Pontotoc, Texas

Pontotoc is an unincorporated community on Pontotoc Creek, in northeastern Mason County, Texas, United States. The community is located at the junction of State Highway 71 and Ranch to Market Road 501.SettlementM. Robert Kidd, proprietor of the first general store and originally from Pontotoc, Mississippi, is said to have given the community and the creek their names. In 1859, Benjamin J. Willis was one of the first settlers in this community that was historically a junction of roads leading to San Saba from Fort Mason and from Llano. A small number of other families arrived in the same time period, establishing the community by 1878. Pontotoc included a hotel, general stores, mills, and businesses related to the horse industry. Agriculture products, cotton and pecans, helped support a community economy that also included wool and cattle.Pontotoc fell victim to a typhoid epidemic in 1887, in such severity that it caused the establishment of a second cemetery to serve the needs.In 1890, a move was made to found a new county called Mineral County out of parts of McCullouch, Mason, San Saba, and Llano Counties, with Pontotoc as the county seat. Mason residents petitioned and were able to stop the movement. Various efforts to bring a railroad through Pontotoc also failed.