Clute

Clute, also known as Clute City, is on Clute Lake and the Missouri Pacific Railroad between State highways 332 and 227, southeast of Lake Jackson and ten miles south of Angleton in south central Brazoria County. The site was one of the county's first plantations and is named for two Northerners who later acquired the property. Alexander Calvit, one of Stephen F. Austin's Old Three Hundred, and Jared E. Groce acquired about 4,800 acres of land there in 1824 for Evergreen Plantation. The plantation later became the Herndon sugar plantation, owned by John H. Herndon, who married Calvit's only daughter. Joseph Pegan, Soloman J. Clute, and several relatives including George and John Clute, founded a community near the plantation site after the Civil War. They acquired additional land from Herndon, who put it up for auction in the 1870s. A deed dated March 17, 1886, transferred ownership from Soloman Clute to George Clute for property known as Clute's Place. Soloman administered it until 1888 or 1889, when it was sold. The antebellum Eagle Island Plantation of William H. Wharton occupied the site of present Restwood Memorial Park.

In 1933 Clute had only two businesses and a population of ten. By 1937 the town had a school for White children with two teachers and two schools for Black children with one teacher each. Growth increased in 1940, when Clute became part of the Brazosport industrial and port area. In 1950 Clute had a population of 700 and thirty-six businesses; in 1954 the residents numbered 3,200 and the businesses forty-five. A post office was established by 1943, and a new grade school was built in the 1950s. Clute was incorporated in May 1952 under the name Clute City, with a commission form of government; in 1955 the town changed its name back to Clute and adopted an aldermanic form of government. In 1974 Clute had six churches, including the True Honor Church; two schools, including Ogg School; and a railroad station. Clute changed its name to Clute City again in 1980. Its population rose to 7,000 in 1970, when it had ninety-five businesses; dropped to 6,023 in 1972; then rose again, reaching a high of 9,577 and 270 businesses in 1984. In 1990 the population was 8,910, and in 2000 it reached a high of 10,424. By then it was known simply as Clute.