D.2.2 - 5613 Patton Ranch Road - Historic Context Report — original pdf

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Abstract Save Oak Hill on behalf of Scenic Hill Country, Travis County contracted with Preservation Central, Inc. on December 1, 2015, to identify and document historic resources that might be adversely affected by proposed highway development and construction on U. S. Highway 290 West through Oak Hill. Terri Myers served as the Principal Investigator for Preservation Central. She had recently identified and documented six distinct historic cultural resources in the area as part of the Travis County Historical Commission’s survey of cultural resources in Southwest Travis County (October 2015). In that effort, Ms. Myers recommended that several of the surveyed resources were potentially eligible for individual listing in the National Register of Historic Places and that together they might comprise a small historic district. In the current project, Ms. Myers conducted more in-depth research on Oak Hill, its history, and cultural resources. She attempted to locate historic sites identified through research that she had not previously documented in the Southwest Travis County Historic Resources Survey. She then conducted a survey that included previously recorded properties as well as new sites identified through more intense research specific to Oak Hill. The survey resulted in an inventory of twenty-four historic-age properties (50 years old or older) in Oak Hill. Texas Historical Sites Survey Forms were produced for all properties, regardless of priority or condition. Of these, five were assessed as High priority resources that may be individually eligible for National Register listing. Nine resources were assessed as Medium priorities and should be considered Contributing elements of any potential National Register district in the area. Of the twenty-four surveyed sites, ten were considered to be Low priorities due to integrity loss through demolition, redevelopment with new construction, or severe alterations since the close of the historic period (1966). Such resources no longer convey an accurate sense of history. 1  Introduction This document is a letter report of the survey activity and results for a limited project area in Oak Hill, Travis County, Texas. The purpose of the survey was to identify and minimally document historic resources in the path of proposed highway development and construction. The project area extends roughly from the 6200 block through the 7000 block of U. S. Highway 290 West in Oak Hill. It includes historic resources in close proximity to the highway on the intersecting streets of McCarty Lane, Tanner Lane, Old Patton Ranch Road, Old Bee Cave Road, Convict Hill Road, and Highway 71 at its juncture with U.S. Highway 290 at the “Y”. This report begins with a narrative Historic Context developed for this project. It is within this context that historic resources were evaluated for National Register eligibility. Following the context is a discussion of the research and survey methodology used in the project and a brief historic overview of the Oak Hill region. It presents the survey results and offers recommendations for the preservation of significant historic resources found in the project area. It includes an inventory of properties, a map identifying the locations of surveyed properties, and a bibliography of sources used in the research and report preparation. Deliverables include this report, individual survey forms for each identified property, and labeled photographs for each resource. Deliverables are submitted in both hard copy and electronic format. 2 Priority Contributes High Yes Inventory of Surveyed Properties – Oak Hill and Vicinity Buildings, Structures, Objects, and Sites Site # Site 1 Resource Name Oak Hill School Site 2 Patton-Enoch House Site 3 J. A. Patton Store Site 4 Site 5 State Highway Marker Patton Gas Station Site 6 Patton Farmstead Site 7 Oak Hill Downs Site 8 Williamson Creek Site 9 Bridge State Park Site Site 10 Beckett’s Grove Site 11 Polk’s Feed Store Site 12 Texas State Historical Marker Site 13 Oak Hill Cemetery Site 14 Site 15 Bee Cave Rd. Low- water Crossing Tanner’s Grove 1898 c. 1895 Date 1923 Description Rustic stone and wood rural school building; rooms added in 1933 and 1954 Free Classic style stone-clad house with hip roof and cross gables, truncated Doric columns 2-part rusticated limestone commercial building Small stone monument with metal plaque New, temporary construction on former gas station site Frontier farm complex with log house and barn, outbuildings New construction, large business complex on former racetrack site c. 1950 Concrete bridge on U.S. Highway c. 1870 1935 290 West NA 1969 c. 1935 Cannot determine – large trees, grass, no known improvements Stand of old Live Oaks and Pecans associated with pioneer Store gone. Grassy site vacant except for historical marker Metal state historical plaque on metal standard Family plots w/ stone or concrete curbs, stone grave markers, grass & shrubs Small, low concrete bridge over Williamson Creek branch Stand of large old trees on historic Tanner property c. 1935 c. 1877 NA High Yes High Yes Medium Yes Low No High Yes Low No Medium Yes Low No Medium Yes High Yes Medium Yes Medium Yes Site 16 Old School Site c. 1900 No evidence of school. Site is Low No Site 17 Tanner Lane Low- c. 1935 Site 18 water Crossing Joe Tanner’s Blacksmith Shop Site 19 Hampton Grove c. 1900 NA grass-covered Small concrete bridge over branch of Williamson Creek Shop gone, site is vacant, low grass and trees Stand of large old Live Oak trees, part of historic Beckett’s Grove Medium Yes Low No Medium Yes None Needs more research Medium Yes 3  Site 20 Gin Site c. 1880 Site 21 Quarry Bluffs c. 1881 Site is vacant, grass-covered creek embankment Limestone cliffs associated with quarry (later excavation) Low No Medium Yes Site 22 Convict Cave c. 1882 Cave obliterated in excavation Low Site 23 Quarry Park for new shopping center c. 1881 City park trails, largely natural setting, piles of quarried stone Low Site 24 Mowinkle Ranch c. 1855 Ranch & grove replaced with Low new shopping center. No No No 4  Historic and Architectural Context of Oak Hill, Travis County, Texas During the Spanish and Mexican colonization period in Texas, the area now known as Oak Hill remained largely unsettled because Native Americans, predominantly Comanches, commanded the creeks and deer paths along the eastern edge of the Hill Country where they found plentiful water and wild game. Their fierce opposition to European settlement dissuaded all but the most intrepid pioneers from homesteading in the region until after the Civil War. As late as the 1870s, in fact, Comanche raiding parties followed the craggy banks of Shoal Creek into the western outskirts of Austin where they plundered homes and made off with an occasional hostage. It is no wonder, then, that settlement came late to the isolated and unprotected environs of present Oak Hill, which lay about nine miles southwest of the Texas state capital. Oak Hill was part of a Mexican land grant awarded to empresario Ben R. Milam for colonization purposes as part of a program started by the Spanish government, and continued by Mexico, to settle its northern frontier. Much of present Oak Hill was part of a 4,428.4-acre tract surveyed as the Thomas Anderson League (1826-1835)(Travis County deed records 5:98; 16:81).1 On June 3, 1850, Anderson deeded about 500 acres of his land grant to his nephew, William D. Glascock, who may have been Oak Hill’s first permanent resident (Travis County deed records D: 259-260; D:317). Early Settlement on Williamson Creek: 1846-1855 William D. Glascock was a Mississippi native who came to Travis County about 1846, just after the United States annexed Texas, instigating a war with Mexico. He reportedly took possession of his uncle’s land shortly after his arrival in the county, possibly after a wagon road was cut through to Fort Martin Scott, near the Hill Country town of Fredericksburg, between 1846 and 1848. According to some accounts, he settled his family in a grove of pecan trees on the north bank of Williamson Creek (OHAN, accessed February 22, 2016).2 Field notes and hand-drawn maps made by County Surveyor John Wallace in 1898 show that Glascock’s property fronted onto the north side of the Austin-to-Fredericksburg Road (present US Highway 290 West), and lay on both sides of Old Bee Cave Road (Figures 1 and 2).3 A comparison of Wallace’s map with modern aerial photographs suggests that Glascock may have settled in a cluster of trees that has come to be known as Beckett’s Grove. A few years after Glascock came to live on the Fredericksburg Road, he sold a large parcel west of his homestead tract to Norwegian immigrant John E. Mowinkle. Mowinkle and his descendants operated a ranch in the crux of the “Y”, where SH 71 diverges from US 290 West (Site 24). 1 Some sources claim that present Oak Hill was part of a grant to William Cannon that extended stretched between Williamson and Slaughter creeks (OHAN, accessed February 22, 2016). Cannon did obtain land out of the nearby Freelove Woody League where the Hays County community of Driftwood now stands. About 1850, he platted the town of Cannonville on the Freelove Woody grant. It was a short-lived settlement of only three houses that were washed away in a flood on Onion Creek. If Cannon owned land in present Oak Hill, he did not occupy it. He was a long-time resident of Bastrop County but owned several large tracts of land in Williamson, Travis, and Hays County for speculative purposes. 2Glascock may have occupied his uncle’s land before the actual deed transfer took place in 1850. 3 Wallace labeled his maps with the names of property owners who fronted onto county roads. 5  The Austin-to-Fredericksburg Road: 1848-1860 The homesteaders’ survival in Comanche territory may be attributed to an increased military presence along the Austin-to-Fredericksburg road in the 1840s. After the United States admitted Texas to the union and fought a war with Mexico (1846-1848) for the privilege, the federal government authorized a series of forts to be built along the Rio Grande to secure the border and along the western frontier to protect homesteaders from Indian attack. In 1848, a U. S. military expedition rode west from Austin to the German village of Fredericksburg and forged what became known as the Austin-to-Fredericksburg, or Fredericksburg Road, through present Oak Hill. On December 5, 1848, Fort Martin Scott, about two miles southeast of the German village of Fredericksburg, was commissioned as the first in a line of frontier forts to be built along the western edge of Texas’ settlement. From that time onward, federal troops regularly patrolled the road while guarding supply trains to Fort Martin Scott. Their constant presence may have prompted Comanches in the area to retreat from Oak Hill, as their numbers reportedly declined from an estimated population of 200, when Glascock moved there about 1848, to less than 30 by the time Mowinkle joined him in the mid-1850s. The road greatly facilitated settlement in the area and small communities emerged on its path, particularly at locations with abundant fresh water. “Live Oak Springs” (Oak Hill) and Dripping Springs, in Hays County, were two communities that sprang up at watering holes on the Fredericksburg Road. As the Comanche threat diminished in the Oak Hill area, the number of settlers increased. In 1856, the population was large enough to support a school and residents erected a log school house called “Live Oak Springs.” They hired J. A. Baker as its first teacher. The name “Live Oak Springs” came to define the community as a whole until after the Civil War (OHAN accessed February 22, 2016), when it was supplanted by “Shiloh”, then “Oatmanville”, and finally “Oak Hill”. As more farmers were carved out of the large land grants, a network of rough, makeshift wagon trails linked farmsteads to one another. Most, like present Old Bee Cave Road, Old Patton Ranch Road, and McCarty Lane (Longview Road), veered off the Fredericksburg Road, taking advantage of natural fords on Williamson Creek and establishing road patterns that survive to the present. From the mid-1850s through the early-1860s, development in “Live Oak Springs“ was limited to a handful of farmsteads scattered across a largely natural, tree-studded landscape along Williamson Creek. Early residents typically lived in log houses chinked with limestone shards and mud. A log dwelling of this type survives in the area along with a log barn, a one-room auxiliary structure, and associated outbuildings (Site 6). 4 Though some residents owned large tracts of land, most of it remained in timber or unimproved pasture, with only a few acres devoted to field crops or garden plots. By and large, these pioneer settlers engaged primarily in subsistence-level farming and ranching, eking out a bare living from the rocky soil. Civil War and Reconstruction in Southwest Travis County: 1861-1870 The Civil War and its immediate aftermath stymied growth throughout Travis County. In 1866, county property tax receipts had dropped nearly 50 percent from those collected in 1864; much of the decline 4 Ibid, 56-57. 6  was due to the loss of slaves, but farm and livestock values decreased by 25 to 40 percent as well.5 As the county began to recover in the 1870s, however, grant holders began to subdivide their large, heretofore undeveloped, tracts for sale as family farms or ranches. The western part of the county, in particular, became attractive more for its stock-raising potential than as farmland.6 Following the war, thousands of Southerners whose farms and homes had been ravaged by the war, flocked to Texas, including Travis County, which had survived the conflagration nearly unscathed. Among them were hundreds of farmers and planters whose late arrival and reduced circumstances left them with little money and few opportunities to buy good farmland in the eastern half of the county. Instead, they settled for thin topsoil and rocky terrain in the less expensive, relatively undeveloped southwestern section of the county, including Oak Hill. A clear sign of Southern influence in the postwar era was the renaming of “Live Oak Springs” to “Shiloh School”, in honor of the Confederate victory in the Battle of Shiloh. Though the name lasted only a few years,7 Southern culture and traditions persisted in southwestern Travis County for the rest of the 19th and into the 20th century. Some Southern immigrants hailed from the Appalachian regions of Kentucky and Tennessee where they never had profitable farms or good soils in the first place. Attracted by the vast tracts of timber, clear streams, and abundance of game in the Hill Country, these mountaineers tended to “live off the land”, hunting for game and felling trees to sell as firewood and shingles, or to burn for charcoal. They often hired on as “rock farmers” to clear fields and build stone fences for local property owners. Some made moonshine. Called “cedar choppers” or “charcoal burners” these Appalachian immigrants survived by their wits and hard labor, exploiting the region’s natural resources and leaving their mark on Oak Hill (OHAN accessed February 22, 2016). With this significant Southern population infusion Oak Hill experienced its first wave of sustained development (U. S. Bureau of the Census, 1870, 1880). At the same time, small community nodes began to appear in rural sections throughout the county. Such centers were generally located on a main road, at a crossroads, and/or a good watering place such as a spring or spring-fed creek where horses and passengers could get water and food. These little settlements featured only meager amenities, generally a store or trading post that also served as a post office, a blacksmith shop, and possibly a school that doubled as a church on Sundays. In 1869, B. F. Oatman purchased a large tract of land a few miles west of present Oak Hill. Anticipating growth for the area, Oatman hired a surveyor to plat the townsite of “Oatmanville” on his parcel in 1870 (OHAN accessed February 22, 2016). Some used the term to describe the general area and confusion ensured as mail was sent to the wrong postal stations and maps were drawn that showed Oak Hill as “Oatmanville”. In 1882, when a railway spur linked Oak Hill to Manchaca, in South Austin, it was erroneously named the “Austin and Oatmanville Railway” (https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/eqa13). As late as 1885, Oak Hill was depicted as Oatmanville on area maps (The Servant Girl Murders: http://www.servantgirlmurders.com/oatmanville accessed February 16, 2016). 5Smyrl, “Travis County” Handbook of Texas online. 6 Boyd, et. al., 2015. 7 The school was renamed “Live Oak Springs” 7  According to the 1870 census, however, settlement in the area now known as Oak Hill still remained exceedingly sparse. The record shows that the Glascock and Mowinkle families, the area’s original settlers, still held forth on their homesteads along the Austin-to-Fredericksburg Road. Others families, including the Wade, Smith, and Nichols families, appear in the same census tract but research indicates that they lived closer to present Manchaca than Oak Hill. Five years after the Civil War, Oak Hill consisted of only a few scattered homesteads and a log school house. That situation was destined to improve after the James Madison Patton family arrived at the Mowinkle Ranch in December, 1870. Members of the family left an indelible mark on the community and Patton’s son, seventeen-year-old James Andrew, became a leader in local commerce, education, and civic works. Other families followed the Pattons’ lead as the decade progressed, and a small community coalesced at the low-water crossing on the Fredericksburg Road. W. K. Beckett was among those who reportedly settled in Oak Hill during the 1870s. He bought a large tract of land out of the Glascock estate where he established a homestead and possibly a gin that appeared on his property in an 1898 map of the area (Site 20). Williamson Creek ran through the parcel and a substantial grove of Pecan and Live Oak trees lined its banks. Known as “Beckett’s Grove” (Site 10), the tree-shaded site became a popular overnight camping spot for farmers and ranchers enroute to Austin, driving herds of cattle and horses to outside markets. There they rested, watered their stock, and likely took a dip in the cool waters of the creek. Patton Family in Oak Hill: 1870-present A young man who would grow to become one of the area’s most prominent citizens, James Andrew Patton, arrived in Oak Hill with his parents and siblings on Christmas Eve, 1870. The family camped at John Mowinkle’s ranch until they could find a more permanent place. At his mother’s urging, the family had abandoned their home on the Texas frontier for the relatively peaceful environs of Oak Hill. It had been a hard-won fight on her part as her husband, James Madison Patton, was a Texas Ranger and Indian fighter of considerable repute who loved nothing more than a good battle and an untamed wilderness. Whenever civilization threatened to catch up to him, he moved his family farther into the frontier until an Indian’s bullet nearly killed one of his son, Cicero Columbus. With that, Sarah Jane Patton had had enough, and Patton gathered his brood and headed back to Travis County and Oak Hill. The elder James Patton had come to Texas from Mississippi8 in 1836 to fight for Texas Independence. Once the Texas Republic was established, he took his fight to the Comanches and other Native American tribes who fought against increased Anglo settlement in their territory. From February to May 1839, Patton served in the Red River Rangers under the command of H. B. Stout. He later served under Captain Highsmith in a series of battles and skirmishes with the Comanches. One encounter took place at the Grumbles Place, south of Barton Springs and northeast of present Oak Hill. When asked his occupation, James M. Patton once responded “Indian hunter” (Mrs. James M. White, “Early Patton History”, May, 1969). In the 1840s, Patton interrupted his Indian-fighting career to start a family. Patton married Sarah Jane Smithson, a native of Alabama who had immigrated to Bastrop County. The couple lived in Bastrop for 8 He may have been born in Alabama. 8  brief time but soon moved to Austin, where the first of their nine children, Cicero Columbus Patton, was born in January, 1848. From Austin, the family embarked on a series of moves throughout South-Central Texas. They first settled near Lockhart, in Caldwell County, where Patton served a term as County Sheriff from 1853-1854. In 1854, the family pulled up stakes for Comal County where he worked as a cattleman and rancher. In 1858, they moved to the Round Mountain settlement in present Blanco County, where Patton and his son, Samuel Boyd, helped organize the county government. The elder Patton was elected County Tax Collector and Samuel served as its Chief Justice (Mrs. James M. White). When the Civil War broke out, Patton continued his service with the Texas Rangers to ward off renewed incursions by Indians who were emboldened by the removal of federal troops from the frontier. Though soldiers returned to Texas after the war, they weren’t sufficient to turn back the remaining bands of Comanches determined to fight against the tide of new immigrants in the territory. By then, Patton’s sons, James Andrew and Cicero Columbus, were old enough to join the Rangers under Captain Alexander “Buck” Roberts’ Minute Company. In one of the last big battles with the Comanches, the Rangers encountered the enemy at Spring Valley, near Round Mountain, on November 2, 1870. In the midst of the battle, Cicero Columbus took a bullet in the chest. James Andrew rescued his brother and took him to safety in Round Mountain where Cicero recovered from his wound. He served with the Ranger company until 1879, but he carried the bullet to his death in 1936 (Mrs. James M. White). Her son’s close encounter with death was all the evidence that Sarah Jane Patton needed to convince her husband to move back to civilization. In just over a month after Cicero’s close brush with a bullet, James Madison Patton led a party of 17, including his wife, brother-in-law Cicero Smithson, and all of their combined children and grandchildren, to Oatmanville. They arrived on Christmas Eve, 1870, and camped on the Mowinkle Ranch, near the old picnic grounds (site of Albertson’s Store), until the elder Patton leased the Blocker farm early in 1871 (later site of Woodward Body Works). The following year, 1872- 1873, they leased the Nichols farm on Slaughter Creek. The Pattons returned to the Oak Hill area and lived in a house on the north side of the Fredricksburg Road (U. S. Highway 290). A log house, log barn, and related outbuildings dating to c. 1870 lie just east of Old Patton Ranch Road (Site 6), on land owned by James Andrew Patton and his descendants. The site is likely associated with the family’s early settlement in the area. Patton later purchased a farm from a Mr. Blocker and the elder Pattons moved south of the main road through Oak Hill. By then, their sons had households of their own. James Madison Patton continued to work on behalf of his community; he served as Deputy Sheriff under Sheriff Dennis Corwin and in 1879, he was appointed as a school trustee (Mrs. James M. White).9 James A. Patton, The “Mayor” of Oak Hill: 1870-1944 When the Patton clan returned to Travis County in 1870, James Andrew Patton was just a boy of seventeen, but he was industrious and soon took on the responsibilities of a man. Shortly after his arrival 9 James Madison Patton died November 1900, and wife Sarah Jane Patton in February 1909. His property was deeded to Robert lee Patton. Robert Lee Patton’s youngest daughter Nellie Patton Miller owned the property through the 1960s (Mrs. James M. White). 9  in the area, he bought a 285-acre ranch several miles west of what would become the center of Oak Hill, along present State Highway 71. Later, he bought about 800 acres of land along Williamson Creek and established his homestead just east of the low-water crossing on the Austin-to-Fredericksburg Road. From that time onward, his first ranch was known as the “Upper Place”. In 1874, Patton made a deal with the county to haul limestone from the “Upper Place” for the construction of the second Travis County Courthouse, completed in 1876 (demolished 1964). On January 29, 1874, Patton married Virginia Bishop. The couple may have lived in the log house (Site 6). Eventually, he built a fashionable family home with a high-pitched, hipped roof, intersecting gables, decorative shingles, and classical columns that fronted onto the Austin-to-Fredericksburg Road. On November 2, 1879, Patton opened a wood frame general store on the road. The site, at a major crossing on Williamson Creek and on the main road between Austin and the western Hill Country, was an auspicious one as all travelers to and from the west had to pass by the store where they purchased staple goods and essentials for their journey. The Patton home and store formed the nucleus of a small settlement node where area residents met to exchange news, pick up supplies, and collect the mail. And, though listed as a “farmer” and “retail grocer” in various census records, Patton rose to become the acknowledged – if unofficial – “mayor” of Oak Hill. Patton and his wife ran their store together for 33 years, closing the business in 1912. James Andrew Patton’s commitment to Oak Hill was extraordinary. Soon after he moved to the area, he donated land for the Oak Hill Cemetery (Site 13) on Old Bee Cave Road.10 Early settlers buried there include members of the Maddox (earliest burial, 1883), Smith (1880, Wheeler (1888), White (1890), and Patton (1894) families. Patton joined the Christian Church and became a member of the Onion Creek Masonic Lodge No. 220. A lifelong Democrat, he was active in politics and served on 66 juries in three different Austin courthouses. On October 1, 1886, when his store became the official post office, Patton naturally served as its postmaster. In fact, Patton is said to be responsible for naming the community “Oak Hill” when he sought to clear up confusion between his post office and the station at nearby Oatmanville. He supported his community throughout his life and was elected Travis County Tax Assessor in the 1920s and served as president of the Oak Hill-Cedar Valley Pioneer Association from 1941 to 1944. Patton’s dedication to education in Oak Hill was particularly noteworthy. When the Public or Free School Law went into effect in 1879, Patton was elected as a member of the Board of School Trustees, a position he held for nearly 40 years (http://www.pattonpta.org/home/get-to-know-patton/mrpatton accessed February 16, 2016). Other trustees for the area were S. R. Yates and D. U. Downing (Bureau of the Census, 1880). Patton’s long years of service and reputation as a leader in education led to his appointment to the State Board of Trustees of the Deaf, Dumb, and Blind Institute for Negros, in 1915. In 1923, Patton donated the land next to his home for the construction of a new, modern school for his community. Oak Hill School (Site 1; Figure 4) opened for classes in 1924 and is now a designated Austin Historic Landmark. In addition to his community service, Patton was a good businessman who seized opportunities to improve his personal economy. In 1882, after fire destroyed the state capitol in Austin, Patton offered to 10 The earliest grave is that of J. E. Cox, a baby born in 1876 and who died and was buried in 1877. 10  donate the limestone on his property (Site 23) for its replacement, a larger, grander edifice on the same site. His likely saw the gift as an investment in Oak Hill’s development as it drew hundreds of contractors, railroad engineers, government officials, and laborers to his doorstep in Oak Hill. His business prospered in the 1880s and in 1898, he hired local stone mason Henry Marx to build a substantial new store under his supervision. The result was the 2-story, wood frame and hand-tooled limestone building known as the “Old Rock Store” at 6266 U.S. Highway 290 (Site 2: Figure 3). The stone used to build the 2’ thick walls was quarried on his property in Oak Hill. Some have attributed the rock store’s design and materials to Patton’s early exposure to similar commercial buildings crafted by German stone masons throughout the Texas Hill Country. Stone Quarries and Convict Labor: 1881-1888 According to the 1880 U. S. Census, most men in the Oak Hill area were occupied as farmers or farm laborers that year but other occupations were also represented, attesting to the area’s growth and diversification in the 1870s. James A. Patton was listed as a retail grocer, though he owned several stock ranches and farms in the vicinity. Henry Makey [Marx] who boarded with the Pattons and worked as a clerk in their store. Other men along the Fredericksburg Road were also identified as businessmen, including John White, a retail merchant; John Holtzman, George Alexander, and Charles Rose, all retail grocers; Colbert Maddox, a clerk; and Smith E. Echols, a saddlemaker (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1880). In 1882, the state of Texas embarked on a campaign to build a new capitol building to replace the one that burned the previous year. The Capitol Building Commission turned to Oak Hill, which lay over a large expanse of white limestone, as a potential quarry site for the new building. In addition to Patton’s donation, W. K. Beckett leased 1,000 acres of his land to the state where a substantial rock quarry was established on the south/west side of Williamson Creek (Sites 21 and 23)(James Scott Bankston, “An Informal Look at Oak Hill History” http://oakhillgazette.com/history/2011/12/an-informal-look-at-oak- hill-history accessed February 6, 2016). By 1883, the state completed a narrow-gauge Oatmanville-Austin Railway spur between Beckett’s place and the capitol grounds in Austin. Originally, the state intended to hire laborers to quarry the immense amount of stone needed for the capitol but officials struck on the idea of using “free” labor in the form of prison convicts. In the fall of 1885, the state sent about 100 convicts to the quarry to pry the limestone from its beds. Ultimately, the state found the Oak Hill limestone to be unsuitable for the capitol’s exterior as the stone was too soft to support the design and contained rust that stained the dressed stone. It was, however, used in the foundation and basement walls and as structural support for the dome. By the close of 1884, about 280,000 cubic feet of limestone had been cut from Oak Hill and delivered to the capitol grounds (Heidi Armstrong Smith, The Story of Convict Hill Quarry Park, Monday, August 21, 2006 in http://convicthillquarrypark.blogspot.com/2006/08/history-of-convict-hill-quarry-park accessed February 16, 20016). Oak Hill experienced a flurry of development activity associated with the railroad and quarry operations. By 1884, the community reportedly boasted four saloons and Patton’s store. The growth spurt was short- lived, however, as the quarry ceased operations when the new capitol was completed in 1888. The railroad spur was abandoned and the rails removed that year (Nancy Beck Young, Austin and Oatmanville Railway in https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/equa13 accessed February 13, 11  2016). Today, little evidence remains of the railroad or the quarry where hundreds of inmates once labored on behalf of the state (OHAN accessed February 22, 2016). Throughout this period, J. A. Patton’s business increased with state officials, quarry supervisors and workers frequenting the store. Likely as a result of increased activity in the area, the U. S. Government established a post office in the community; on September 25, 1886, J. A. Patton’s store was officially designated as the post office with J. A. Patton as postmaster. He served in that capacity for 24 years until rural delivery was routed through Austin in 1910 (http://www.pattonpta.org/home/get-to-know- patton/mrpatton accessed February 16, 2016). Life Returns to Normal in Oak Hill: 1889-1900 Life in Oak Hill resumed its slow pace once the quarry and its personnel vacated their posts. Nevertheless, the semi-rural community saw some improvements in the 1890s and early 1900s. In 1897, Travis County charged the Oatmanville school trustees with constructing a new school building for local children. Two acres of land off present McCarty Lane were donated for the construction and Columbus Patton, another son of James Madison Patton, supervised the building of the one-room frame school house on the site (Site 16). The frame building did double-duty, serving the community as a school house during the week and as a church on Sundays (OHAN accessed February 22, 2016). Despite the quarry closure, James A. Patton’s business continued to thrive and the grocer replaced his original wooden store with his now-famous limestone building in 1898. When completed, it was the largest, most ambitious structure in Oak Hill and a major landmark at the community’s center. Like the former store, Patton’s new building doubled as the post office, officially named “Oak Hill” in 1900. It continued its role as the local meeting place for the estimated 200 residents at the turn of the 20th century. Groups including the Woodmen of the World gathered on the building’s second floor. As time passed and the building aged, it became known as the “old rock store” (Texas State Historical Commission, state subject marker “Old Rock Store”, 1970). About the same time, Patton built a new “homestead” house (Site 2) on the lot next to his store. It was of frame construction and adopted the Free Classic architectural style that was fashionable from the late 19th to the very early 20th century. It is defined by a high-pitched hipped roof with intersecting steeply-pitched gables with patterned wood shingles in the gable ends. The centered front porch is inset under the front gable and supported by truncated wood, Doric order columns set on rock-faced pedestals. The original wood cladding was sheathed in flagstone, possibly in the 1930s, at the same time the porch columns were shortened and the flagstone pedestals installed. The house retains substantial integrity of design, materials, and workmanship to its original construction and the flagstone alterations have now achieved historic significance of their own. The house was assessed as a high priority for preservation in a survey conducted by the Travis County Historical Commission in 2015. Oak Hill remained a major stopping point between Austin and the Texas Hill Country to the west at the turn of the 20th century. The old Austin-to-Fredericksburg was still the shortest route between the two cities and area ranchers continued to drive their wagons and cattle to market along its path. Travelers still 12  stopped to rest and water their horses at low-water crossings on Williamson Creek and many still camped in Beckett’s Grove (Site 10) when nightfall caught them before they reached their destinations.11 By 1900, a number of other families built homes and businesses along the Fredericksburg Road at its crossing with Williamson Creek. Among them were Eugene Roberts and the Eck [Enoch?} family who lived just east of Patton, on the north side of the road. Across the road to the east lay Oak Hill School (Site 16). Sam Johnson had a house and farm fronting onto the south side of the road. William A. Tanner, a blacksmith and farmer, owned land with a grove of Live Oaks (Site 15) on the east bank of Williamson Creek. It was directly across from Patton’s house and store. His son, Joe, continued the blacksmith trade at the site well into the 20th century (Site 18). A gin (Site 20) was established on the west bank of the creek. Although it appears on W. K. Beckett’s property in an 1898 map of Oak Hill, J. A. Patton was listed in a rural directory as the mill and gin operator. The Glascock family still owned property on both sides of the “Oak Hill and Bee Cave Road”, present Old Bee Cave Road. Automobile Tourism to the Hill Country: 1910s-1930s Patton’s store and other local retail venues and services such as Tanner’s blacksmith shop probably did considerable business in the early 20th century as widespread automobile ownership brought increasing numbers of tourists to the Hill County west of Austin. A 1914 “Road Log Book” published by the Bexar County Highway League, showed the road through Oak Hill as the best route between Austin and Hill Country locales such as Blanco, Fredericksburg, and Kerrville. In the book’s narrative route description, Oak Hill was still the only place between Austin and Dripping Springs where a traveler could stop for a cold drink or to buy a new tire. In the early years of automobile travel, Oak Hill provided much-needed goods and services to the vacationing public (OHAN accessed February 22, 2016). Tourist travel to the Hill Country increased steadily in the 1910s wore on and the Texas State Highway Department attempted to meet the need for good roads. A road map drafted by the department showed that the Austin-to-Fredricksburg Road through Oak Hill was paved with gravel and considered to be an “all-weather highway” by 1917, though its crossing on Williamson Creek remained challenging during wet weather (State Highway Department, “Road Map of Travis County, Texas”, November, 1917).12 By 1923, the Fredericksburg Road was renamed State Highway 20 and was the major conduit for automobile travel from Austin to Dripping Springs and the Hill Country beyond (Leonard Offie, County Highway Engineer, “Map of Travis County Road” 1923). Seeing a good opportunity, James A. Patton added a filling station next to the rock store on October 1, 1925 (Site 5). The following year, the section of road between Austin and Blanco was designated as a national highway and renamed US 290. A 1932 State Highway Map depicted considerable growth in the Oak Hill region since 1917, with about 15 homes 11 The once-continuous line of trees is now known separately as “Tanner’s Grove” for its location on the historic Tanner property, “Beckett’s Grove” for its historic association with W. K. Beckett, and “Hampton’s Grove” for the nearby Hampton Inn hotel, although it, too, was part of the historic Beckett property. 12 About that time, the highway department began plans to build a new highway that would divert traffic away from the little community node at Williamson Creek. In response, James A. Patton began a 15-year battle with the agency to ensure that the new highway would pass in front of his general store as well as the old picnic grove on the former Mowinkle Ranch (Site 24) where many regional groups held their outings. The quarrel was finally settled in 1933 when the highway department routed the road past Patton’s store and paid him $1,250.00 for a slice of his property. 13  and businesses flanking the road between the Patton place and Old Bee Cave Road (Figure 5). It remained the only community of substance for miles in any direction. After years of wrangling with James A. Patton over its alignment, the State Highway Department built a new road through Oak Hill in 1934, bypassing part of the old Austin-to-Fredericksburg Road. A small highway marker with the date 1937 stands at the entrance to the Patton Store (Site 4). According to their settlement with Patton, the agency agreed to build the new highway so that it continued to pass in front of his store and curved to access the old picnic grounds on the former Mowinkle Ranch at the “Y”.13 A 1936 Highway Map of Travis County showed that most of Oak Hill’s houses and businesses still fronted onto the rerouted highway at its crossing on Williamson Creek. Interestingly, the map also identified a small “State Park” on the north side of the road, tucked between Williamson Creek and Old Bee Cave Road (Site 9)(Texas State Highway Department, “General Highway Map, Travis County, Texas”, 1936). Even in the midst of the Great Depression, Oak Hill saw a number of improvement projects including the addition of a new room at the Oak Hill School in 1933. Electricity came to Oak Hill for the first time in 1937. That year, the Baptist congregation built a new church and cancelled Sunday School classes that had been held in Peter Thompson’s blacksmith shop where parishioners perched on nail kegs to hear their lessons (OHAN accessed February 22, 2016). As the Highland Lakes on the Colorado River were developed in the 1930s and 1940s, ever more tourists passed through Oak Hill on their way to Hill Country parks and recreation sites. Postwar Development in Oak Hill: 1945-1980 Oak Hill development increased greatly in the post-World War II era. Just after the war, James A. Patton’s son, Archie, opened a dirt racetrack (Site 7) on the north side of Williamson Creek, near the “old rock store”. At first, races were held between plow horses, donkeys, and mules, but the track later expanded to include buggy races and roadsters. Eventually, Motorola purchased the property and built a plant on the site. In the 1950s, Oak Hill’s reputation as a local recreation site increased with monthly rodeos and horse racing events. In 1953, Oak Hill and Cedar Valley schools consolidated and another stone addition was built onto the stone school building (OHAN accessed February 22, 2016). As Austin’s suburban growth expanded to the west of the city in the 1960s, new and enlarged highways were built through the area. In the early part of the decade, Southwestern Bell added new telephone lines in Oak Hill, freeing residents from their party lines for the first time. In 1961, Oak Hill and Manchaca formed a rural high school district and in 1968 Oak Hill’s first volunteer fire department was launched. The tourist industry continued to contribute to the local economy and in 1966, the area’s first motel, the Heart of Texas Motel, was opened for business (OHAN accessed February 22, 2016). Despite new technology and development in the area, Oak Hill retained its rural character well into the 1970s. According to the 1970 census, Oak Hill had a population of only 425 residents. At the time, the school was described as being in the middle of farmland “out in the country”. Its staff, including nine teachers, had to shoo chickens and goats away to make way for the school buses. By the mid-1970s, 13 “Interstate 35 in Texas” Wikipedia, accessed September 26, 2015. 14  however, the city of Austin had grown out to meet Oak Hill, and in 1975, it began an annexation program that eventually encompassed the community (OHAN accessed February 22, 2016). Since the 1970s, major road construction and modification through the heart of Oak Hill, including the expansion of MOPAC, US Highway 290, and State Highway 71, have significantly altered the area’s character from a largely rural landscape to a major suburban intersection. Remnants of the old Oak Hill survive in its historic buildings, low-water crossings, cemetery, and groves of landmark Live Oak and Pecan trees. 15  Research and Survey Methodology Previous Cultural Resources Studies in Oak Hill Preservation Central, which had recently completed a historic resources study of the area, was hired to conduct the new survey. The firm had previously documented historic resources and developed historic contexts for the area as part of the Travis County Historical Commission’s effort to survey Southwest Travis County (Cultural Resources Survey and Assessment of Southwest Travis County, Report, October 2015). Four major contexts were identified and discussed in the Survey Report for Southwest Travis County: Early Settlement and Agricultural Development (1851-1880); Agriculture (1881-1965); Transportation (1848-1965); and Rural and Suburban Lifestyles in Travis County (1935-1965. A fifth context, Industry (1874-1888), should be developed to include the area’s quarry and mill/gin works. The Southwest Travis County Survey Report contained a historic narrative developed for the entire area. That narrative was substantially modified with new information and included in this report. In short, it discusses Oak Hill’s origins in the 1840s and 1850s, its increased settlement in the 1870s, and its development as a small community node in the 1880s. The narrative provides a brief history of local quarry operations developed to supply limestone for the construction of the new state capitol (1881- 1888). It outlines the importance of the Austin-to-Fredericksburg Road, now U. S. Highway 290 West, as a military route to western frontier forts and a cattle trail to Austin railyards in the 19th century, and as a stimulus to local commercial growth as automobile tourism to the Hill Country developed and increased in the early- to mid-20th century. The historical overview touches briefly on Austin’s suburban expansion into Oak Hill in the mid- to late-20th century and its impact on the formerly rural character of Oak Hill. The Southwest Travis County Survey Report identifies a variety of historic property types in the entire area. Building sub-types associated specifically with Oak Hill range from a c. 1870 log houses and barns, to fashionable turn-of-the-20th-century houses and commercial buildings, to a 3-room rural school built in 1923. Structures such as low-water crossings and a concrete bridge over Williamson Creek were surveyed. Objects included a highway marker and a state historical marker. Sites included natural features such as named tree groves and the limestone quarry bluffs along U.S. Highway 290 West. Some sites identified through the literature search have been stripped of their historic resources. Among them were an early school building, Joe Tanner’s blacksmith shop, and a 19th century gin on Williamson Creek. Other historic sites including Convict Cave and Oak Hill Downs have been redeveloped with new construction like a shopping center and a business complex. The Survey Report and research materials collected for the Travis County project were invaluable to the current Oak Hill Survey. They provided information relevant to the study of Oak Hill’s history and cultural resources. Research Methodology Preservation Central undertook site-specific research to identify potential historic sites that may have been missed in the previous survey. Project director, Terri Myers, conducted a thorough internet search for articles on Oak Hill’s history and cultural resources associated with it. She copied pertinent 16  information in the Recorded Texas Historic Landmark file at the Texas Historical Commission for the J. A. Patton Store. She reviewed historic maps on file at the Austin History Center that depicted Oak Hill’s development from the late 19th century through the 1950s. Austin Historic Landmark files for the J. A. Patton Store and Oak Hill School were also available at the history center and provided substantial clues to other possible sites in the area. Of particular interest was a hand-drawn map and legend by James White, a direct descendant of James A. Patton, one of the most prominent Oak Hill pioneers (Figure 6). The c. 1976 map identified the locations of numerous historic properties in the area. Survey Methodology With this additional information in hand, Ms. Myers commenced with field investigations. Starting at Oak Hill School, she traveled the length of U. S. Highway 290 West from the 6200 block to its intersection with Highway 71, at the “Y”, at approximately the 7000 block. Using James White’s map and other recently found documents, she recorded and photographed additional sites along the way, first along the north side of the highway, then along the south side of the road. She documented extant properties along the highway, such as the bridge over Williamson Creek and the State Historical Marker for Oak Hill. She also documented sites identified through research as “historic” but which no longer contain historic resources. Among them are the site of Joe Tanner’s blacksmith shop, Polk’s Feed Store, and Convict Cave, all now vanished or completely obscured by new construction. Ms. Myers repeated this process on intersecting side streets with reported historic sites in close proximity to the highway. Some new properties emerged on these streets, such as the low-water crossing on Tanner Lane, but most were either vacant, like the site of the old Oak Hill School, or redeveloped with modern resources, like Oak Hill Downs, a former racetrack now occupied by the NPX plant, and Mowinkle’s Ranch and Picnic area now covered by a large shopping complex. Other sites identified through historic records were more obscure; a state park depicted on a 1932 map of Travis County roads could not be discerned from the dense vegetation along Williamson Creek. The project director also recorded basic information on historic groves of Live Oak and Pecan trees along the highway. She minimally documented the quarry bluffs visible along the south side of U.S. Highway 290 West and Quarry Park, accessed from Convict Hill Road. Finally, she re-visited her previously documented sites to evaluate their present status and condition. She completed new site forms for each resource, recorded any additional historical information, and photographed each resource with multiple views. Ms. Myers prepared a hand-drawn map of surveyed properties and a legend for inclusion in this letter report (Figures 6 and 7). Site numbers on the map correspond to those in the inventory (pages 3-4). Assessments The project director considered each discrete resource in terms of its historic context. In the previous survey of Southwest Travis County, Ms. Myers identified four historic contexts that cover significant historic and architectural themes in that overall project area. These themes are relevant to historic properties in Oak Hill. They are Early Settlement and Agricultural Development (1851-1880), Agriculture (1881-1965), Transportation (1848-1965), and Rural and Suburban Lifestyles in Travis County (1935- 1965). Each surveyed property was identified according to its appropriate context and period of significance. Not developed, but relevant to the current Oak Hill project, would be a fifth context focusing on Industrial development associated with quarry operations in the area (c. 1876-1888). 17  The project director also assigned preservation priorities to each surveyed property. These priorities were based on age, their architectural significance within one or more of the identified contexts in the project area, alterations if any, and known historic associations. Resources were labeled as High, Medium, or Low preservation priorities, according to their physical integrity and how well they conveyed a sense of history. In general, High priority properties retain their historic architectural fabric to an exceptional degree and are often associated with significant historic events, people, or trends in the survey area. In some instances, High priorities may have been assigned to properties with only modest architectural integrity but with very significant historical associations. Medium priority properties are historic-age resources that are good or typical examples of an architectural type or style and retain sufficient historic physical attributes to be recognizable to the period of significance. Low priority properties have been significantly altered and no longer convey a good sense of history. Properties assigned High preservation priorities in this survey effort may be good candidates for National Register listing. The consultants identified 24 High priority properties in the survey area. They range from early settlement-era archeological sites and log buildings to late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century farmhouses, and postwar Ranch Style houses. These are the most significant historic resources found in the project area. They are rare and excellent examples of their type or style, or possess substantial historic or archeological significance, and display high levels of integrity. Results Twenty-four known or reported historic sites were surveyed in the Oak Hill project area. Of these, five were identified as High preservation priorities based on their architectural merit and strong historic associations with significant historic people, events, or themes in Oak Hill. High priority properties are considered to be good candidates for individual listing in the National Register of Historic Places. Another nine properties were identified as Medium priorities. These resources are considered good or typical examples of their type and, while not individually eligible for National Register listing, they would be Contributing elements in a potential historic district. Finally, ten resources were assessed as Low preservation priorities. These properties were either demolished with the site cleared, redeveloped with new construction, or altered so severely that they no longer convey a good sense of history. One property could not be assessed due to extensive overgrowth. High priority properties may be individual candidates for state, local or National Register designation. These resources are closely associated with the history of Oak Hill and retain their original historic fabric and character to a high degree. Among them are some of the earliest, rarest, and most important historic and architectural resources in Oak Hill. High priority properties are: 18  1 2 3 6 8 10 12 14 15 17 19 21 High Priority Properties in Oak Hill Project Area Site Resource Name Date Description Priority NR Oak Hill School 1923 Rustic stone and wood 3-room rural school building High Patton-Enochs House c.1895 Free Classic style stone house, hip High J. A. Patton Store 1898 w gables roof, classical columns 2-part rusticated limestone commercial building High Patton Farmstead c. 1870 Frontier farm complex with log High 13 Oak Hill Cemetery c. 1877 Pioneer cemetery, family plots High house and barn, outbuildings outlined w/stone or concrete, stone grave markers Other properties in the project area were assessed as Medium preservation priorities. These buildings, structures, objects, and sites may not individually meet the criteria for National Register listing but they are good or typical examples of their type and should be considered Contributing elements in any potential historic district. Medium priorities identified in the survey are: Medium Priority Properties in Oak Hill Project Area Site 4 Resource Name State Highway Marker Date 1935 Description Small stone monument with metal plaque Priority NR Medium No but c. 1950 Concrete bridge on U.S. Medium No but Williamson Creek Bridge Beckett’s Grove Texas State Historical Marker Bee Cave Rd. Low- water Crossing Tanner’s Grove Tanner Lane Low-water Crossing Hampton Grove Quarry Bluffs NA 1969 NA NA NA Highway 290 West Stand of large old Live Oak and Pecan trees Metal state historical plaque on metal post Medium No but Medium No but c. 1935 Small concrete bridge over creek Medium No but Stand of large old trees on historic Tanner ranch Medium No but c. 1935 Small concrete bridge over creek Medium No but Stand of large old Live Oaks on historic Beckett ranch Limestone cliffs, former quarry site for new state capitol Medium No but Medium No but Because these High and Medium priority properties are largely clustered together along U.S. Highway 290 West and intersecting side streets, they may be considered eligible for National Register or City of Austin historic district status. They have strong historic associations with the settlement and development Yes Yes Yes Yes No but Contributes Contributes Contributes Contributes Contributes Contributes Contributes Contributes Contributes Contributes 19 of the Oak Hill community and retain their historic fabric and/or character to a good degree. Properties assessed as High or Medium priorities would be considered Contributing resources in such a district. Recommendations To preserve and protect the remaining historic resources of Oak Hill, Preservation Central recommends that interested parties such as local residents, environmental organizations, and historical associations or commissions pursue official historical designations at the local, state, and/or national level to provide them some degree of protection or oversight. Properties may be eligible for local designation as Austin Historic Landmarks. They may obtain state recognition as Recorded Texas Historic Landmarks or Historic Cemeteries. They may achieve national recognition through listing in the National Register of Historic Places, either as individual properties or as Contributing resources in a designated historic district. The J. A. Patton Store (old rock store) is already a designated Recorded Texas Historic Landmark and Austin Historic Landmark. Oak Hill School is an Austin Historic Landmark. Both properties may be eligible for individual listing in the National Register of Historic Places. Cemeteries are not typically eligible for individual listing in the National Register but Oak Hill Cemetery is recognized as a State Cemetery and should be considered a Contributing resource in any potential historic district. Preservation Central further recommends that interested parties pursue historic district designation for a concentration of Medium and High priority properties in and around the 6200 block of U. S. Highway 290 West. At the core of the potential Oak Hill district are the J. A. Patton Store, Patton-Enochs House, Oak Hill School, and the 1935 Highway Marker. Associated properties in the vicinity include the Patton farmstead, Oak Hill Cemetery, Williamson Creek bridge, Oak Hill historical marker, the low-water crossings on Tanner Lane and Old Bee Cave Road, and the historic groves along the highway that passes through the area. This cluster of historic resources is closely associated with Oak Hill’s agricultural and transportation-related development along the old Austin-to-Fredericksburg Road in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Additional research and field work are needed to determine the boundaries of the potential district and the degree to which nonhistoric/noncontributing properties negatively affect its historic integrity. Advocates for the designation should meet with the Texas Historical Commission’s National Register staff to obtain a preliminary determination of eligibility before commencing with a nomination. Oak Hill resources may be eligible for designation as a standard National Register Historic District, as a Rural Historic Landscape District, or as part of a Multiple Property listing. These different approaches should be presented to staff for their consideration and review. 20  Selected Bibliography Austin Weekly Statesman. “Big Barbeque” July 10, 1890; 5. Bankston, James Scott. “An Informal Look at Oak Hill History” online article of the Oak Hill Gazette http://oakhillgazett.com/history/2011/12/an-informal-look-at-oak-hill-history accessed january 2, 2016. Barkley, Mary Starr. History of Travis County and Austin: 1839-1899. Waco: Texian Press, 1963. Barnes, Michael. “We Built This City: Historic Austin Materials” (www.austin360.com) posted Thursday May 16, 2013. Bexar County Highway League. Road Log Book. San Antonio, May 20, 1914. Capitol Building Commission. “Report of the Capitol Building Commmissioners to the Governor of Texas”, Austin, January 1, 1883. Cascadia Courier. “Coming in from west towards Austin” n.d. City of Austin H-Zoning Cases. “Oak Hill School” and “Patton Store”. On file at the Austin History Center. City of Austin. Minutes of the City Council Meeting July 19, 2001. On file at the Austin History Center. “Convict Labor and the Texas State Capitol”. Prints and Photographs Collection, 1965/68-7. https://www.tsl.texas.gov/exhibits/prisons/convictlease/capitol.html Kirk Kite, "HIGHWAY DEVELOPMENT," Handbook of Texas Online (http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/erh02), accessed October 08, 2015. Uploaded on June 15, 2010.Published by the Texas State Historical Association. Lewis, Miles. “Convict Hill Road” Anomoly Archives. Posted May 28, 2010. Miller, Donna Marie’s blog, “Oak Hill’s old-timers tell tales about ‘good ‘ol days’” http://donnamariemillerblog.wordpress.com/2014/02/oakhill.jpg accessed January 18, 2016. Myers, Terri and Douglas K. Boyd. Rural Community Development in Southern Travis and Northern Hays Counties, Texas, 1865-1905: A Historic Context for the Ransom Williams Homestead (41TV1051). Manuscript by Prewitt and Associates, Inc. Submitted to the Archeological Studies Program, Environmental Affairs Division, Texas Department of Transportation, Austin, 2006. Myers, Terri. “Dripping Springs Historic District” National Register Nomination (Hays County Historical Commission, August 4, 2012). Oak Hill Association of Neighborhoods (OHAN). “Oak Hill History” www.ohan.org/#1history/clz3. 21  Oak Hill Gazette. “Oak Hill yesteryear: Honky-tonks and juke joints” March 20, 2012. http://oakhillgazette.com/hisstory/2012/03/oak-hill-yesteryear-honky-tonk-and-juke-joints accessed January 20, 2016. “Oak Hill” vertical files. Austin History Center. Offie, Leonard, County Highway Engineer. “Map of Travis County Roads” 1923. On file at the Austin History Center. “Old Rock Store” Photograph of J. A. Patton Store. A976.40074 “Old Rock Store”. On file at the Austin History Center. History Center. Rural Directory Service of Central Texas. Travis County Rural Directory. 1954. On file at the Austin History Center. Schutze, Albert. Travis County Directory 1894-1895. Austin, Texas. On file at the Austin Schutze, Albert. Travis County Directory for 1898-99. Austin, Texas. On file at the Austin History Center. Smith, Heidi Armstrong. “History of Convict Hill Quarry Park” Monday August 21, 2006. http://convicthillquarrypark.blogspot.com/2006/08/history-of-convict-hill-quarry-park accessesd January 18, 2016. Smyrl, Vivian Elizabeth "OAK HILL, TX (TRAVIS COUNTY)," Handbook of Texas Online (http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hlo02), accessed October 08, 2015. Uploaded June 15, 2010. Published by the Texas State Historical Association. Smyrl, Vivian Elizabeth, “Travis County,” Handbook of Texas Online (http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook’/online/articles/hct08, accessed September 03, 2015. Published by the Texas State Historical Association. Students of Travis County. The Defender1936: Rural Schools of Travis County. Austin, Texas: 1936. Texas State Highway Department. “General Highway Map, Travis County, Texas”. 1936. On file at the Austin History Center. Texas State Highway Department. “Road Map of Travis County, Texas” November 1917. On file at the Austin History Center. “Texas State Highways: Highway Development” https://en.wikipedia.org/Texas_State_Highways, accessed September 16, 2015. United States Bureau of the Census. ----- Sixth Census of the United States, 1850. Population Schedules: Travis County, Texas. Washington, 22  D.C.: Government Print Office. ----- Seventh Census of the United States, 1860. Population Schedules: Travis County, Texas. Washington, D.C.: Government Print Office. ----- Ninth Census of the United States, 1870. Population Schedules: Travis County, Texas. Washington, D.C.: Government Print Office. ----- Tenth Census of the United States, 1880. Population Schedules: Travis County, Texas. Washington, D.C.: Government Print Office. ----- Twelfth Census of the United States, 1900. Population Schedules: Travis County, Texas. Washington, D.C.: Government Print Office. ----- Thirteenth Census of the United States, 1910. Population Schedules: Travis County, Texas. Washington, D.C.: Government Print Office. ----- Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920. Population Schedules: Travis County, Texas. Washington, D.C.: Government Print Office. ----- Fifteenth Census of the United States, 1930. Population Schedules: Travis County, Texas. Washington, D.C.: Government Print Office. Von Boeckmann, Schutze & Co. Travis County Directory for 1901. Austin, Texas. On file at the Austin History Center. Wallace, John E. and William R. McDonald. Map of Travis County Roads (retraced with school districts and school locations added by H.M. Bramlett, Superintendent of Travis County Schools, 1915). Originally surveyed and drawn by John E. Wallace, 1898-1902. Wallace, John E. Field Notes for Map of Travis County Roads. Prepared 1898. Wallace, John E. Plot Plans of Sections of Travis and Surrounding Counties, n.d., c. 1898. White, Margaret Grunewald. “Short History of J. A. Patton’s Life” written by the author for her Grandfather (J. A. Patton). n.d. On file at the Austin History Center. White, James M. and Annetta White. They Came to Texas. Austin: Self-published, c. 2000. 23  Figure 1: John Wallace Field Notes for Survey of Austin-to-Fredericksburg Road, 1898 (AHC) 24  \ Figure 2: Travis County Road Map (cropped), John Wallace Surveyor, 1898-1902 (AHC) 25  Figure 3: J. A. Patton Store built 1898, photo c. 1900 (AHC) 26  Figure 4: Oak Hill School built on Patton Homestead 1923, opened 1924 (photo 1936 in (Defender) 27  Figure 5: Topographic & Road Map of Travis County (cropped), by Travis County Engineer, 1932 (AHC) 28  Figure 6: James White’s map of homesteads and other historic sites in Oak Hill, c. 1976 (AHC). 29 Crop of James White's Map 2.pdfLegend for Oak Hill Historic Sites (Figure 7) Based on James M. White’s c. 1976 Map of Oak Hill 1. Oak Hill School 2. Patton-Enochs House 3. J. A. Patton Store (Old Rock Store) 4. Highway Marker 5. Patton Filling Station Site 6. Patton Farmstead Site 7. Oak Hill Downs Site 8. Williamson Creek Bridge 9. State Park Site 10. Beckett’s Grove 11. Polk’s Feed Store Site 12. State Historical Marker 13. Oak Hill Cemetery 14. Bee cave Road Low-water Crossing 15. Tanner’s Grove 16. Old School Site (1897-1923) 17. Tanner Lane Low-water Crossing 18. Joe Tanner’s Blacksmith Shop Site 19. Hampton Grove 20. Gin Site 21. Quarry Bluffs 22. Convict Cave Site 23. Quarry Park 24. Picnic Grounds on Mowinkle Ranch 30  Figure 7: Hand-drawn map of Historic Resources in Oak Hill, revisited by Preservation Central, 2016. 31 Oak Hill district.pdf