Location: Dawson - Liberty Hill Cemetery, 2.5 miles southwest of Dawson, State Highway 31 & Farm to Market 709

Photo Copyright © 2001  by Mark A. Murphy
Link to: Mark's WebSite

Former Site of Liberty Hill Settlement

A mile west of 1838 Battle Creek Massacre Site, this cemetery marks the location of Liberty Hill, an Anglo-American community begun during the following decade. Samuel and Prudence (Matthews) Wright, from Maury County, Tenn., settled here in 1849. They were relatives of Dr. George W. Hill, Indian agent and trading post operator at Spring Hill, half a day's wagon ride from here. The Wrights acquired land and attracted pioneer neighbors. In 1860, Liberty Hill Cumberland Presbyterian Church was organized by members of the Fullerton, Garner, McCandless, Moore, Richey, Slaughter, Wright, and Younger families. Wright donated a church site.

After the Civil War (1861-65), in which men of this community served, a new influx of settlers including the M. A. Wilkes family, relatives of the Wrights. Prosperity prevailed in the settlement. Continuing his interest in the public good, Wright gave land (1876) for this cemetery and (1884) for public school uses. The rise of Dawson and Hubbard, cotton belt railroad shipping points, drew population from the Liberty Hill area. The school was removed in 1917; the church dissolved in 1929. Land which once was intensively farmed has now reverted to grazing.