Dr. George Washington Hill

The Handbook of Texas says Hill was named first agent for the Brazos Indian Reservation in 1855, while its entry on the reservation names Captain Shapley P. Ross as agent from 1854, so the sources differ on his post. The reservation's end is clearer. Hostility from white neighbors toward its Caddo, Anadarko, Waco and Tonkawa residents grew, and white men from Erath County killed seven Native people in December 1858; no one was indicted. The reservation was abandoned on July 31, 1859, and its people were marched to Indian Territory.

What the plaque says

Dr. George Washington Hill Came to Texas in 1837. Indian agent, 1840-41. Member of the Congress of Texas, 1839-1842. Secretary of war under Presidents Houston and Jones. Hill County was named in his honor. Dr. Hill was a graduate of Transylvania University. Born in Tennessee, April 29, 1814; died in Navarro County, Texas, May 29, 1860. His wife Katherine M. Hill, born September 23, 1812; died April 24, 1871.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Blind Lemon Memorial Cemetery — 17 mi
  The Freestone County grave of the Texas blues singer Blind Lemon Jefferson, who recorded for Paramount in Chicago from 1926 and died there in December 1929.
• Petroleum Industry Park — 18 mi
  The pipes and drilling tower mark where a city water well struck oil on June 9, 1894, the start of the first Texas field to produce oil and gas in important quantities.
• Confederate Reunion Grounds State Historic Site — 22 mi
  Where Limestone County Confederate veterans gathered each summer from 1888, later a water supplier in the Mexia oil boom, now a Texas Historical Commission site on the Navasota River.
• Hill County Courthouse — 26 mi
  Wesley C. Dodson's limestone Second Empire courthouse of 1890 on the Hillsboro square, gutted by fire on New Year's Day 1993 and rededicated in 1999 after a rebuilding that two Willie Nelson concerts helped pay for.

More markers nearby

• Braniff International Flight 352 — 1.9 mi
• Near Site of Trading Post of Dr. George Washington Hill — 2.0 mi
• Navarro Mills Community — 2.2 mi
• Town of Dawson — 2.6 mi