DACUS, TEXAS. Dacus is at the junction of Farm Road 1486 and the Burlington Northern Railroad, a half mile from Lake Creek and twenty-two miles northwest of Conroe in the northwestern corner of Montgomery County. The town was named for J. B. Dacus, an early settler. French explorer René Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salleqv camped in the area on February 15 and 16, 1687. He found an Indian village of about forty huts in the vicinity. One of the first permanent white settlers in the area was Francis A. B. Wheeler, who established a homestead on the site around 1823. In order to encourage settlement, Wheeler offered small tracts of free land to families who met with his approval. A post office was established at the community in 1889 and remained in operation until around 1955. In its early days it was known as a farmers' post office and received mail semiweekly. Edwin E. A. Goodin was the postmaster. Around 1907 the Trinity and Brazos Valley Railway reached Dacus. By 1915 the community had two general stores, two stock breeders, a stock dealer, a hotel, a blacksmith, and a population of 100. By 1946 the railroad had been taken over by the Burlington Northern and Rock Island; that year Dacus had a few dwellings, a church, a business, and the railroad station. By 1962 the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific had taken over the railroad line, and Dacus had a church and scattered dwellings. Its population was 161 in 1973, where it remained through 2000. In 1990 the community comprised a general store, a Baptist church, and a few houses.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Robin Navarro Montgomery, The History of Montgomery County (Austin: Jenkins, 1975).
Will Branch
