Union Hill
Burton, Washington County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The Hugh and Lucy Kerr family from Tennessee started the Kerr settlement in this area in 1831. W. B. McClellan (1804-80) from North Carolina bought land from W. P. Kerr in 1844 and began a second settlement. Union Academy was operating by 1850. Union Hill Post Office opened in 1854. Mrs. Lucy Kerr gave acreage at this point for a Methodist church; Masonic lodge and school soon shared the site. Stores, a hotel, and other buildings stood to the west. Unincorporated, the town of 800 dwindled after 1870, as railroad facilities in Burton (2 mi. south) drew away the local businesses.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Begun with the Kerr family's arrival from Tennessee in 1831 and expanded by W. B. McClellan's settlement in the 1840s, Union Hill grew into a town of some 800 souls with an academy, post office, church, Masonic lodge, hotel, and stores. Its fortunes reversed after 1870, when the railroad's facilities in nearby Burton pulled its businesses away and the town slowly emptied.
Why it matters
Union Hill is a classic Texas ghost town, a reminder that the coming of the railroad could make one community and quietly unmake another just two miles off the line.
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Related people
- · Hugh Kerr
- · Lucy Kerr
- · W. B. McClellan
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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