James Calhoun Hill
Tyler, Smith County, Texas
Marker Inscription
(September 29, 1807 - November 17, 1879) Migrating in 1840 from Alabama to Texas, James Calhoun Hill led the first permanent settlers into this vicinity. He served on the commission that ran boundaries of Smith County and platted the county seat in 1846. Prospering as a surveyor and planter in the 1850s, he was blind and reduced in means by 1865, when the Civil War ended. In 1874 he donated land to bring a railroad into the county. He and his wife Rebecca Mar Hill had eleven children.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Migrating from Alabama in 1840, James Calhoun Hill led the first permanent settlers into the future Smith County and helped run its boundaries and plat the county seat at Tyler in 1846. He prospered as a surveyor and planter in the 1850s, but by the Civil War's end in 1865 he was blind and much reduced in means. Still, in 1874 he donated land to bring a railroad into the county, and he and his wife Rebecca raised eleven children.
Why it matters
Hill's life spans the founding of a Texas county — from surveying its first lines to giving land for the railroad — and the reversals the Civil War brought to its early settlers.
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Related people
- · James Calhoun Hill
- · Rebecca Mar Hill
Related events
- · Platting of Smith County seat (1846)
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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