was kept as a sideline to the postmaster’s primary occupation, such as storekeeper.

Pflugerville’s first postmaster was just that. In 1893, Louis Bohls established a post office in his store, located in his residence at the southwest corner of what is now the intersection of Immanuel Road and Pecan Street. He named the post office Pflugerville, in honor of the Pfluger family who first settled in the area in 1849.

When the railroad came through Pflugerville in 1904, the store at the crossroads was moved just east of the railroad track in the Wuthrich addition. It was operated until 1952 when it was destroyed by fire. Then Bohls moved his store closer to the new center of town platted by George Pfluger and his son Albert. The train station had a catch where mail was dropped off and picked up about four times a day, Herbert Bohls said.

Home delivery was unheard of at that time.

During William S. Bohl’s term as postmaster, the post office was in the Pflugerville Mercantile Grocery Store. Because this store closed on Sunday, the postmaster had his post office boxes placed in a structure with wheels so that the boxes could be shoved in front of opened double doors of the store for the patron to stop by and pick up their mail after Sunday church services.

For rural delivery, farmers helped by putting out boxes for the carriers — everything came from lard pails and syrup cans to old apple, soap and cigar boxes, according to the Historian U.S Postal Service.

Postal officials decided a standardized box would improve service and, in 1901, asked manufacturers to design boxes to meet specifications.

When the Pflugerville Post Office was later in Neese’s Drug Store on Main Street, residents had little postal boxes where they would pick up their mail.

“Mr. Neese served as the postmaster until the Democrats came into power — Neese was a Republican,” Pfluger said.

Bennie Larsen then served as the postmaster from 1935 until 1943 when Grace Fowler took the position for the next 15 years.

The Pflugerville Post Office was moved to a small corner of Leppin’s Furniture Store, also located on Main Street. It later moved to a storefront behind the First State Bank, where the E.V. Hernandez Photography shop is currently located. A new, modern post office was later built across the street from the Bank on Railroad Street, now occupied by the business, Wordyism.

In 1998, a new Pflugerville Post Office was built at 301 Heatherwilde Blvd. It is now responsible for delivering to around 20,000 residents, said current postmaster Megan Stuart-Ramirez.