Historic City of Clute is not only known for it's wealth of history,
but the world known annual "Great Texas Mosquito Festival"
that is held the last Thursday, Friday and Saturday of July.

Although it is named for a much later owner of its site, Clute sits at the Junction of the old Calvit and Eagle Island Plantations, and its first recorded history dates back to that time. Alexander (Sandy) Calvit, one of Austin's Old Three Hundred, got title to his land in 1824 and died just 12 years later. Most of the plantation's development is credited to Colonel John Herndon, who built a brick making plant there, among other things. Eagle Island Plantation belonged to Jared Groce, the richest man in Austin’s colony. Groce gave the plantation to his daughter Sarah as a wedding present when she married William H. Wharton. Since both of these were sugar plantations, their success depended upon slaves. After the War Between the States, they both collapsed.

On February 3, 1881, the Herndon Plantation was sold to Soloman J. Clute, who sold it to his brother, George Clute, in March 1886. About all that is known about George Clute is that he was a "little Yankee from New York with a long, white beard," who had no family, but lived alone, raising cotton, sweet potatoes and sugar cane.

In the late 1890s Clute returned to New York after selling his property to the Boston Syndicate Company, which had built the old Velasco Terminal Railway through Clute in 1891 and had done some subdividing there. This was the company that rebuilt Velasco in its present location.

The Clute city fathers ran an advertisement in the Brazosport Facts in 1966, stating that their city was 101 years old. This would date the community's beginning at about the time the brick plant was built. A large artificial lake was formed by excavating clay for brick making, and in the late 19th century, this was known as Lake Clute, after the person who then owned the property.

Clute was not included in a 1906 listing of Brazoria County communities. In fact, the first mention of Clute as a community is in the July 16, 1913, issue of the Angleton Times, which reports that the Friendship (Missionary) Baptist Church of Clute was organized during a revival preached by V.E. Murroe of Rusk. The Rev. S.A. Jones of Angleton was the first pastor, and there were eight church members. The church was discontinued during the period 1914-1931.

Clute was listed as a voting precinct in 1920. Abner Strobel, writing about the Calvit Plantation in 1926 concluded "…now occupied in small tracts and is known as Clute."

A brief history of Brazoria County published in 1939 lists Clute as a common school district employing two teachers. In 1941, Clute had five stores, no post office, and about 50 inhabitants.

That was the year Clute began to grow. First construction people moved in, then Dow employees. By 1952 it was large enough to incorporate, and now the residents have all the facilities and problems of a city.

Maxey Brooke