PILOT GROVE, TEXAS. Pilot Grove is on Farm Road 121 sixteen miles southeast of Sherman in southeastern Grayson County. It was settled about 1850 and was originally called Lickskillet. It acquired its present name, derived from the nearby Pilot Grove Ranch of James P. Dumas, when the post office opened in 1850. In addition to Dumas, early settlers included Buford Clement, Frank Stinnett, and Dr. William C. Holmes. The community grew slowly through the 1880s and had a population of thirty, a school, a cotton gin, a general store, and three churches by 1885. The population reached 193 by 1904. The post office closed that year, but the population remained about the same through the mid-1930s, when the town had three businesses. Pilot Grove declined to 125 persons, one business, a school, and three churches by the late 1940s. The population stayed stable through the mid-1960s, but from 1976 to 1990 it was recorded as seventy-five, and no rated businesses or other institutions were reported. The population dropped to forty-eight in 2000.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Graham Landrum and Allen Smith, Grayson County (Fort Worth, 1960; 2d ed., Fort Worth: Historical Publishers, 1967).

Brian Hart