Location: Dawson,
Texas
- 1 mile west on State Highway 31
Photo
Copyright © 2001 by Mark A. Murphy
Link to:
Mark's WebSite
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Spring
Hill Oldest Community
in Navarro County
The springs at this
site supplied water to Indians for centuries before white settlers
arrived. In 1838 Dr. George Washington Hill (1814-60) built a trading
post near the springs, and in October of that year a skirmish between a
surveying party and Kickapoo Indians occurred in this vicinity.
After serving as
Republic of Texas Secretary of War under President Sam Houston, Dr. Hill
returned here about 1843, reopened the trading post, built a home, and
began practicing medicine. In Jan. 1847, his brother-in-law, Robert
Harve Matthews (1814 - 94), settled here. A post office was established
on Nov. 5, 1849, with Dr. Hill as postmaster. A building erected in 1850
served as both church and schoolhouse; by 1855, Matthews had opened a
store. During the Civil War, a Confederate training camp was located
here.
At the height of
its growth, in the 1870s, Spring Hill boasted general mercantile stores,
blacksmith shops, saloons, a drugstore, hotel, Masonic Lodge, flour
mill, cotton gin, and rock quarry. Decline began in 1881, when the
community was bypassed by the Cotton Belt Railroad. The post office
closed on June 15, 1906. The cemetery and a few foundations bordering
deserted streets remain to mark site of Spring Hill. (1974)
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