Corner view at 1460 and 186/Tera Vista Club Dr (1/2 mile north of Chandler Rd 3 to 4 south of Georgetown about 5 miles north of Round Rock Texas)
Aerial View
(view map of Cemetery boundaries)
Google Map
GPS Coordinates
Latitude: 30.5813 - Longitude: -97.6529
Address: 5525 FM 1460
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 descendants 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.
view video of the Union Hill Cemetery and 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 an RRISD field trip 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 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 are 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 field trips to downtown Round Rock, the Chisholm Trail and “round rock,” Union Hill Cemetery, Georgetown, as well as other field trips around the state of Texas. We regularly volunteer 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 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 mark 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 are 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.
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 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.