HistoricSiteMarkers
Early Republic

Andrew Miller

Gentrys Mill, Hamilton County, Texas

Marker Inscription

(1823 - 1900) A frontier settler from Monroe County, Virginia, Andrew Miller migrated to Texas while still a young man. In 1856 he settled in Comanche County near the Hamilton County line. He married Hannah Margaret Shockley in 1861. They had seven children. Miller served with the 2nd Frontier Ranger group, defending nearby pioneer settlements against Comanche Indian raids. A founder of the First Presbyterian Church of Hamilton, Miller also donated land for Warren's Creek Church in Comanche County, and for a church, school, and cemetery at Gentry's Mill. (1978)

Erected by Texas Historical Commission

The Story

Andrew Miller left the Virginia mountains as a young man and pushed onto the Texas frontier, settling near the Hamilton–Comanche county line in 1856. He rode with the frontier Rangers who guarded scattered settlements against Comanche raids. A founder of churches and a donor of land for a church, school, and cemetery, he helped plant the roots of permanent community.

Why it matters

Settlers like Miller built the institutions—congregations, schools, and burial grounds—that turned dangerous frontier country into lasting communities.

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Related people

  • · Andrew Miller
  • · Hannah Margaret Shockley

Themes & tags

Westward ExpansionNative American HistoryFrontier HistoryMemorial

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United Methodist Church

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Settlers organized this Methodist congregation in the 1850s on the still-dangerous central Texas frontier, where circuit-riding ministers of the Waco circuit braved Indian raids to reach their scattered flocks. One 1871 raid stole a member's horse at Indian Creek, forcing him to walk twelve miles to Brownwood. After worshipping in various places, the congregation built a frame church here around 1887, replaced by the present structure in 1924.

Twin Oaks

Hamilton, TX

On Christmas Eve of 1866, William Willis was riding a mule to a dance when he was attacked and fatally shot by Indians, taking refuge between these two trees. The spot in Hamilton County was recorded as a Texas Historic Landmark in 1967. It recalls the dangers that shadowed everyday life on the exposed central Texas frontier just after the Civil War.

Choctaw Robinson Tree

Comanche, TX

The Rev. William Robinson, a North Carolina–born Baptist missionary, came to Texas in 1848 and organized churches across several central Texas counties while farming to support his large family. He earned the nickname "Choctaw Bill" after a band of Choctaw once complained about his long sermons. Beside this tree near a rough frontier town he often preached for hours, resting his gun in its fork as he spoke.