The village of Pioneer was surveyed in 1853. The following year, Andy Irwin built the Pioneer Hotel—a two-story wooden frame hostelry—on the southeast corner of State and Mulberry streets.
A Pioneer correspondent reported in the March 5, 1868, issue of the Bryan Union Press newspaper:
“The Pioneer Hotel, kept by Mr. Moore, has been put in good repair and amply provided with all the comforts of a first-class house. Mr. Moore has a large and commodious dancing hall where the gay and festive can assemble and woo the embraces of the Terpsichorean Goddess.”
Pioneer’s second hotel was constructed by George R. Joy on First Street in 1854. According to the 1882 Goodspeed history of Williams County:
“The Pioneer House tried to kill out Joy’s Hotel, but after 21 different proprietors had vainly struggled through a period of 20 years to accomplish that result, the attempt was abandoned.”
This colorized, undated vintage image of the Pioneer Hotel is from the Williams County Public Library Huffman Photographic Archives. Note the unpaved State Street, wooden sidewalk and crosswalk, windmill behind the hotel to pump water, and the “Photo Gallery” sign.
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