ROCK HILL
(south of Prosper, along Preston Road)
ON THE WING
Weekly Democrat Gazette, August 22, 1912
G. J. Barlow and
Miss Emma Collins were united in the holy bonds of wedlock Oct. 12, 1886, and
only two boys call them by the endearing names of papa and mama. Over seven
hundred acres of rich black land are on record in the county clerk's office as
belonging to them. More than five thousand bushels of wheat and something over
two thousand bushels of oats have been threshed and doubtless the proceeds from
the sale of this grain will be placed where it will do the most good. Besides
his crops of grain and cotton he keeps hogs. A herd of forty he is going to
begin feeding within a very short time and sell the bacon to his neighbors who
don't think it pays to raise hogs. Jersey cows to furnish milk and butter to the
family with a good garden in which grow vegetables always in plenty and ready
for use, no wonder prosperity smiles in the Barlow home. A flock of one hundred
and twenty sheep, Shropshire and crossed with the Hampshire Down are kept for
raising mutton, wool and for their use on the farm-that of keeping the ground
clean of weeds and because they enrich the soil. Another flock of one hundred
and forty recently purchased in Fort Worth, kept on stubble land and altogether
separate from the home sheep, are to rid the fields recently harvested of weeds
and when that is accomplished will be reshipped to Fort Worth and sold, the
difference in weight after several weeks' run on pasture will more than pay cost
of transportation both ways. We counted a flock of eighty turkeys that Mrs.
Barlow is raising for Thanksgiving and requested us to inform the editors of the
Democrat-Gazette and Daily Courier-Gazette that one of the largest would be on
that occasion provided the field man was allowed the exalted privilege of dining
with the family on that day. Mr. Barlow is a Republican of the Lincoln-Taft type
and as a result of ridding the party of the Bull Moose there will be, in his
opinion, one hundred thousand of straight Republican votes cast in Texas next
November.
W. A. Wright a
Tennesseean, but came to Texas two years ago, wants to get acquainted with
Collin county and the quickest and surest way to accomplish it is by subscribing
for the Democrat-Gazette which he did and we thank him for doing so.
Shelby Adams is the
only merchant of Foncine although his store is located in the Rock Hill School
district. His business has been real good since harvest and to the best of our
knowledge the only country store making free deliveries. Reads the Daily
Courier-Gazette and says its the best of county dailies.
Walter bridges has
been a reader of the Democrat-Gazette for about ten years and we thank him for
the kindly sentiments expressed and also for cash on renewal.
W. P. Brooks is
another Tennesseean but in 1898 came to Texas where he has since resided. Only
ten children and seven of them girls make home pleasant and very attractive to
the young men. Cultivates one hundred and fifty acres of land and his crop of
eighty acres of cotton looks very promising. He is a new reader of the
Democrat-Gazette and we hope he'll continue to abide with us.
J. F. Brooks, son of
the above, but three years ago got married to Miss Leona Burgner to whom a wee
tot of only eighteen months was born and for whom later on he'll buy laces and
other furbelows to make her attractive to the boys. He acts wisely by
subscribing for the biggest and best of all country weeklies, the
Democrat-Gazette.
J. E. Wilson a Texan
since 1882 and owns a farm of over two hundred acres in the "flats" and
reluctantly admitted that he was water bound in a certain state east of
Oklahoma. Reads the Daily Courier-Gazette and says its a splendid county paper.
W. T. Thorp is one
of our latest additions at Rock Hill and we are glad to say owns a pretty home
and small farm in the town. We hope he'll find in the Democrat-Gazette -the
paper he was looking for one that gives the news while the same is fresh.
Sorry we did not
find W. B. Smith at home but Mrs. Smith assured us that the Democrat-Gazette was
a number one family paper.
J. C. Smith is a
prosperous young farmer and whose good judgment is to be commended for
subscribing for the very best paper published in Collin county, the
Democrat-Gazette.
R. T. and Mrs. Borum
were absent but their son said they both liked the Democrat-Gazette very much.
Mrs. Borum has taught the Rock Hill school for several terms and has the
contract for the next one. No trouble for a good progressive teacher to hold a
paying school.
T. L. Palmer is the
only merchant of the berg and his stock is complete and his patrons always know
that he's "got it." "If you don't see what you want, ask for it" is the legend
of this local beehive. Mrs. Palmer is our painstaking correspondent and we
appreciate her services and influence.
H. L. Sterling was a
new man to us, but we found him to be a very clever gentlemen. Mrs. Sterling has
a friendly greeting awaiting strangers and we are glad for forming their
acquaintance. We enrolled Mr. Sterling and hope that in reading the
Democrat-Gazette he'll find it one of the best papers published. About five
years ago Mr. Sterling had the misfortune to lose by fire his pretty country
residence but the proceeds from one hundred and seven acres of black land will
soon enable him to replace it.
We could scarcely
say that we had been to Rock Hill and not called on A. P. Mahard, one of its
oldest and highly respected citizens. This writer formed his acquaintance in
May, 1901, and while "on the wing" for the old Democrat. His step then was more
elastic than now; he could see more clearly to read the precious truths from his
Bible in those days than now; his brow has may furrows now we did not see then,
but time is ruthless and will not only mar the beauty of our faces, but also
whiten the hair that grows upon our heads because winters' frosts love to dance
merrily upon the loftiest peaks and paint them white as an emblem of purity. Old
age is honorable and how we love and revere the old and infirm! Their presence
is a benediction and their words treasured like "apples of gold in pictures of
silver." He is an old timer and has lived upon the same farm for forty-five
years, and during that time raised a family of interesting children and all
girls but one, A. P. Jr. Two of his daughters are teachers and one, Miss Laura,
is an A. B. teacher of Latin and Greek; Miss Margaret is a music teacher and
both have positions in the Holiness school at Peniel, Hunt county, and will take
charge of their respective departments first of September. We were shown a
yearling ram of the Hampshire down breed whose sire is a Canadian sheep. The
former when only six months old cost brother Mahard $20.00. Of course we
couldn't bid adieu to an old acquaintance and friend without a token; he gave us
a dollar and we are going to send him absolutely free for one year, the very
best paper that Collin county affords, the Democrat- Gazette.
Now is the best time
in the world for all good roads enthusiasts to invite their tight wad friends to
take a drive with them. If our black land roads in their present condition won't
open their purse strings to the extent of a willingness to assist in
constructing better roads, they will remind us of an old woman once who told a
Methodist minister that she was open to conviction on sprinkling as a mode of
baptism, "but" said she, "show me the man that can convict me!" If we can no do
better, the split log beats nothing all hallow, but farmers don't feel disposed
to drag the roads after every rain just for the glory of an occasional newspaper
puff, then why not our county commissioners hire farmers living along the public
highways to do this work? Pay farmers so much per day and bind them to perform
the service in a satisfactory manner.
D. W. Leigh
McKinney, Aug. 19
ON
THE WING
Weekly Democrat Gazette, August 29,
1912
G. T. Parvin on a
farm of four hundred and forty acres has plenty of room to farm according to his
own ideas. From wheat he realized a yield of about thirty bushels per acre:
oats, sixty-five bushels; Egyptian wheat, said to yield anywhere from one
hundred to two hundred bushels per acre, is unthreshed but in order to test it
thoroughly will measure off one acre, have it threshed and furnish the field man
of the Democrat-Gazette the result. It is said to be a most excellent feed and
Mr. Parvin has seven acres which he says is very fine. Another crop which Mr.
Parvin banks on is seeded ribbon cane. On one acre of this splendid forage crop
it produced about 40 per cent of silage for his silo of one hundred tons
capacity the other 60 per cent was from seven acres of corn. His silo is of red
wood said to be non-porous and more durable than other material from which they
are constructed. He is not in the strict sense a stockman, but on the farm he
keeps a couple of brood mares and from them raised two good mules each year, a
flock of sheep help to keep the weeds under control and he intends to devote
more attention and time to them as he realizes that if bred up and properly
cared for will be a source of profit. We found in him a silo enthusiast, and
while he has had no practical experience using the silage as feed, yet he is
sure that it is the solution of the great feed problem just now confronting the
farmers of North Texas. We were glad to form the acquaintance of Mr. Parvin,
thanked him for granting an interview, but as we formed the habit in the long
ago and lest we forget, had to place him on the list of Collin's biggest and
most popular newspaper, the Democrat-Gazette, and of course farmers who own $100
acre farming lands don't mind for us to tap them occasionally for a little old
measley dollar.
Speaking of silos,
they have come to say. Joe and Jim Taylor of Foncine are the pioneers, the first
to build and to fill it with silage, the results obtained justified the
expenditures and the neighbors of these two progressive citizens owe them much.
Their cutter for chopping the corn and other forage for the silo is furnished
without cost and enables the farmers who have silos to fill them without having
to buy or rent them.
G. J. Barlow,
neighbor of Mr. Parvin, is a silo enthusiast and while not owning one now
expects to have one built on his farm next year with a tonnage capacity of two
hundred.
Those having silos
now are Joe and Jim Taylor, G. T. Parvin, Will Streathem, all of Rock Hill; Mrs.
M. A. Shipley, two, Prosper, C. S. and E. M. Acker and J. C. (Cope) Mayes,
Frisco.
Watch Texas and
Collin county grow. Come to the picnic, shake hands, look your friends in the
face and have a friendly chat with them. Don't forget to call at the Daily
Courier-Gazette and Democrat-Gazette office and see how we manufacture news for
Collin county's greatest newspapers.
D. W Leigh
McKinney Aug. 26.
COLLIN COUNTY FROM THE OX TEAM TO THE AIRPLANE
Daily
Courier Gazette, 1949
The following letter
was printed in Examiner June 30, 1930, nearly 20 years ago. Many changes since
that time:
Editors Examiner:
My son, E. L. Naugle
and I had a pleasant visit in Collin County sometime ago. Stopping at Frisco,
Prosper and McKinney, we met congenial friends at each place. He had not seen
McKinney for 21 years, it having been that long since we moved away from the
county. The town has grown wonderfully during that time. I pass through there
occasionally.
After spending a
night at Prosper with relatives, we started to McKinney via the somewhat
deserted village, Rock Hill, where my father, B. J. Naugle, located his
headright in 1847. That survey corners there where the two roads intersect, and
runs 1 mile south and 1/2 mile west being 320 acres. He later pre-empted 160
acres which corners near the same spot, running 1/2 mile east and 1/2 mile
north. He first settled by a spring 1/2 mile east of that place. The village,
Rock Hill, was not started there until 37 years later. It has been more than 70
years since I first began traveling the road from Rock Hill community to
McKinney. I have been familiar with it since I was a small boy. It has been
changed some, shortened some, and is a better road. At that time going east from
that neighborhood we traveled across the open prairie, varying very little from
the section line that passes along the south side of the Esq. Coleman old place
and on east until we reached a point near the Grey Branch creek. Then to avoid
the two ravines which flow into the creek from the north side, the road turned
to the right, leading down into the creek and followed down the bed of the creek
for some distance, then climbing a long steep bank at the foot of the well known
as Grey Branch hill, to get up out of the creek. The roads then were almost the
same as nature made them. They had not been improved much. No bridges then. Some
time late (I do not know how long) there was some kind of a crossing made on
Grey Branch at that point and the road was taken out of the creek and followed
along the north side of the creek, parallel to it. Still late a bridge was built
on the creek and each of the ravines. We then had a right good road to McKinney
in dry weather except that the long steep hill was still there and we always had
"uphill business" at that place when going to McKinney with a loaded wagon.
Going back home in
the afternoon it was even more to be dreaded. It was dangerous. There was danger
of going down too fast. One man lost his life there, was so badly hurt that he
died soon afterward. Going to McKinney this time, after passing Foote, we
suddenly found ourselves on a new road and seemed lost for a few minutes. Did
not recognize the new road, but it being a good road going east and believing it
to be the McKinney road, we drove on intersecting the old road at the Darnell
old place near Bowlby. We failed to see the Gray Branch hill, as formerly. I was
glad of it. I had seen it too often years ago.
I am glad you have
good roads in Collin County now, as well as other good improvements. It is a
real pleasure to travel through Collin now. There has been a wonderful
transformation of the face of the cunty since I first saw it. My grandfather,
Jacob J. Naugle, came to Collin County during the year 1846, the year the county
was organized and also the year in which the war between the U. S. and Mexico
began. He came then to look at the country, with a view of making home in Texas.
Soon after he left his home in Indiana and started to Texas his son, Benj. J.
Naugle, then a lad a little past 15 years old, also left home in that state,
either cause he was lonesome without his father at home and wanted to follow him
or as a boy at that age he wanted to fight Mexicans or didn't have much love for
his step-mother at home (very likely the latter) he went to Louisville, Ky., and
joined the U.S. army and went to Mexico to take part in the war. After serving
there one year, he received a discharge from the army and went back to Indiana.
By that time his father had returned from Texas ans was preparing to move to
Texas with his family. Soon afterward they all started, 4 in number including
the son. They came by boat down the Ohio River, down the Mississippi and up the
Red River as far as they could travel by boat. From that point the rode on
horseback to Collin County. They had already learned enough about Texas to know
what awaited them. A free heritage in a fine country in the great State of
Texas. Texas at that time the youngest state in the union was also many times
the largest state. Not including the Santa Fe territory or New Mexico, which
covered 122,503 square miles, which Texas sold to the U.S. Government for
$10,000,000.00, Texas still covered an area of 165,896 square miles. A territory
larger than any European country except Russia, nearly 4 times as large as
Arkansas, and 6 times as large as Ohio, Pennsylvania or New York and more than &
times as large as all the 6 New England states combined. Great in size, great in
her variety of soil and climate, great in her hidden internal undeveloped
resources, with a geographical location assuring her wonderful commercial
possibilities, yet Texas was poor in some respects. Land, her chief stock in
trade found slow sale. People would naturally be slow in buying land fro homes
in a country exposed to attacks from Mexicans, Indians and wild beasts, in a
country too thinly settled for schools and churches to a good advantage. No
railroads near, no market near.
What Texas needed
then was people. People to settle the land, to civilize the country, to
cultivate the soil, to raise stock, to increase the products and material wealth
of the country to bring capital into the country, to bring railroads and other
industries into the country. No wonder Texas was giving land away in those days.
Coming at that time, a man with a family received a land certificate, which
entitled him to 640 acres, to be chosen anywhere out of State land not yet
taken. Furthermore he was not required to live on it. It might have been
expected that he would live on it, but he was not forced to do it. He could sell
his certificate or trade it off and transfer his title to someone else. People
did not attach too much value to a section of land at that time. Some people
coming in those days secured land and went away and never returned. The land
reverted to the state years afterward or was sold for taxes.
My grandfather,
Jacob J. Naugle, coming in 1847, being a man with a family received a
certificate for 640 acres, which he located near Rowlett Creek, as shown on the
may of Collin County in the Assessor's office in McKinney. His son, B. J. Naugle,
being single, received a certificate for 320 acres which he located at Rock Hill
as I have already stated. More later.
W. C. Naugle
(June 26, 1930 - 19
years ago)
Historical marker, 2000
Site
of
ROCK
HILL
PROBABLY NAMED
FOR THE WHITE ROCK
ESCARPMENT ON
WHICH IT WAS BUILT, ROCK
HILL WAS
ESTABLISHED BY DECEMBER 1854
WHEN JOHN
MOORE BECAME ITS FIRST POST-
MASTER. BY THE
EARLY 20TH CENTURY THE
TOWN BOASTED
TWO SCHOOLS, FOUR CHURCHES,
THREE DOCTORS,
A GRIST MILL, GENERAL STORE,
COTTON GIN,
BLACKSMITH, DRUGSTORE, DRY
GOODS AND
GROCERY AND A POPULATION OF 115.
IN 1902 THE
ST. LOUIS AND SAN FRANCISCO
RAILROAD
BYPASSED THE TOWN, AND WITHIN
MONTHS MOST OF
THE BUSINESSES, TOWNS-
PEOPLE AND
CHURCHES HAD RELOCATED TO
PROSPER. THE
LITTLE COMMUNITY SURVIVED
FOR SEVERAL
MORE YEARS. IN THE MID-1930s
AN AFRICAN
AMERICAN BAPTIST CHURCH WAS
THE ONLY ONE
REMAINING. THE ANGLO SCHOOL
CLOSED IN
1948; THE BLACK SCHOOL CLOSED
IN THE 1960s.
A GENERAL STORE, THE LAST
REMNANT OF
ROCK HILL, WAS RAZED IN 1973.
MOVING ROCK HILL.
TOWN
BEING TRANSPORTED BY TWO BIG ENGINES.
TO
PROSPER ON NEW FRISCO.
ONLY
ONE STORE AND ONE CHURCH WILL LIKELY BE LEFT ON OLD TOWN SITE.
Weekly Democrat
Gazette, January 23, 1902
W. B. Smith, one
of Rock Hill's best known citizens, was in town Monday. From him a Democrat
reporter, learned that the work of moving Rock Hill to Prosper on the new Frisco
road had commenced. The distance is two miles north of Rock Hill. He said Dr.
Combest's big barn was moved Saturday and his residence is being moved today.
(Thursday). W. H. Shrader is ready to have his store moved as soon as it can be
reached. Two big engines are furnishing the motive power. The clear weather and
dry, compact condition of the public roads are very favorable to the work. All
the four or five stores will be moved so Mr. Smith understands except Uncle Bob
Burton's who will remain at its present location on the old town site.
Arrangements
have also been made for moving the Baptist and Cumberland Presbyterian churches.
The M. C. church, south, will also likely be moved later, but the Methodist
Episcopal church will probably remain on the present site in Rock Hill.
SIX
BIG ENGINES UTILIZED
FURNISH MOTIVE POWER -- HUGE TRUCKS OF GREAT STRENGTH.
SAM
SPROLES' OUTFIT.
Weekly Democrat
Gazette, January 30, 1902
Sam Sproles, the
hustling house mover, was here Tuesday on a forced vacation due to inclement
weather.
His work at
Celina lacks only about two days of being completed. He will then go to Rock
Hill which he will help move two miles north to Prosper on the new Frisco.
Sam's facilities
for his peculiar work are first class and he does about all the heavy moving. He
has huge trucks having four-inch square solid steel axles with cottonwood wheels
having a 16 inch face and 26 inches in diameter. Sic big engines furnish the
motive power and his crew consists of a dozen workmen. The heaviest piece of
work done by him was the moving of the big two-story I. O. O. F. building with
its stock of dry goods and general merchandise owned by Childress & Stanford.
Mr. Sproles says
only one store, that of Mr. Roller's will be left in old Celina. A number of
residences won't be moved for some time yet owing to the extravagant price of
building lots in the new town, which is located one and a half miles north of
the new Frisco.
FINAL
LANDMARK RAZED IN ROCKHILL COMMUNITY
by Juanice
Stanton
McKinney
Examiner, December 21, 1973
The
final landmark of the small community of Rock Hill, Texas was laid to rest,
recently, just as the many citizens who made up the small community were laid to
rest over the years.
The
Rock Hill Store, located between Prosper and Frisco, off Highway 289 and Rock
Hill Road, was the landmark of a community that was formed in the 1870's. The
community grew and developed with twice a week mail pick-up and delivery service
out of McKinney; a general merchandise store, cotton gin, blacksmith shop, drug
store with a doctor present, dry goods and grocery store, a school, and three
churches within a two mile area of the community. Approximately 30 dwellings
made up the Rock Hill community in the early 1900's.
However, the Rock Hill community met the same fate of many small communities
when the St. Louis and San Francisco railroad built its line through western
Collin County in 1902. New communities sprang up hearer the railroad. With the
coming of the railroad, the new community or Prosper was created two miles to
the north of Rock HIll. At that time, the small Rock Hill community threw in its
lot with Prosper and moved closer to the rail lines.
After
the move nearer to the rail lines, all that remained as a reminder of the Rock
Hill community was the Rock Hill store and Rock Hill school. The school was
taken into the Prosper district in the 1940's and the building stood vacant
several years before being dismantled in the early 1950's. The store has stood
as a stark reminder of Rock Hill's existence for the past 70 years.
People
who made up the community included the Shraders, who operated a drug store; the
Sones, who operated a dry goods and grocery store; Dr. Douglas, Dr. Combest and
Dr. Mathers, country doctors; Burtons operated a general merchandise store;
Naugles and Ball operated blacksmith shops.
Other
settlers included the Mahards, Cantrells, Goodnights, Sterlings, Lesters,
Adamsons, Smiths, Lanes, Barlows, Fields, Robinsons, Burgners, Caveners,
Tarlpeys, Sneatherns, Slaughters, Stantons, Lusters, Bells, Talkingtons, Mohons,
and old "Uncle Dan Howard" and Burt Sanders.
Winnie
Talkington married Jim Mohon and they settled in the Rock Hill area. In 1919
they bought the Palmer's grocery store. That store stood as the landmark of the
Rock Hill community until December 8, 1973, when it was torn down. Mr. and Mrs.
Drude Talkington own the land now and have built a new home east of where the
store was formerly located.
Many a
traveler along the old Preston Trail, and later Highway 289, has stopped for
gas, groceries or information at the little station at Rock Hill. Mr. and Mrs.
Mohon owned and operated the business and maintained a residence at the back of
the building from 1919 until his death in 1949 and her death in 1970.
Old
Jess, a bulldog of the Mohons, was for many years a familiar sight and had a
friendly greeting for anyone who stopped in at the store. He was raised from a
pup by the Mohons and was a cherished member of the household until his death
when he was thirteen years old.
The
passing of loved ones and the dismanteling of old landmark buildings are sad
events in the lives of human beings. But, at the same time the events of sadness
are made easier to bear by the memories of family relationships and individuals
lives intermingled with fellowship in a community. The Rock Hill community no
longer exists, but it will never be forgotten. The descendants of the families
who made up the original community will never let it die in their memories.
Communities Index
- Recommended
citation:
-
"Rock Hill
- Collin County Communities," Collin County, Texas History and Genealogy
Webpage by Genealogy Friends of Plano Libraries, Inc., <http://www.geocities/genfriendsghl>
[Accessed Fri February 13 13:37:28 US/Central 2004 ].
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