Union Hill

Historical marker location:

Burton, Texas

( 2 mi. N of Burton on FM 2780.)

Marker installed: 1976

The Hugh and Lucy Kerr family from Tennessee started the Kerr settlement in this area in 1831. W. B. McClellan (1804-80) from North Carolina bought land from W. P. Kerr in 1844 and began a second settlement. Union Academy was operating by 1850. Union Hill Post Office opened in 1854. Mrs. Lucy Kerr gave acreage at this point for a Methodist church; Masonic lodge and school soon shared the site. Stores, a hotel, and other buildings stood to the west. Unincorporated, the town of 800 dwindled after 1870, as railroad facilities in Burton (2 mi. south) drew away the local businesses.

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The first oil well in the United States was drilled in Texas in 1859. The discovery of oil transformed the economy of the state and helped to make Texas one of the wealthiest states in the nation.