DUCK CREEK (Old, Old) – an unincorporated community situated near the vicinity of the present Barnes Bridge Rd. crossing of Duck Creek. This neighborhood encompassed parts of today’s Mesquite and Sunnyvale.

The first Post Office was apparently located in a store operated by Henry K. Valentine out of his home on the H. K. Valentine Survey along what had been (between 1844 and 1846) the Central National Road of the Republic of Texas. The later became Barnes Bridge Rd. in that area.

DUCK CREEK (Old) – began as a diffuse settlement spread primarily along the west side of said creek between present-day Kingsley Road and Walnut St., an area enveloped by today’s Garland city limits. Its nucleus developed near the present creek crossings of avenues B and D, some seven miles northwest of the earlier Duck Creek Post office. While the exact location of the post office here under Emily Strother is not known, news accounts indicate that it was reestablished in 1878 under William Alexander in his store.

EMBREE – Post Office name changed from Duck Creek to Embree on 01 Feb 1887.

Embree was an unincorporated town developed in 1886 by the Santa Fe railroad and centered near the present BNSF (Santa Fe) crossings of Avenues B and D. After fire ravaged Old Duck Creek’s business district in January 1887, its post office was discontinued in favor of one in a store in nearby Embree, less than a mile to the east and now included within today’s Garland city limits. The postmaster, Jefferson D. Robinson, had relocated his business to Embree and retained the appointment.

Name changed from Embree to GARLAND on 09 Dec 1887

GARLAND – an initially unincorporated combination of Embree and New Duck Creek. Garland incorporated in 1891.

Sources:

Record of Appointment of Postmasters, 1832 - Sept. 30, 1971;

National Archives microfilm M841, NNEB-20 (reels 1 - 3)

Pickett Papers, Confederate States of America, Volumes 98 - 99;

Library of Congress microfilm, reel 52

United States Postal Service website (from 22 Aug 1878)