Williamson County Historical Commission
contact Wayne Ware (512)
863-2202
Union
Hill Cemetery Texas Internment List word doc
also UHC on Cemetery.com interment list by Findagrave.com John Christeson |
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The Union Hill Cemetery is now a Historic Texas Cemetery
The Texas Historical Commission (THC) has designated Union Hill Cemetery this year as a Historic Texas Cemetery. This distinction means the cemetery has been legally recorded through the THC’s Historic Texas Cemetery Program, an important step in ensuring its preservation.
Established early in the 1900s, the Union Hill School and cemetery was
part of the “second wave” of Anglo settlers and their descendents to
develop communities in Central Texas.
The Union Hill School was one out of about 100
common schools in Williamson County at the time, and had students from
first grade to eighth grade. The school was located seven miles north of
Round Rock and four miles south of Georgetown. Although it was commonly
called Union Hill School, the school was officially named Robertson
School and also known by other names at various times. Sometimes the
Swedish settlers in the area called it Cross Roads, possibly because
they didn’t want to confuse it with nearby Union Hall.
The cemetery was also known as Mount Union
Cemetery. The school was surrounded by the Joseph Robertson farm to the
north, and the Calvin Bell and John K. Shelgren homes to the east. After
numerous Swedish families settled in this area, thirty to forty students
lived within walking distance. Union Hill School was also used for
Lutheran church services and community activities, including the
cemetery and a community brass band.
When Bell community Mission Lutheran Church and
Palm Valley Lutheran church was established, Union Hill residents
attended those churches. Many families spoke Swedish at home, but most
students had learned English by the time they started school. The school
closed in 1913 when Caldwell Heights School was built.
The cemetery features a Civil War veteran’s grave,
Pvt. Nathan G. Brinkley, who served as a soldier with Company C of the
7th Florida Infantry from February of 1862 to the end of the war. He was
buried at Union Hill Cemetery in 1913 at the age of 80.
Thompson, Karen R. & Jane H. DiGesualdo. Historical Round Rock,
Texas. Eakin Press, 1985. {Qtd in Union Hill Elem. History Page -
schools.roundrockisd.org/union hill/history.htm}
Scarbrough, Clara Stearns. Land of Good Water: A Williamson County
History. Georgetown, Texas: Williamson County Sun Publishers, 1973.
The Hopewell Middle School Jr. Historians
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The Hopewell Middle School Jr. Historians:
The Hopewell Middle
School Jr. Historians was started in the fall of 2000. Mr. Ron Goins was
told about this great club on a RRISD fieldtrip in the summer of 2000 by
a Jr. Historians club sponsor from Deer Park Middle School, Mr. Steve
Cure, who is now the director of the Texas State Historical Association
(TSHA) Jr. Historians. Directly thereafter, fellow history teacher, Mr.
Charles Nugent, joined Mr. Goins to start the Jr. Historians club at
Hopewell Middle School. Our club is also affiliated with the National
History Club.
In 2007, Mr. Will Waghorne joined as a club
sponsor in 2007, and both Mr. Nugent and Mr. Goins were awarded the
David C. DeBoe Award as the state’s Outstanding Jr. Historian Club
Sponsors by the TSHA in 2007. Mr. Goins was recognized as one of five
Advisors’ of the Year by the National History Club in 2008.
Since our early beginnings, we have continued
to grow as a club in membership and being proactive at our school and in
the community. This 2009-10 school year, we have 25 student club
members. At our school, we sponsor the annual Buffalo Soldiers program
at Hopewell, two student mock elections (Youth Leadership Initiative and
Project VOTE), and the Texas Quiz Show.
The Texas State Historical Association’s Annual
Meeting and History Fair is where we compete against other TSHA Jr.
Historian clubs. We won the Outstanding Chapter Award in 2006, 2007,
2008 (and Runner up in 2005 and 2009) and had 1st place
showings for the Top Chapter project in 2006, 2007, 2009 (3rd
place in 2004 and 2nd place in 2008).
We have been involved in community service
projects, such as our adoption of Union Hill Cemetery in the fall of
2007. We are also known as the Union Hill Cemetery Guardians! In 2009,
Union Hill Cemetery was designated as a Historic Texas Cemetery (HTC) by
the Texas Historical Commission due in large part to our club’s efforts
in the research of, and application for, the historic designation of
UHC.
Currently, we are working to promote the City
of Round Rock’s historical past. To learn about our local and state
history, we regularly take fieldtrips to downtown Round Rock, the
Chisholm Trail and “round rock”, Union Hill Cemetery, Georgetown, as
well as other fieldtrips around the state of Texas. We volunteer
regularly with the Williamson Museum to assist in the many events held
in Williamson County, such as the Chisholm Trail Day, Archaeology Day
and Pioneer Day.
We look forward to the future as a club, as we
learn about our local and state history, and at the many opportunities
that will surely come our way!
The Texas State Historical Association Jr.
Historians:
The Junior Historians of Texas is an
extracurricular program for students in grades four through twelve
sponsored by the Texas State Historical Association. The oldest of our
education programs, Junior Historians was founded in 1939 by Walter
Prescott Webb, the respected Texas historian who wanted students to get
involved in the actual "doing of history".
Junior Historian chapters usually form through
organized clubs functioning within the established school instructional
program, however students without a chapter can also participate as a
member-at-large. Guided by a school-approved sponsor, students
participate in chapter activities that enable them to discover and
research history, both in the classroom and in the community. While
encouraging the exploration and documentation of state and community
history, the program creates opportunities for students to learn skills
of research, critical inquiry, analytical reading, writing, critical
thinking, and debate.
One of the major objectives of the program is
to encourage chapter members to research a topic on state or local
history and to record their findings in a research project.
Cross-curricular applications arise in the varied options for project
presentation. Students may choose a project category according to their
abilities and interests: individual historical paper, individual or
group exhibit, individual or group performance, individual or group web
site, or individual or group documentary. Topics may vary from major
events such as the 1900 Galveston storm, to personal stories such as
that of one student's grandmother who immigrated to Texas from Germany.
While learning about history in a personal venue, these experiences also
enable students to develop skills of formal writing, public speaking and
presentation, media visual design, and public performance, among others.
The Junior Historian Annual Meeting and History
Fair marks the high point of the year's activities, as chapter members,
along with their sponsors and cosponsors, assemble to share ideas,
problems, achievements, and the results of the year's activities. In
addition to possibly receiving awards at the end of the meeting, their
work may be published in the Junior Historians' journal,
Texas Historian, one of the few historical journals in
the nation dedicated to publishing secondary students' work. The
Texas Historian is published in October.
The Annual Meeting and History Fair is usually
held in late March or early April. Previous meeting locations have
included San Antonio, Arlington, Houston, Galveston, Abilene, Mesquite,
and Austin. For future Annual Meeting dates see our
Events
Calendar.
For more information, please
contact the
Educational Services Division.
The National History Club:
What does the National History Club do?
The National History Club Inc. (NHC) inspires students and teachers to
start history club chapters at high schools, middle schools, and within
other student and community programs. Members of local history club
chapters participate in local and national programs, and create their
own projects and activities. The NHC also provides chapters with
resources and services that will help them increase the activity and
impact of their history club. To date, the NHC has founded history club
chapters at more than 375 high schools and middle schools in 43 states.
Our History
The National History Club was founded in 2002 by The Concord Review Inc.
(TCR), which publishes the only scholarly review of history essays
written by secondary students. In October 2006, The Concord Review (TCR)
board of directors voted to establish the NHC as an independent
affiliate to accommodate its rapid growth. The NHC was awarded a seed
and planning grant from the Argosy Foundation in the fall of 2006. The
Argosy Foundation is a private family foundation established in 1997 by
John Abele.