Granger

Granger is on State Highway 95 twelve miles north of Taylor in northeastern Williamson County. It originated in 1882 when the Houston and San Antonio branches of the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad intersected at the site. The log Grange hall, lodge, and store were moved to the intersection from nearby Macedonia. The new community, first named Pollack, was later named for the Grange association or for John R. Granger, a Civil War veteran.

Because Granger was in the middle of the fertile blackland area, the railroad network made it an important cotton marketing and shipping point. The town's first newspaper, the Granger Banner, appeared sometime before November 1887. A post office was established in April 1884, and banks, churches, and schools were immediately begun. The Georgetown and Granger Railroad Company chartered a link line on December 13, 1890, and constructed more than fifteen miles of track between the two towns in 1892 and 1893. In 1890 Granger had three churches, a college, a hotel, and five gins. The town was incorporated in 1891. By 1900 the population had risen to 841, and it doubled in the next ten years. By 1910 a combined cotton compress and cottonseed oil mill, an electric light plant, an ice factory, and a waterworks were all built. The Granger gin was among the largest of its day in the United States. Mark Jones opened the town's first bank in 1894. In 1912 Granger became the only town in Texas with a population of less than 5,000 that had paved streets. The Storrs Opera House, built by A. W. Storrs in 1905, hosted traveling shows and even featured the Chicago Opera Company.