COMMUNITY NAME
It is not clear from what or how the name Skull Creek originated. The early surveyors that mapped the land in Austin’s Colony named the creek on their survey maps. There are two streams in Texas with the name of Skull Creek. One is a tributary of the Mill Creek in Northwestern Austin County and the other one is a tributary of the Colorado River in Southern Colorado County. There are several theories as to why the stream in Austin County was named Skull Creek.
One version is that when the surveyors of the Stephen F. Austin Colony survey-
ed the David Burnet and S. Sutherland leagues, both of which covered the pres-
ent Skull Creek Community, they used the creek as a reference point. The sur-
veyors needed to label the creek on their maps with some name since it traversed through the heart of the surveyed area. It is presumed that the surveyors found a skull along the creek and named it Skull Creek.
Another version is that some graves which were located on the banks of the
creek washed out after a heavy flood and spilled their contents into the open creek bed. It is surmised that these skulls may have been the source of the name Skull Creek. Neither of the two versions however, can claim any credence since they both lack proof.
The Community was also known as “Roeder’s Moehl” as early as 1840. Mr. Otto von Roeder operated a water powered grist mill in the West Fork of the creek for several years. Mr. Roeder, an early German Immigrant, built and operated a water powered grist mill which was used mostly for grinding corn into corn meal, a very basic food in those days. Settlers came from as far away as Cat Spring and Warrenton to have their corn ground at the mill. Therefore, that area was called Roeder’s Moehl, and it covered both the Skull Creek and Shelby Communities. In 1845, Mr. Roeder sold the grist mill to Mr. K. Sassen-
burg who lived nearby on the Heinrich Eixmann place.
The Eixmann place is now owned by Mr. Krebs. Mr. Sassenburg in turn sold the mill to Mr. Paul Vogelsang who had the mill dismantled and moved to the community which is now Shelby, and there it was operated without water power along with the cotton gin. The community then lost it’s reference to Roeder’s Moehl and became to be know as the Skull Creek Community. Today, all that remains of the grist mill site is a portion of the mill pond embankment.
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