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LIBERTY HILL

P R O U D LY C E L E B R AT I N G T H E C O M M U N I T Y O F L I B E R T Y H I L L , T E X A S

Preserving the Past A nostalgic look at days gone by amidst a rush toward the future

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A view of downtown Liberty Hill from the early 1900s.

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hile our community has witnessed a focus on the future that has happened at breakneck speed in recent years, there’s been very little appetite to look back at history or commit to the time needed to accommodate the research. That’s natural when the next big news is a new business coming to town or the opening of a new subdivision to usher in a brand new crop of families to become part of the community.

However, in our headlong rush to building the future a strange thing happened to the world this year. A singular human act on the other side of the globe stopped humanity in its tracks. Had it happened in a different era it could have wiped out most of the world’s human population before anyone discovered how it happened, how it was being spread or how to stop it.

Even in our small community lives were lost, forward progress ceased and our families and businesses struggled to cope. As we settle into a new reality it’s natural that we think of those who came before us, what drew them here, what their lives were like, and what lessons might they have for us as we walk along their river, drive where they once rode horses and settle where they once lived.

Dinosaurs beat the Comanches here by several thousand years, and you can still see their footprints on the bottom of the San Gabriel River. Real history mixed with conflation and folklore records some of the early settlers' encounters with the Native Americans here. Then the settlers of the then Northern Spanish (and later Mexican) provinces came and carved out lives here without much knowledge or care of who was King or President.

Of course there is a real educational discipline called History, but even at its purest it’s a study of unearthing the past and

In 1910, cotton production was booming in the area.

attempting to interpret meaning. Archeologists can tell you what the canister was used for, but they can’t tell you exactly who made it or what it meant to the artist. Linguists can tell you what the hieroglyphics mean but they can’t tell you much about the guy who drew them. And historians can gather great masses of comparative data but until you interpret it into your own life it doesn’t have much meaning.

In this edition of Liberty Hill Living we travel some lonely, often forgotten roads for you. In your race to get to school and work you may not have the time to do much exploring. So we are continuing in our professional capacity to be your eyes. Some of our history is told to us by folks who have heard it from their elders. That’s perfect. This isn’t a doctoral thesis of provable facts. This is our look back for you in the hope that you will come to better appreciate the place where you have established roots.

The stories of Liberty Hill’s past matter because they are mixed with the personal experiences of family voices that have long been silenced by time. The photos have context because these people came before, faced similar human challenges and regular frailties and endured tragedies. Since official history is written by the winners we thought in this time of great introspection it might be good to take a look back at the places, names and faces of those who lived, persevered and even found a little joy in the same things and places where we all now stand here on the Shin Oak Ridge of Texas.

Welcome to Liberty Hill Living!

Publisher

LIBERTY HILL LIVING | A Publication of The Liberty Hill Independent Newspaper

PROUDLY CELEBRATING THE COMMUNITY OF LIBERTY HILL, TEXAS

PUBLICATION/MANAGING EDITOR | Shelly Wilkison PUBLICATION DESIGN | Megan Sela ADVERTISING DESIGN | Megan Sela ADVERTISING SALES | Stacy Coale WRITERS | Scott Akanewich, Mike Eddleman, Anthony Flores, Rachel Madison PHOTO CONTRIBUTIONS | Rachel Madison, Alex Rubio, Gary Spivey, James Wear, The Liberty Hill Independent

The information in this publication was compiled with great care to assure the accuracy of editorial content and advertising copy. The Liberty Hill Independent assumes no liability for the accuracy of the information reported to us herein and the opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher. Copyright © 2020 The Liberty Hill Independent.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the publisher.

For advertising rates and information, or to obtain additional copies, call (512) 778-5577 or send email to news@LHIndependent.com. The publisher appreciates the active support of Liberty Hill area businesses for their generous contributions to Liberty Hill Living. This publication is truly a collaborative effort of a professional design team, experienced journalists, advertising specialists, and many others passionate about sharing the story of Liberty Hill, Texas. Find Liberty Hill Living online at www.LibertyHillLiving.com.

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www.LibertyHillLiving.com

CONTENTS

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11 | Historical Markers offer glimpse of distant past 18 | The day Willie came to town 22 | Tying the knot in the center

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26 | Wear land is connection to the past 34 | Purple-and-Gold gridiron tradition 44 | Cross Tracks Church connecting its past, future 48 | Remembering loved ones in area historic cemeteries 52 | A nostalgic look at Liberty Chapel

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57 | Historic cemetery, cabin home to County’s first judge 62 | Advertiser Directory

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AS Y HILL, TEX OF LIBERT OMMUNIT Y

Preserving the Past

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A nost algi c look by at days gon e ami dst a rush re tow ard the futu

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Significant places marked in history

In 1875, one of Liberty Hill’s early settlers, John T. Bryson, donated land for the Liberty Hill Cemetery.

State historical markers offer local glimpse of distant past

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cattered throughout all 254 counties of the Lone Star State are portals to the past – gateways one can pass through on a journey to discover our history. State historical markers are exactly that – plaques that mark a place in history where something significant happened long ago.

Sometimes there is a building or other structure left as a reminder to a bygone era – sometimes there is nothing but the marker itself as time has slowly eaten away until nothing remains but a memory.

In and around Liberty Hill are 10 such sites beginning right in the heart of downtown and extending out in approximately a five-mile radius.

BY SCOTT AKANEWICH

Liberty Hill Masonic Hall

COURTESY PHOTOS

Right across from City Hall in downtown Liberty Hill is an old stone building that is part of the city block, housing the town's Masonic Hall.

The two-story structure was chartered in 1875 and finished in 1883, when the Masons bought the second floor to use as a meeting hall from Scottish-born immigrant John Munro, who constructed the building and used the first floor as a hardware store.

After Munro's passing in 1945, the Masons bought the bottom floor from his heirs and transformed it into a community meeting place.

The building became a Texas historical landmark in 1976, and it is still used as the meeting place for the local Masons.

Stubblefield Building

Farther up the block on the opposite side of the street from the Masonic Hall sits the Stubblefield Building, which was constructed in 1871.

The building was put up by Alabama native S.P. Stubblefield, a Mexican War veteran whose family owned it until 1907, during which time the lower floor housed various stores and businesses and the second floor was used as living quarters.

In 1973, the building was bought and restored by local sculptor Mel Fowler and was designated a historical landmark in 1976.

In 2017, the City of Liberty Hill purchased the building, which is now a home for local artwork and offices the Chamber of Commerce. CONTINUED ON 12

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Bryson Stagecoach Stop

Located among the old-West style settlement known as Fort Tumbleweed on State Highway 29 is the Bryson Stagecoach Stop, which was constructed by John T. Bryson and his wife Amelia in the 1850s.

The residence, which is made of cedar logs and features stone chimneys, served as a stop on the stagecoach route between Austin and Fort Croghan, near Burnet. It quickly became one of the favorite stops along the route due to the hospitality the Brysons afforded stagecoach passengers.

Legend has it that the residence had many famous visitors over the years, including General George Custer, who had been summoned to Central Texas to help quell unrest following the Civil War. Recognition as a historic landmark was bestowed in 1981.

Liberty Hill United Methodist Church

These days, the local United Methodist Church, which is just south of the railroad tracks on RM 1869, is the Cross Tracks Church. There, one will find a marker describing a site 1.5 miles to the northwest where the original church was located. It was founded in 1854.

A three-story building constructed in 1870 housed a church, school and Masonic lodge, which underwent several modifications over the years.

In 1905, the upper floors were removed to make room for choir space, wings were added to the building in 1916 and finally a vestibule was added in 1954.

Also featured was a window honoring founders John T. and Amelia Bryson, Huldah Bryson and Anthony and Amanda Smith.

The site was designated a historic landmark in 1962.

Hopewell Cemetery

According to a historical marker at Hopewell Cemetery, “Pioneers who settled here in the 1840s and established the town of Hopewell faced many hardships, including Indian raids. Wofford and Mary Johnson and their daughter were killed by Comanches nearby in 1863. They were buried at this site near the grave of Cornelia Johnson, whose burial is the first recorded here. The graveyard was deeded to a local congregation in 1877 and in 1966 a cemetery association was formed. Buried here are area pioneers and their descendants, and veterans of the Civil War. This cemetery is all that remains of the Hopewell community.�

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Liberty Hill Cemetery

Right down SH 29 from Fort Tumbleweed is the Liberty Hill Cemetery, which was also founded for community use by the Brysons in 1875, although the land had been used for burials since 1852.

A stone fence, which runs along the road, was built by the Brysons and their neighbors, and a three acre Masonic Cemetery was later added to the original 3.5acre site.

Rock House Community

About four miles north of downtown Liberty Hill at the intersection of RM 3405 and CR 257 is a marker designating the location of the Rock House community, a pioneer agriculture community that was first settled in the 1840s by Uriah H. Anderson, a Tennessee native who had been given a land grant by the State of Texas.

Over the years, the settlement was a vibrant place that featured a pair of churches, a school, a general store, a blacksmith shop and a post office, along with an active farmers' union.

However, all that remains today is a cemetery and evidence of early buildings.

New Hope First Baptist Church and Cemetery

On CR 260 just off SH 29 is where the New Hope First Baptist Church was located in 1868, although worship services may have been held in the area as early as 1848.

Six charter members founded the church, including James M. and Elizabeth Trammell, who were also pioneers of the Block House community.

From 1871 until 1919, the building was also used for a school and there is a cemetery that contains the graves of prominent early leaders of the church and community. CONTINUED ON 14

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Loafer's Glory Apostolic Church

Back in 1908, a Wesleyan Holiness preacher by the name of George Sutton conducted a revival meeting on this piece of land on Wilson Atwood's land on CR 202.

Legend has it many people who attended were said to have found salvation, while others were allegedly cured of various ailments.

A school was the first building constructed on the site, as the Protestant community, like many at the time, valued education over religion.

But, religion was the major influence, as many “movements” were held here over the years beginning in the 1880s when the Holiness Movement protested what it felt was a “worldliness” in conventional churches that was catering to the middle class, leaving the lower, rural class behind in the process.

A building known as “The Shed” was the de facto community center of the settlement built in 1910, and was the hub of all activity, with roving speakers delivering powerful sermons to the congregation.

However, urbanization and time took their toll over the decades that followed and there is little to no evidence today of the once-vibrant community.

Manual Flores Marker

Located a few hundred feet off SH 29 on CR 260 is this historical marker that recognizes the Battle of the San Gabriels in May 1839. During the fight, Manuel Flores was killed by a party of Texas Rangers. Found on Flores was correspondence that would lead Texas President Mirabeau Lamar to go to war with Cherokee Indians.

Connell Cemetery

Concord School

When this area near Bear Creek was originally settled in the 1850s, there existed a school called Clear Creek, but was replaced in 1888 when H.N. and J.E. Elliott donated land along the creek, where a oneroom schoolhouse was constructed.

In 1921, the school was expanded, as a new structure was added to the original building, with enrollment peaking at 133 students in the 1930s.

But, as World War II began, enrollment dropped precipitously as young men and women left to serve in the conflict.

The site was designated a historic landmark in 1999.

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In 1834, an Alabama native named Sampson Connell, Jr. moved to Texas to begin a new life and had a profound effect on the Lone Star State's fight for independence from Mexico.

Connell, along with his father and brother, allegedly delivered the last supply wagon to the Alamo before it was attacked by the Mexican army and the trio fought alongside one another at the Battle of San Jacinto, which was the decisive victory for the Texans, ultimately leading to the Republic of Texas gaining its independence.

Connell was awarded a land grant in Washington County by the State of Texas for his efforts in the war and recognized as a “Citizen of the Republic of Texas” before he and his family moved to Williamson County in 1871, where he died at the age of 55 in Liberty Hill in 1873 and is buried in the cemetery on the site, which was designated a Historic Texas Cemetery in 2006.

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STORY BY ANTHONY FLORES Courtesy Photos

Nelson’s tended Willie Thousands at Hill in y rt be Li cnic in 4th of July Pi Kris s er ing perform 1975, includ ge. id ol Co ta Ri and Kristofferson

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ounded over 150 years ago, Liberty Hill’s historical significance to Texas is etched in stone for all to see. In 1975, one of its defining moments occurred when a Texas outlaw born in Abbot, Texas, came to town and brought almost 80,000 strong with him.

Country music legend Willie Nelson chose Liberty Hill as the location for his now-­legendary 4th of July Picnic. This was only the third picnic to occur and proved to be a star-­studded event.

Nelson brought the likes of fellow musicians Rita Coolidge, Johnny Bush, the Pointer Sisters, and Charlie Daniels along for the ride.

When thinking of what kind of person could draw such an icon to a place as small as Liberty Hill, the last thing most people would think is an insurance salesman.

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“The old Rosenbusch place, where they had Willie’s picnic, was bought by a guy named Bernie Swindler,” said Liberty Hill historian Gary Spivey. “He’s the one that actually got Willie and them to come up here. He was an insurance salesman from Austin, and he wanted to make some money. He got them.”

Deep in conservative Texas and especially in Williamson County, along with the reputation garnered by the first two picnics, there were many opposed to the event. In an article by James Wear, a local historian and columnist for The Liberty Hill Independent he recalls some of the opposition.

“Then Williamson County Pct. 2 Commissioner Wesley Foust left no doubt that he opposed the picnic, citing problems that had occurred in Nelson’s previous two picnics

at College Station and Dripping Springs,” Wear wrote.

The Liberty Hill of today is a vastly different landscape than 1975. Swindler’s land stretched from RM 1869 up to SH 29.

Entertainers were brought in where the popular Jardin Corona stands today.

“They asked me to build an entry way. They wanted me to cut into the hill about halfway where the Mexican restaurant is now,” recalls Spivey. “I went in there and moved a bunch of dirt. They built the stage there. I put an entry way there and another for parking across the road right before you get to the river.”

Since it was only the third picnic, details of the event weren’t perfect, with the majority of blame falling on the event promoters.

“This was only Willie’s third picnic, so there were many

mistakes made from the organizational part of things,” said Wear. “This didn’t reflect on Willie as much as the promoters. The promoters led people to believe it was being held by a river. It’s not the kind of river you place a boat in.

People were showing up with boats, thinking they could watch the concert from the river.”

Thinking on his feet, Spivey was able to negotiate having a booth at the event to raise money for the Liberty Hill athletic program.

“They asked me to stay while they had the picnic, and I said the only way I’ll do that is if they’d give us a free booth to make money for the athletic program at the boys ranch,” he said. “So, they gave us the right to have one – they were charging $200 to have one. With almost 80,000 people here, we made enough money to run our athletic program for a year. All we were doing was selling lemonade and cold fruit.”

Spivey wasn’t the only one making money off of the event.

Several folks benefitted from the masses flooding into Liberty Hill. Wanda Lane owned a café downtown and worked for a solid 24 hours serving the event attendees. James Wear’s wife, Paula, worked alongside her mother during those 24 hours.

“My wife was working for her mother, and they went in that morning, and they were just going to close down that day, they didn’t figure they’d be doing anything,” said Wear. “Then the people started pouring in, and about 24 hours later, they were able to close the doors. They worked a 24-­‐hour shift, cooking hamburgers for everyone.

My wife told me her mother paid her $400 that day. In ’76, that was a pretty good chunk of change.”

Amused by the odd folk invading his small community, Wanda’s husband, Johnny, sat out front greeting people while the women were hard at work. The defacto greeter even traded some concertgoers a few hamburgers for six-­packs of beer, Wear said.

“He was sitting out front welcoming in people through the front door just drinking beer and

Naked and Not Afraid

To say that things got wild during the picnic is an understatement.

A common theme throughout the event for those in attendance was freedom. Freedom of clothing. Freedom to wander through town and the event stark naked.

“Max Floyd, an old guy who’s been dead for 40 years now, went home and told his wife he’d seen his first naked woman in Liberty Hill,” said Gary Spivey, a local historian. “She said, ‘Oh, Max, you’re full of it.” He said no he wasn’t, and she asked where he saw her, and his response was, ‘She was in Almann’s grocery store, and she didn’t have a stitch on.’”

Some folks in town were less than pleased. One woman took it upon herself to ask then-Sheriff Jim Boutwell to take care of the naked hippies wandering so freely in the nude. “This lady comes pulling in there and says ‘You’ve got to go down there and do something about this, there are naked people all up and down the river. It’s horrible,’” said Spivey. “Boutwell asked her how she knew about it. She told him that you have to get up on the bridge and stop, then you can see all of them.

Boutwell told her, ‘Well, lady, don’t stop, keep going. Drive through and don’t stop the car.’ She wanted him to arrest them, but he couldn’t arrest over 500 people.”

After working a 24-hour shift serving hamburgers to concertgoers, Paula Lane returned home.

To her surprise, a few folks decided to rest in her yard, naked as the day they were born.“My wife lived in town, and when she did get home, she said there were a lot of naked people just lying in the front yard passed out. It was quite a weekend, I suppose,” said Paula’s husband, James Wear. doing PR,” Wear said. “He couldn’t get to the store for beer, so he’d swap a six-­pack for a hamburger.”

Being unfamiliar with Liberty Hill, many attendees would park near Seward Junction and assumed they could just walk down to the picnic without realizing the actual distance.

“They had a lot of issues because they tried to funnel everyone down 1869, and there wasn’t any way they’d be able to do that,” said Spivey.

“People left their cars and were walking down the street with ice chests on their shoulders. They’d never been here. They thought where they were having it was half a mile down the road, and it was four miles. That’s a long way to walk.”

Spivey recalls James Mather and Elroy Faust helping people get to the gates, all while making a nice profit.

“James Mather got Elroy Faust to gooseneck a horse trailer and went

up there and picked people up for $1 apiece and took them to the gates in the trailer,” he said. “He had a guy who was knocking off the ones that wouldn’t pay with a baseball bat.”

A bout of rain that created a muddy situation led Spivey to use his tractor to get several musical talents to the stage area.

“It rained, and it was like a quagmire between the entrance and the stage,” he said. “I drove the Pointer Sisters in through the mud and Kris Kristofferson and Rita Coolidge.”

Spivey compares the event to Woodstock. He said it was a wild and free time full of hippies — naked, drunk, and high — enjoying the entertainment in front of them.

Far from the red-­faced, clean-cut Willie Nelson of the 1960s, this Willie Nelson was firmly a rebel and CONTINUED ON 20

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an outlaw, and so were his fans.

“It’s just like Woodstock’s tapes, it was exactly the same as that,” said Spivey. “In one of my interviews, someone asked me if I’d ever smoked dope, and I told them not intentionally. If you were within five miles of Liberty Hill, you inhaled it. There was a haze out there.”

When the picnic was over, the grounds were littered with trash from the thousands of spectators. Some awoke on front lawns, others in homes they

didn’t recognize. Willie was fined $1,000 by Williamson County for violating the Texas Mass Gathering Act. Unfazed, the outlaw country legend continued the tradition of picnics, although never again in Williamson County.

Liberty Hill was a changed town after the picnic, as people learned of the little community that played host to the third picnic. While times have changed, it’s clear that the day Willie and an army of hippies came to town will forever be a fondly remembered moment in Liberty Hill’s long history.

The Art of Willie’s Picnic

With many of the folks who attended Willie’s picnic in Liberty Hill either deceased or no longer living in the area, stories of the legendary event can only be passed on from generation to generation.

What will remain as the lasting image is the poster created for the event by Jim Franklin. The poster shows several armadillos with picnic baskets on their way to the concert.

“I’d done the first picnic poster for Willie, and on the second one, they got, I think, Danny Garrett to do it, and it was a different layout,” said Franklin. “I was a little bit miffed that I didn’t get to do the second one since I did the first one as a gift. Then they definitely got me for this one.”

Franklin said the poster was on a picture book he created called “The Art of Rock”. Franklin’s life in the business opened the door to meet many legends in the music business, from Bob Dylan to Leon Russell. It was these acquaintances that led to his meeting with Willie and the eventual creation of the poster for Willie’s picnic.

“It was a great experience. I was working with Leon Russell in

The Infamous Sack of Money

One infamous story from the picnic revolves around a supposed sack full of money that Willie had backstage. Spivey confirms the existence of this legendary sack full of cash.

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“Willie had a tote sack full of money, and it’s true, I saw it,” he said. “When I was driving the entertainers in and driving them out, I saw it. They would all come back behind the stage, and he’d

Oklahoma, and he was playing on a gig with Freddie King,” said Franklin.

“It was that weekend that I was introduced to Willie. I was at the soundcheck for that show. Willie said I hear you’re doing some work for Leon, and I’d really like to meet him. I took out a paper and wrote down Leon’s number and gave it to him. I told Willie he said not to give out this number to anyone on the penalty of death. Decades later, I saw Leon in Galveston, and I told him I was the one who gave him his phone number. Willie never told him.”

For Franklin, the poster represents a moment in time. It serves as a nod to Texan culture and an event that stands out in Liberty Hill’s history.

“They’re going off to a picnic with their baskets. It’s kind of ironic because how is that basket going to fit on the rounded back of an armadillo.

You wonder how it balances it. I always like to put objects hovering over armadillos. It’s something to perk the imagination. There are no answers. It’s all just up to the person.

This is a representation of summer in Texas.”

thank them for coming. Of course, he had paid them, but he said, ‘here if you need a little extra,’ and he’d hold out the sack, and they would grab a handful of money.”

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LOVE FOR COMMUNITY

TYING THE KNOT IN THE CENTER

A DOWNTOWN LIBERTY HILL WEDDING REPRESENTED ONE MAN’S LOVE AFFAIR WITH AN ENTIRE COMMUNITY STORY BY SCOTT AKANEWICH PHOTOS BY ALEX RUBIO

After Paula Wear closed down the beloved Liberty Hill Cafe, James Wear recreated it on his family’s homestead near FLorence.

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W

hen James However, there was one very Rev. Jim Brazzil of the First Wear and his troublesome hitch lurking in the Baptist Church of Liberty Hill – fiancee Paula shadows which Wear was aware would preside over the ceremony were considering of – and took proper precautions with his back to the audience where exactly – a move designed to enable to alleviate. they should exchange vows, there our photographers to get better “One of Paula’s former suitors was only one clear choice as to pictures of us and the wedding was rumored to be making plans where the couple should tie party during the ceremony,” said to disrupt the ceremony,” said the knot.

Wear. “By now, rumors of the Wear. “Upon hearing that while “Thirty-two years ago, Paula and former suitor’s plans to disrupt the drinking coffee at the cafe one I exchanged vows in downtown wedding had spread throughout afternoon, I thought out loud what Liberty Hill, right there out front town, so I dropped a rumor of I needed was a red jacket so this of her mother’s café where we’d my own – Brother Jim would be fool would know who to place in first met a few months earlier and wearing a bullet-proof vest beneath his crosshairs.” you know, I really don’t know if we his clothing. I was actually stunned Before long, he had his solution could pull it off today,” said Wear. “I by how many believed this story.” from a helpful friend. have to wonder if I’d have to apply Now all that was needed was “The late Bessie Shannon, for some kind of permit to block to spruce up the structures that sitting at the next booth, traffic. Back then, it was simply a would provide the backdrop for the overheard me and volunteered to matter of asking Judge D.W. Hays, blessed event. provide me with a red sportscoat who was the justice of peace for “The day of our wedding dawned one of her kinfolks had left at her Precinct 2 , if he’d get us a couple of bright and clear and downtown home some years ago,” he said. “I deputies to block either end of the sparkled,” he said. “I’d convinced accepted her offer and still have street for a few minutes while we a couple of my friends in the fire that jacket today.” went through the paces.” department to hose down the Of course, the small matter According to Wear, no invitations street a couple of days earlier and of who would preside over the were needed because after all, of course, nearly every building ceremony was still to be decided everyone in town was welcome. in downtown Liberty Hill had a and as an added bonus, Wear “It was all word fresh coat of paint. of mouth and as I A couple of weeks was editor of The earlier, I’d gone to Independent at the each merchant and time, I’d written a told them if they’d column a few weeks provide me with the beforehand in which paint of the color I invited the entire of their choosing, community to our I’d paint their store nuptials,” he said. front at no charge.

Wear said once Thank God my dad he had rounded up and brother and enough volunteers to a couple of others help make the event a helped me out with this project or I’d still reality, there weren’t be slapping a brush.” too many left over.

Then, it was time.

“Quite a few of the “We carried ‘community’ was James and Paul met at her mother’s downtown cafe 32 chairs from the fire either in the wedding years ago and knew they wanted that special place to be department to sit party itself or lending the backdrop for their wedding. Everyone in town was the VIPs. I built a a hand to make it invited to the ceremony on Main Street. platform for us to possible,” he said. “Not stand upon and the other details being able to narrow down my list, added a fictional twist of his own – including the late Mildred I decided on 12 groomsmen and to the plot.

Seward giving me a cardboard three best men. We enlisted James “We decided the preacher Vaughan to videotape the wedding.”

performing the ceremony – the

CONTINUED ON 24

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23

CONTINUED FROM 23

sign on which she had written, in all caps, ‘N-O-W’ – that one of the onlookers was to hold up for me to see so I wouldn’t forget to say, ‘I do’ at the appropriate time. The streets were cleared – two Williamson County patrol units, with their overhead lights on, were staged at either end of the street to prevent traffic from passing through – and the ceremony began, with Pam Casebolt singing a wedding song Shirley Vickers had written for us.

Inside the cafe, where my three best men and I awaited, Brother Jim turned to us and nodded. I took a swallow of beer and told the guys, ‘Well, it’s showtime.’”

The unusually-large wedding party delayed the proceedings slightly, but that was soon made up for by a speedy exchange of vows – mostly due to a previous engagement Wear had scheduled, he said.

“Across the street, beneath an arch adorned with flowers provided by the late Gloria Myers, the groomsmen began escorting Paula’s attendants, which took a few minutes (remember, there’s 12 guys and 12 gals) and then our youngest, Joseph, serving as ringbearer, made his way across the street, followed by the flower girls and my soon-to-be bride, escorted by our oldest, John,” he said. “Brother Jim sped through the ceremony and presented us, and after a half-hour or more of greeting well-wishers, we rushed to the high school where we held our reception in the cafeteria.

We had to hurry through the reception because of my poopscooping duties. Well, the day of our wedding had fallen on the same date of the annual Christmas Stroll in downtown Georgetown.”

Wear was slated to perform parade clean-up for the horses marching in the event – a promise he honored on the heels of his own

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(Courtesy Photo)

street extravaganza.

“The sun was dropping low in the horizon as Paula and I pulled into Georgetown, making our way to the parade lineup,” said Wear. “Paula drove as Brad and I fell in behind the sheriff’s posse, scooping poop and tossing it into the back of our pickup, both of us being careful not to let any of the poop hit the ‘Just Married’ sign plastered across the tailgate of the truck.”

Wear said his new wife had gotten an immediate taste of what life was going to be like with her new spouse.

“So, our marriage was off to a rather interesting beginning – I think one of the promises I’d made to my bride was her life would never be boring and yes, sometimes to her chagrin, the early days of our marriage were often fodder for one of my columns in The Independent,” he said. “Like our first Christmas when we cut down a 12-foot Christmas tree and attempted to stand it up in our first apartment that had an 8-foot ceiling. Or the time, just a couple of days after we were wed, when I pulled on a pair of my wife’s jeans and wore them the entire day before my mother called

“It was all word of mouth and as I was editor of The Independent at the time, I’d written a column a few weeks beforehand in which I invited the entire community to our nuptials,” -James Wear my attention to my rather short britches. Of course, as I relayed it to our readers, it was the first time I’d gotten into my wife’s pants.”

The wedding was simply an expression of Wear’s passion for the local community – one that he was determined to preserve – after he had an epiphany while reminiscing with others.

“You know, I was probably in my 30s before I realized just how important local history was to me and I think it dawned on me as we’d sit around a group of friends and retell stories from our youth of some of the silly stunts we’d pulled and witnessed,” said Wear. “But, perhaps just as important, some of what we’d accomplished before having even reached our 25th birthdays – things like publishing

our own newspaper or having booked major recording artists – and then, thinking of the stories our grandparents and parents had told us of their early years, of simply surviving the early 1900s – the wars, the Great Depression and then listening to other old timers speaking of this or that and pointing to old buildings and how they came to be. I became fascinated with their stories and regret I didn’t do so earlier and record much of what they said.”

Wear gave credit and showed gratitude for like-minded individuals he was privileged to have known over the years.

“I was glad to have met folks like Gary Spivey, who shared my interests in the days gone by and respect the efforts of those who came before us in building a community when they had little money to work with,” he said.

“But then threw their support behind us, a younger generation, when we sought to improve upon what they had given us – and we need to remember those folks so future generations can look back and maybe realize a lot of sweat and blood and sacrifice went into creating what we call Liberty Hill.”

The fact many local landmarks carry the names of those who have been instrumental in the town’s growth and history is a great source of satisfaction for him.

Wear is certainly nostalgic when it comes to remembering what the place he has come to love over the past four decades was compared to how it is now and often longs for the way it was – something he fears is gone forever.

“I really don’t know if Liberty Hill will ever recapture the magic that drew me to it more than 40 years ago — a time when you really did know everyone’s name and perhaps the name of their dog,” he said. “I read about ‘progress’ in that HEB or McCoys

or some other big store is coming to town and I think back to when we’d run into Roy Allman’s grocery store, get something off the shelf and holler at him to put it on our ticket as we headed out the door and that was fine with him because he knew you’d be back to pay. Or we’d run down to Cashway and tell Robin Bledsoe we were hoping to put a scoreboard up at the new ballfield at Foundation Park and he’d write the check right then and there as there was nothing about submitting a request to a large corporation before such a donation could be made.”

Back then, being a Liberty Hill resident meant more than simply being big-city folk who had escaped the rat race for life in a master-planned community without any sense of local history

James Wear is nostalgic when it comes to remembering the place he has come to love over the past four decades.

– or even how to get around town, said Wear.

“While en route to a fire call, a fellow responder would say, ‘It’s just past that turnoff to that old house that burned down a few years ago’ and anybody who had been around any length of time would know exactly where to go,” he said. “Or, as I’ve seen in the past, medical responders would find themselves in the back of an ambulance pounding on the chest of someone who may have well been their teacher in school, hoping and praying to bring them back after the patient’s heart stopped beating.”

When the brilliant, central Texas sun finally sets on his life, Wear hopes he will leave behind a legacy of a man who was always there for his community and the people in it – but, most of all,

made a difference.

“I have to think,” he said. “If I was gone tomorrow, perhaps one or two folks might stop and think ‘that old boy helped me to realize a dream I had’ or ‘pointed me in the right direction insofar as a career or relationship.’”

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CONNECTED TO THE LAND

WELCOME TO THE FARM WEAR LAND CONTAINS MUCH LOCAL HISTORY STORY BY SCOTT AKANEWICH PHOTOS BY ALEX RUBIO

Wear has an extensive collection of old publications including local newspapers such as this one featuring a front-page story about the Liberty Hill Cafe, which wife Paula once ran.

U

pon arriving at the entrance of a homestead along the worn-out asphalt of County Road 215 in Florence, you are greeted by a sign.

“Welcome to the Farm.”

After turning off and rolling up the dirt driveway, a man is patiently sitting in 26

L I B E RT Y H I L L L I V I N G 2 02 0

a chair on the front porch of a modest house.

“Have trouble finding the place?” he asks.

“No, sir – I have a GPS now, so no worries,” is the response.

James Wear and his family have lived on this 6.8-acre swath of land

for generations and the lifetime.

Williamson County and longtime Liberty Hill resident has certainly not left the land like he found it.

No, the local historian has added an eclectic mix of buildings to the terrain over the years – each

one with a very distinct personality of its own.

Wear’s late father, Louie, was a carpenter and passed on a prolific level of skill to son James, who has carried on the family tradition of building and taken it to an entirely different level.

On this day, a private tour of the property is on the docket.

“So, what are we going to see first?”

“Why don’t I show you the gazebo first,” said Wear, as we climb aboard a John Deere gator and get the sightseeing underway.

Just east of the main house under cover of rich vegetation sits an octagonal structure which Wear built specifically for his daughter Trisha’s wedding in 1996.

Wear wanted to keep the project a secret from his wife, Paula, and as the couple lived in Liberty Hill at the time and only tended to the family acreage, he was able to do so – but almost at a severe cost, he said.

“Almost cost me my marriage,” joked Wear. “I was spending so much time CONTINUED ON 28

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The Wear homestead is a living, breathing monument to all that James Wear holds dear, adding to the local history he is so passionate about.

CONTINUED FROM 26

every day, she started to get suspicious. One night, she started in on me about it, so I finally just told her.”

So what was Paula’s reaction to the revelation?

“She thought it was pretty cool,” said Wear.

“Then I told her I got her pretty good with that one.”

Every winter for the past 35 years, the Wears have hosted a Christmas party for some 50-100 family members and friends, so the gazebo has come in handy – along with the outdoor kitchen and stage he also built alongside.

“Seems like every time we had a party, we built something new,” he said.

Near the back of the lot is a building that is simply called “The Library.”

One enters only to be immediately inundated with the old-book smell of the thousands of texts Wear has on wall-to-wall bookcases on every subject imaginable.

Originally, the building was purposed to hold Wear’s father’s collection of 28

L I B E RT Y H I L L L I V I N G 2 02 0

antique farm equipment, but over the years became much more and now features a fine assortment of magazines and newspapers dating all the way back to the 1940s.

From publications such as Sports Illustrated and National Geographic to newspapers like The Independent, the Austin American-Statesman and many other Williamson County periodicals, one can journey back through time and experience events as they might have been at the time – which is the purpose, said Wear.

“It’s always been important to me to preserve history as we saw it,” he said.

In fact, some of the local history involves Wear, who pulled out a copy of Texas Football – revered across

the Lone Star State only second to the Holy Bible itself – and revealed he was once mentioned in the hallowed pages of the publication during his days as a player at Florence High School in the mid-1970s.

“Here we have all these great players being mentioned and my coach at the time singled out five or six of us to talk about,” said Wear. “For me at the time, it was great.”

So what position did Wear play back in his days with the Buffaloes?

“You’re not going to believe me when I tell you,” he said. “I was a 6-foot-2, 136-pound center.”

However, the most captivating piece of Wear’s collection of old news is a copy of The American Statesman dated June 6, 1944, with a large headline

reading “Invasion On – Allies Hit in Northern France.”

The newsprint had yellowed in the seven-anda-half decades since it was printed, but the impact of what occurred on that day over 76 years ago still jumped out as like the mother of all news flashes.

Hanging directly above in the center of the room -like a guardian of sorts -- is a steel contraption that is suspended from the ceiling with a chain, featuring light holders placed in a circle around its diameter.

“What we have here is my redneck chandelier,” said Wear.

Laying on the floor is a large crucifix he acquired from the old Andice church when they built a new, bigger one some years ago.

CONTINUED ON 30

Perhaps the most captivating building on Wear’s property is the replica of the Liberty Hill Cafe.

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Wear built a library on his property that contains thousands of books, magazines and newspapers dating back to the 1940s.

CONTINUED FROM 28

“A lady there had it and she offered it, so I took it,” he said. “I’m trying to find a way to put it up in the church.”

Yes, the church.

Wear constructed his own personal house of worship in 2007 and for a very good reason, he said.

“My family has always loved to drink beer and have a good time,” he said.

“But, we’ve also always been very spiritual.”

There’s a sign out front that reads “St. Catherine’s Chapel,” after Wear’s late mother, who is buried along with his father in a plot right next to the church.

Inside are rows of pews, a podium draped with a rosary made from tree branches and behind it on the wall, a huge, wooden cross that towers almost to the ceiling and is surrounded by plaster renditions of the Stations of the Cross in addition 30

L I B E RT Y H I L L L I V I N G 2 02 0

to three antique pianos, a large tapestry portraying The Last Supper hanging over the door and a woodcarved nativity scene.

“Every Christmas we have our own service here,” said Wear. “At the end, there’s always a knock on the door and it’s Santa, who leads everyone over to the gazebo for our family gift exchange.”

Also outside the church is a flagpole with the Starsand-Stripes proudly flying in the Central Texas wind – an addition that was added to the property as a tribute to a family member who had served America.

“My father-in-law, Johnny Lane, was in the Navy and the Marines,” said Wear. “He fought in Korea and was the first commander of the local VFW.” Yes, it seems as if each and every structure has a distinct purpose and behind that a meaning.

As we walk across the

property to the next stop on our tour, a rooster is seen wandering around along with some chickens and another quite curious kind of fowl, which Wear pointed out.

“The guineas keep the rattlesnakes away,” he said. “One time when I was mowing the lawn, I saw a great, big one. I didn’t know I was still able to jump that high.”

We pass by a twostory fort atop a raised platform Wear built so his granddaughter would have a place to play in and call her own.

Next to that is a bridge – leading to nowhere.

“I had a cousin who used to like to tell me to ‘build a bridge and get over it,’” said Wear. “So, I did.”

The last stop on the tour is the gem of the entire collection.

Wear built a scale replica of the Liberty Hill Cafe, which Paula once ran downtown. Entering is like passing through a time warp to what easily could have been an Old West eatery from back in the late 19th or early 20th century.

On the wall behind the

counter hangs the original menu – complete with oldschool, rollback prices.

Memorabilia of all sorts adorns the walls, including framed record albums from acts like The Beatles, Elvis, Johnny Cash and Eddie Rabbit, vintage banners and signs featuring Shiner, Lone Star, Hamm’s and Pabst Blue Ribbon and all manner of old beer cans and mugs, while the exterior of the building includes an awning covered with various old license plates from states across the union going back as far as the 1930s and a giant steer fixed atop it casting a watchful eye out for visitors below.

Finally, etched in concrete at the end of a sidewalk Wear built specifically so Catherine could have easier access to Louie’s grave is a simple, but poignant message.

“Love in all its splendor.”

Over the years, Wear has carried out a labor of love in building a living, breathing monument to all he and his family hold dear and in doing so has added to the local history he is so passionate about.

Wear constructed his own personal house of worship — St. Catherine’s Chapel — after his late mother who is buried next to his father in a family cemetery next to the church.

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PURPLE-AND-GOLD GRIDIRON TRADITION

BY SCOTT AKANEWICH PHOTOS BY ALEX RUBIO

Jeff Walker, who passed away Nov. 30, 2020, was known for his compassion for his players, his love of the game, and his commitment to community.

LIBERTY HILL HAS PLAYED FOOTBALL FOR OVER A CENTURY

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L

iberty Hill began playing football over a century ago in 1913, when the helmets were made of leather and the game was played on grass.

Much has changed since those early-20th Century roots of the game in Central Texas, but one thing that remains is a proud heritage of Panthers football.

However, in the first 50 seasons of its existence, Liberty Hill was a perennial loser.

Only in 1968 did the Panthers

finally post their first-ever winning season, with a 6-3 record and went on to record only 11 losing campaigns over the following 52 years.

So, a tale of two half-centuries, if you will.

All of it culminated with back-to-back state championships in 2006 and 2007 under head coach Jerry Vance, who took charge of the program in 2001 and guided a team coming off three consecutive losing seasons into uncharted waters of success, compiling a 155-49 record over 17 seasons.

According to Vance, his primary objective – as not only head football coach, but athletic director – was to construct a

dominant program across the board in all sports – one in which everyone involved could be proud of – with a certain bit of swagger.

“The first goal was to establish a perennial winning football program,” said Vance. “The second equally important goal was to establish a total athletic program that would be successful in any sport Liberty Hill played – that meant securing the best possible coach/teachers to lead each program. I wanted Liberty Hill athletes to know they were going to win every time we went out to play and our opponents knew they were going to get beat.”

Before Vance arrived in Liberty Hill, Charlie Braun led the Panthers as head coach and athletic director through the late 1970s and 1980s and was the man responsible for laying a solid foundation for his successors to build upon – no small task – he said.

“When I first came to Liberty Hill, the program had just started back up. They had gone 0-10 and 1-9 and the school had lost accreditation from the Texas Education Agency,” said Braun. “Liberty Hill regained accreditation sometime around 1976 and I got the head coach-athletic director job in the summer of 1978.

My goal was to turn the program around as we did in Cuero, but this can happen only if you convince the athletes they can actually win.”

A big part of Braun's philosophy of building a strong football program was centered around his players running track and bringing the benefits reaped on the oval back to the gridiron – not to mention sowing the seeds of the now-legendary gauntlet that is the Panthers' offseason conditioning program.

“Players must get through a rigorous offseason program and have a strong track team,” he said.

“We went 4-6 in the 1978 season. We had a good track team that year with senior Robert Stephens running in the state track meet. We were 7-3 the next season, playing Rogers for the district championship in the last game of the season after we again

had a strong showing in track. We sold the value of offseason and track to the athletes.”

The Panthers were 5-5 in the 2001 season, the first under the watch of Vance, but quickly bought into a brand new program he and his coaches were intent on selling to their players – but not without a certain synergy that was required throughout the entire program, he said.

“I believe I've been incredibly blessed by God. We had a great staff, great young men and a little luck,” said Vance, whose squad went 10-2 in his second season, the first of seven consecutive 10-win campaigns.

“We sold our athletes on the idea of working hard with a defined purpose of leaving everything they had on the playing field and developing a winning attitude – it wasn't just about what I did, it was about what we did. I had been fortunate to be a part of rebuilding programs at Dimmitt, Gregory-Portland and San Marcos, so I had a blueprint on how to change a negative culture into a successful one and we took baby steps. You have to learn to walk before you can run -- it's a process.”

RUNNING WILD Part of Vance's culture was to run an offense, which when everything is working, is nearly impossible to stop – the kind of machine that churns out yards like they're going out of style.

THE SLOT-T

A trio of running backs and a quarterback who work in perfect synchronization with the offensive line with precision and timing a Swiss watch maker would be proud of, as bodies fly this way and that, with players carrying out convincing fakes to the point where the defense doesn't know where the ball is – until it's too late – although the secret to success is not necessarily mesmerizing opponents into submission, but giving them something they've never seen before, said Vance.

“I don’t think the offense is really that unorthodox – but it is an offense the majority of coaches don't see and don't know how to defend,” he said. “I have to admit it’s great fun watching the opposing players and fans look for the ball and not find it until it’s in the end zone.”

CONTINUED ON 36

“The first goal was to establish a perennial winning football program. The second equally important goal was to establish a total athletic program that would be successful in any sport Liberty Hill played -- that meant securing the best possible coach/teachers to lead each program. I wanted Liberty Hill athletes to know they were going to win every time we went out to play and our opponents knew they were going to get beat.”

— Coach Jerry Vance

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35

“I want our program to be known for making great, hardworking, successful young adults. I don't think about my legacy -- this program isn't about me -it's about the young athletes of Liberty Hill. I just want them to be winners in life and hopefully, we can have some fun along the way and maybe win a few games, too. I feel very blessed to have the title of head coach in Liberty Hill.”

— Coach Jeff Walker CONTINUED FROM 35

But, it was going to take much more than simply installing an offense for the Panthers to become a powerhouse – something that Vance knew all too well and as a result, began building much more than just a football team, but a relationship with the community, he said.

“When I came to Liberty Hill, the challenges were there for sure,” said Vance. “I wasn’t hired until late April and the program hadn't been successful. I had to get a staff hired that had experience with our offensive and defensive schemes and get to know the players, which was the biggest challenge. Next, we had to begin installing the offense and the defense. Determining where each player fit into our schemes was a must and establishing the belief we were there to win, we knew how to do it and we would do it had to be accomplished before we took the field for our first scrimmage if we were to be successful. The good news was the players were eager to learn, they were eager for something new and they were ready to win. Our staff worked hard to establish a positive relationship with our players and with their parents by making home visits and 36

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finally with the town itself.”

What Vance was able to accomplish in his 17 seasons on the Panthers' sideline is nothing short of remarkable – although he will be the first to tell you it certainly wasn't all him.

“One must always remember there are a lot of individuals who help establish a legacy -- the administration, the dedicated and tireless coaches, the parents, the coaches’ wives and most importantly, the athletes who gave their best – they all played a part in building championship programs.

So I’m going to use the word 'our' and not 'my' legacy.”

WORTHY APPRENTICE

Before the 2002 season – Vance's second in charge – he handed the keys to the Panthers offense to a young assistant coach named Jeff Walker, who became offensive coordinator – a decision that would prove to be a masterstroke.

Over the next six seasons, the Panthers and the Slot-T continued its dominance until Walker left for his first head-coaching position in 2008 only to return a decade later

after Vance's retirement to become Liberty Hill's athletic director and head coach.

Walker was hired from a pool of 100 applicants, as Liberty Hill was now a preferred destination among the coaching ranks due to the success the program was experiencing.

“I was very fortunate to have been part of the coaching staff from 20012008,” said Walker. “During that time, I had the opportunity to coach some great teams and be part of the back-to-back state championship seasons. I'm sure knowing the program, people and continuing the Slot-T tradition were factors, but I also believe having the six years of athletic director/head football experience after I left in 2008 was important.”

A 10-3 record in Walker's first season leading the Panthers was followed up with a 13-2 campaign that ended with a 35-21 defeat at the hands of Waco La Vega in the Class 4A Division I championship game at AT&T Stadium in Dallas.

But, the most remarkable aspect of Liberty Hill's season was setting an all-time Texas state record for most rushing yards by a team in a season with an incredible 7,417 – averaging 494.5 yards on the ground per contest, as senior Kyle Harrison led the charge, with 2,872 yards and 40 touchdowns.

Going back to Walker's first stint as a Panthers assistant, Liberty Hill played in three state championship games and reached the quarterfinals on two other occasions over a combined five-year span with him as part of the coaching staff.

Pretty impressive for a coach who is always quick to give full credit to not only his players, but his assistants, as well.

“I want our program to be known for making great, hardworking, successful young adults,” said Walker, who passed away on Nov. 30, after an eight-year battle with cancer. “I don't think about my legacy – this program isn't about me – it's about the young athletes of

Liberty Hill. I just want them to be winners in life and hopefully, we can have some fun along the way and maybe win a few games, too. I feel very blessed to have the title of head coach in Liberty Hill. I've also been very lucky in my career to have some great assistant coaches, they deserve a lot of the credit.”

FOOT SOLDIERS

What Walker alludes to when deflecting praise for his team's accomplishments are the young men who strive to be the best players they can and in doing so, have built the Panthers program into the dominant force it is today.

Players like Brent Bode, who was part of the 2006 title-winning team as a senior, rushing for a squad best 1,490 yards to go with 17 touchdowns from his running back position after having been under center as the Panthers' starting quarterback the previous year during his junior season after starter Thomas Perrin was lost to a broken leg in the second scrimmage of the season.

Bode said he was fully aware at the time he was part of something very unique.

“My two years at Liberty Hill were unlike any other experience I’ve ever had in my life,” said Bode, who is currently an assistant coach at Marble Falls, who incidentally, also runs the Slot-T offense.

“There was something about that era of Liberty Hill football that’s tough to explain. It was just a different feel. From our old-school purple shorts, to the little yellow football helmet stickers, to running gassers after scrimmages, to 'holding the rope'. There was just so much tradition built in such a short time. The fan support was amazing.

The school spirit was amazing.

Everything about donning the purple-and-gold was truly amazing.

We had a sign on our door leading the field that read, '48 minutes to play, a lifetime to remember' – it had a big hand in the middle that

we would slap every time we left the locker room.”

Perhaps what Bode said next is completely encompassing of what the Panthers program is truly all about, when he describes the environment and culture that the players immersed themselves in – with a singular goal in mind.

“At that point in my life, I had never worked as hard as I did upon moving to Liberty Hill – the offseason we had was brutal. As a team, we decided after we lost to Cuero in the fourth round of the playoffs in 2005, we were going to win state in 2006,” he said. “We had an unbelievable coaching staff that pushed us past what we ever thought we were capable of. As players, we pushed ourselves and each other like no team I had ever been a part of. Our competitiveness was like nothing I had been around, either. Every player on the team thought they were the best player.

Our competition days usually ended in black eyes, bruises and/or bloody cuts and scrapes. We got after each other, but as soon the competitions were over, we were brothers again.”

Gray Lankford was a senior 170-pound offensive lineman on the 2006 club, who quickly learned about this culture of belief and how all hands needed to be on deck at all times for the Liberty Hill offense to function successfully – albeit the hard way, he said.

“I remember my first play in the first scrimmage starting at quick

guard. My job was to block down on the inside shade defensive tackle. I hesitated and he blew me up, along with the play,” said Lankford.

“Coach Walker pulled me aside and told me, 'There are people here that don't think you can do this job – that you aren't the right person for this. But I believe in you, Gray – this offense won't work unless you make that block – every time. I know you can do it.' I never missed that block again. Every person needs someone to believe in themselves. When someone makes a mistake, you pick them up, dust them off and motivate them. I wasn't special – I just needed the confidence to get the job done. If you can motivate and believe in the people around you, special things can happen.”

Lankford got in on the ground floor when Vance introduced the Slot-T to Liberty Hill – at all levels of local football – in order to indoctrinate players into the system long before they ever stepped foot on the field at Panther Stadium as a varsity player.

“We had a senior class of 16 guys that lead that team (2006 state champions). These same guys started playing football together in 1999. The first-year Pop Warner started in Liberty Hill, we were all in fifth grade. Those two years of Pop Warner, we never won a game,” said Lankford. “In the spring of 2000, Coach Vance was hired. He came and talked to us. He spoke to us CONTINUED ON 40

“Players must get through a rigorous offseason program and have a strong track team. We went 4-6 in the 1978 season.

We had a good track team that year with senior Robert Stephens running in the state track meet.

We were 7-3 the next season, playing Rogers for the district championship in the last game of the season after we again had a strong showing in track. We sold the value of offseason and track to the athletes.”

— Coach Charlie Braun (Courtesy Photo)

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CONTINUED FROM 37

about 'holding the rope,' dedication to your craft and a chance to do something never done before.”

Lankford spoke of the systematic support that was in place for the players as they worked their respective ways up the Liberty Hill football ladder.

“We were the first class to be taught the Slot-T from the moment we started playing football for Liberty Hill. The group of 40 or so in seventh grade, which was whittled down to 16 by our senior year,” he said. “But, by no means did we do this alone. There were classes before us that laid the groundwork – the foundation for us to walk on.

The coaches molded and shaped us, taught us where to step and the fundamentals. Our friends and classmates cheered us on, no matter the score. Our parents fed us spaghetti dinners every Wednesday night and gave us unconditional love.

ACC is for

Our parents gave us so much of their time to let us live out a dream – we can't thank them enough for that – thank you, Dad. Our teachers made sure we had our heads on straight, paid attention in class and got the grades so we could enjoy the fruits of our labor. The community of Liberty Hill had just as big a role getting that championship as the 42 guys on that team.”

Jordan Johns is a current Liberty Hill assistant coach who played on the 2006 and 2007 teams and said his experience during his Panthers playing days ultimately inspired him to get into the coaching profession – and finally return to his alma mater.

“The main thing that impacted me while I played was the brotherhood you formed with the players and coaches,” he said. “You're able to look back on the best memories from high school and they'll include teammates and the times together. Looking back on the impact it had on me is

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Johns said the fact he was once in the shoes of the players he now coaches provides an additional way to connect with them on a level of mutual understanding.

“I'm able to talk about what it feels like to be part of a tradition for the current players and I'm able to connect with the players better because I know some of the things they are going through in Liberty Hill,” he said.

Walker realized the gravity of the situation surrounding him and the program he – along with so many others – built over the years rising from the athletic ashes to being established as a perennial powerhouse – one that never goes away, he said.

“We set the bar very high in 2001 and refuse to lower it,” said Walker.

“Our standard will always be the state championship game goes through Liberty Hill."

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CROSS TRACKS CONNECTING ITS PAST, FUTURE

BY MIKE EDDLEMAN

M

embers of Cross Tracks Church hope that the past is as important as the future for area residents and Liberty Hill will come together to help save the historic structure.

Cross Tracks Church, a Methodist church founded in 1854 in Liberty Hill, has a historic marker near the front right corner of the building that notes when the church was formed, and when the building was erected on the site, all the way back in 1870.

As Liberty Hill grows around it by leaps and bounds, the congregation at Cross Tracks is fighting for the future of one of the community’s oldest landmarks.

“I’m told this is the oldest building in Liberty Hill,” said Jim Turner, who along with his wife Pam have been leading the restoration project.

“We’re designated as a historical landmark so we have restrictions about what we can do to the outside. Whatever we do we have to submit plans to the state.”

The congregation has taken on projects as it can, refinishing the weather-damaged front doors in early 2020, added a new roof and efforts to protect the stained glass windows.

“This is not a repair job, this is a restoration,” he said. “We’re going to do our best to return this to what it looked like back in the day, with some exceptions. Our overall goal is to get as much

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done as we can with the funds that ultimately become available so that we can celebrate this as a historical landmark with the City of Liberty Hill.”

Dealing with stained glass this old is not a simple task.

“One of the guys that was here looking at the stained glass said we have a museum of stained glass pieces,” Jim said. “He said we have some real jewels there. Some of the windows need to be pulled out and taken into a shop to be restored, and some of them just need to be cleaned up. We’re going to replace the covers with tempered glass to restore the appearance.”

But what's in place today is in many ways very different from the original structure.

Established in 1854, Cross Tracks Church is now under the pastoral leadership of Michelle Lott.

“Originally, this was a three-story building at a different location, and they moved it over here brick by brick and at the time the first floor was dirt and the locals would ride their horses in during the heat of the summer then go upstairs for church services,” Jim said.

The congregation has worked hard to pull together a detailed history of the church as this process begins.

“The first building we had was a log cabin, but this is all stone from the area,” Pam said. “I have very clear documentation of each generation of the building. We have some of the records, but the very saddest part of everything is that a majority of what we had was lost when the fire happened last May. I have a few original documents and original pictures, including pictures of downtown Liberty Hill, but very few.”

The fire in May 2019 destroyed one of the three church buildings, and it will likely be replaced by a one-story building on the existing slab, said Jim. That project is separate from the new work being planned, but it all impacts how the church is able to function and worship.

The Turners are dedicated to building that awareness, and creating a partnership between the community and congregation so that the restoration can be completed.

“This is a family,” Pam said. “Jim loves antiques and woodworking and just has a passion to restore this to its glory.”

Cross Tracks added a new name to the list of those focused on restoring it and charting a new path when Pastor Michele Lott was brought on in July.

When the decision to move Lott to Liberty Hill came, the Bishop felt that the goals of Cross Tracks lined up with Lott’s strengths.

“The cabinet explained why they wanted me to come here,” Lott said. “It was because we were looking to move in a new direction, and that’s one of the things I like to do, figure out where we need to go and set the right tools in place, so we’re prepared.”

Becoming a more active entity in the community is the direction that the historical church hopes to go in.

“Cross Tracks has identified that they want to become more active in the community, both in trying to fill needs in the community, connecting with things already in place, and do what we can to help make an impact on the community in Liberty Hill,” said Lott.

CROSS TRACKS CHURCH: 166 YEARS OF LIBERTY HILL HISTORY

E

BY ANTHONY FLORES

stablished in 1854, Cross Tracks Church – formerly known as the Liberty Hill United Methodist Church – is one of the oldest and most significant institutions in Liberty Hill.

Since its founding, the church has gone through several name changes: Liberty Hill Methodist Episcopal Church, South; Liberty Hill Methodist Church; Liberty Hill United Methodist Church; and in 2016, it was changed to Cross Tracks Church.

The settlement of Liberty Hill was founded by John T. Bryson and Amelia Edwards Bryson who traveled from South Carolina to Texas in 1852 with their six children and five other families.

Two years after the Brysons arrived in Texas, the Liberty Hill Methodist Church organized with five charter members: John T. Bryson, Amelia Bryson, their daughter Hulda Bryson, Anthony Smith,

and his wife Amanda E. Smith.

Located five and a half miles from where the current Cross Tracks Church is today, the Methodist Church started life as a one-room log cabin on Bryson's pasture. The small cabin worked double-duty, serving as both the church and as a public school.

Josiah Whipple and William Monk were two of the first Methodist preachers in Liberty Hill.

Aside from hosting services in the cabin, the congregation gathered in individual homes for preaching.

There is no record of memberships or church activities for an almost 20-year period from 1854-1870.

As Liberty Hill began to grow in size, so did the congregation, prompting the construction of a new church house in 1870. To pay for the construction of the new two-and-a-half-story building, CONTINUED ON 46

The original Liberty Hill Methodist Church three-story building was constructed 1.5 miles northwest of where the current Cross Tracks Church now stands. (Courtesy Photo)

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CONTINUED FROM 45

members of the group made pledges ranging from $10 to $500. The pledges were completed in 1871 for a total of $2,300.

Captain T.S. Snyder, a cattleman and son-in-law of John Bryson, donated two acres of land to house the new church. When the building was complete, the second story served as the location for Sunday School and worship services.

The Liberty Hill Masonic Lodge, established in 1875, used the upper half story of the building while the first floor remained unfinished. Once the Masonic Lodge acquired a new building to meet, both the second floor and upper half story served as locations for Sunday School and services.

In March 1903, the church faced tragedy when both the schoolhouse and the church burned in a fire. The book First United Methodist Church, Liberty Hill by Beth Rankin states that after the fire, the old Methodist church once again served as an emergency school.

"Again, the Methodist Church served as an emergency school,�

Rankin wrote. "Mrs. Fay Bryson said that her class sat in the present sanctuary with Mr. J.N. Matthews as a teacher. He had no desks, no blackboards, nothing, except a vast amount of patience and a group of grade-schoolers sitting on hard church pews."

By 1905 the church was rebuilt after the fires, and by 1916, memorial windows were added for John Bryson, Amelia Bryson, Anthony Smith and his wife, Captain D.V. Grant and his wife, J.G. Bryson and his wife, T.N Bryson and his wife, and John Munro and his wife. Two wings were also added to help with the growing Sunday School.

Fellowship Hall, now the Cross Tracks' education building, was erected in 1950 to be used for Sunday School and as a meeting room. The building stood for 69 years until a fire in May 2019.

Between the 1920s and 1950s, the Methodist church incorporated an orchestra during worship services. The orchestra featured S.H. Stubblefield, J.E. Humphries, H.P. Chance, Mrs. Mary Ruth Casbeer Shepperd, and Mrs. Jonnie Conned Shipp. Pianists for the band were Mrs. May Levere Dennis and Mrs. Cynthia Stubblefield Humphries.

In 1954, the congregation celebrated its centennial dinner on the grounds, followed by Sunday School and a worship service.

Included in the celebration was a dedication service for a memorial window donated by Dr. J. Gordon Bryson and several other members of the Bryson family. The window honored the five founders of the church.

In Rankin's book on the church's history, the author writes that "Pastor Elmer A. Morgan had mailed letters of invitation and a very large crowd was in attendance. Special guests included Dr. L.U. Spellman, District Superintendent Reverend W.N. Schulze, and Dr. J. Gordon Bryson. A tribute was paid to those pioneer Christians whose zeal and integrity were the cornerstone of the church, and to those who through the years kept its altars with the Spirit."

The Texas State Historical Commission designated the church as a Texas historical landmark in 1962, and a plaque arrived in 1972.

Through the 1960s, the church's focus was the remodeling and repairing of the chapel and additions like fluorescent lighting.

Memorial stained-glass windows replaced windows in the chapel.

The early 1970s saw several essential things that happened to the historical church. The installation of air conditioning is 46

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Founded 1854 (1.5 mi. NW of the present-day church). Construction of 3-story building of native stone for use of the church, school, and Masonic lodge was begun in 1870 on land given by T. S. Snyder.

Upper stories were removed, and choir space added in 1905; wings added, 1916; vestibule added, 1954, with memorial window honoring founders: John T. and Amelia Bryson.

an important one considering the Texas heat. In 1971, the first Easter sunrise service was held in the pasture of Bert and Louise Marcom. The Marcoms are still active members of the church. In 1979, another room was added for Sunday School.

Dr. Martha J. Shelby marked a significant historic moment for the church by serving as its first-ever female pastor in 1976.

Shelby returned to teaching at Huston-Tillotson College before passing away in 1983. The United Methodist Women planted two crepe myrtle trees on the grounds in her memory.

In 1985, the United Methodist Church Commission on Archives awarded the church a plaque designating it as United Methodist Historic Site 158.

The current Fellowship Hall was completed in 1993. The hall began as a tabernacle erected in 1913.

Currently, the church is being renovated and restored.

Funds are being raised to upgrade the interior, replace window coverings, add a standing seam roof. A celebration of the church is tentatively planned for April 2021.

Cross Tracks is under new leadership under new pastor Michelle Lott. Lott began her work with the 166-year-old church on July 1.

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REMEMBERING LOVED ONES

THE CEMETERIES OF LIBERTY HILL

BY ANTHONY FLORES

PHOTOS BY LH INDEPENDENT

C

emeteries are a vital part of the history of a family, a city, a culture. They serve as the final resting place for our loved ones and a place where people can be with them even after death. Liberty Hill is home to its share of cemeteries, and each comes with a rich history, with its own stories to tell.

Liberty Hill Cemetery

Liberty Hill Cemetery is located off State Highway 29 near Liberty Hill High School. The grounds are just over 20 acres with several large oak trees that provide shade to its visitors.

The cemetery serves as the resting place for many soldiers involved in some of the most famous wars in

American history. And dating the cemetery to times when medicine wasn’t as advanced, many graves mark infant deaths.

The oldest grave in the Liberty Hill Cemetery is that of Rebecca R. Gregg and her infant daughter, dating back to 1852 before the cemetery’s official establishment.

On March 20, 1875, John T. Bryson and his wife Amelia Edwards Bryson deeded three and a half acres to a board of trustees to officially establish the Liberty Hill Cemetery.

In 1949, L.H. Fowler donated two acres as a memorial to his parents, both of whom were buried in the cemetery. In 1932, the Royal Arch Masons of Liberty Hill purchased three acres of land from Mr. and Mrs. L.T. McFarland. The group established

Peacefully positioned on more than 20 acres, the Liberty Hill Cemetery has been the final resting place for Liberty Hill area residents dating back to 1852.

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Connell Cemetery

Every year, the Liberty Hill Cemetery Association hosts a Homecoming event bringing descendants of relatives buried in the cemetery together to share memories of their loved ones. this as a cemetery located adjacent to Liberty Hill Cemetery. Eventually, it was deeded to the Liberty Hill Cemetery Association, combining the two into one.

One year after Fowler’s land donation, the Liberty Hill Cemetery Association was organized. Dr. J. Gordon Bryson was the first president, Letta Russell served as Secretary, and Mr. C.F. Hickman as Treasurer.

Anderson Cemetery

The Anderson Cemetery is on the north bank of the North San Gabriel River, about five miles northeast of Liberty Hill.

The cemetery served as the resting place for those who resided in the Rock House community.

The neglected site has 18 known and recorded markers.

Not far from the main cemetery, the private Anderson Family Cemetery sits on a creek bank.

The private grounds served as the resting place for Uriah H. Anderson, Mrs. T.L. Dycus, and Gus Dycus.

Anderson remained in the site until his grandchildren had the body moved in the late 1960s to Liberty Hill Cemetery.

Bullion Cemetery

Bullion Cemetery was the burial site for the old Bullion Mountain Settlement. The settlement was located a few miles from the Rock House community.

During the construction of the Georgetown Dam and Lake, it was one of several cemeteries moved to new locations. The new location for those buried in Bullion is Williams-Buck Cemetery.

Cedar Brake Miller I

Cedar Brake Cemetery is on the west side of the South San Gabriel River on Bagdad Road between Liberty Hill and Leander. The grounds are located in the woods and are about two acres in size and surrounded by wire fencing. Graves in the cemetery are mostly unmarked field stones and illegible cemetery markers.

Connell Cemetery, also known as Bear Creek Cemetery, is located north of Liberty Hill down Bear Creek Ranch Road, and a short distance from Bear Creek. The Cemetery is the family burial place for Alabama native Sampson Connell Jr. and several relatives and friends.

Connell served under Captain Robert Ashford’s 1st regiment, 27th brigade, during the Civil War. Bear Creek is part of his former homestead.

The Cemetery Restoration Volunteers maintain Connell Cemetery. It is one of the 19 abandoned cemeteries maintained on rotation in Williamson County.

Williams-Buck Cemetery

Williams-Buck Cemetery is believed to have been established in the mid1850s. The cemetery is located five miles from the intersection of US Highway 183 and County Road 207 on CR 200.

In a narrative written

by Travis and Charlene Hanson Jordan for the Williamson County Historical Commission, the couple notes that the earliest burial was of Willie Osborne, a Black slave owned by the Williams Family.

The earliest marked grave was that of infant child Polly Williams in 1854, and the latest is of Tim Edward Whitehead in 1997.

Based on inscriptions on stones, about 10 percent of the graves in Williams-Buck are veterans of various wars, including the Civil War and World War I. One of the oldest and most intriguing stories associated with the cemetery is the death and burial of the Stephen

family. Native Americans ambushed the family of five – a father, mother, one son, and two daughters – in 1854. Instead of coffins, the family was buried in the bed of their wagon.

Bagdad Cemetery

Located one mile west of Leander on Ranch Road 2243, Bagdad cemetery opened in 1857 with its first burial — 3-year old John Babcock, whose father Charles later gave a tract to the community.

Notable burials at Bagdad Cemetery include Civil War veteran John Haile and Col. C. C. Mason.

As of 1921, in the northwest corner of the burial site, white stones are located to mark the graves of Mexican and Black people buried there.

Bagdad Cemetery has continued its growth over the decades and is marked with a Texas Historical Marker.

Hopewell Cemetery

Hopewell is located on County Road 284 and serves as the only reminder of the once-thriving community of Hopewell. Hopewell, previously Burleson Springs, predated the formation of Williamson County by a decade in 1848.

The first recorded burial in Hopewell Cemetery is Cornelia Johnson. The cemetery is the resting place for many of the pioneers who se^led in the area during the 1840s, their descendants, and veterans of the Civil War. A notable burial is the Johnson family. Wofford and Mary Johnson and their daughter Mary Jane were killed by Comanches nearby in 1863. As part of its grim history, the site is home to at least 30 infant graves.

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51

SET IN STONE:

The History of Liberty Chapel

BY ANTHONY FLORES A present-day view of the inside of the Liberty Chapel AME Church. (Photo by Anthony Flores)

O

n Bagdad Road, just outside of Liberty Hill, a stone chapel is fenced in behind a locked gate. Liberty Chapel has a history that spans 127 years, and for many residents in the area, that history is unknown.

In 1893, the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church was established. The chapel housing the local congregation was built in the early 1930s out of stone, with very little wood. According to Liberty Hill resident and church historian Peggy Stephens, stone was chosen as the building

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material for the third iteration of the chapel after the first two were burned by nightriders.

Nightriders were members of a secret band of mounted men who committed nocturnal acts of violence and intimidation against Black people in the southern United States.

“This is not the original church.

That was located by Cedar Brake Cemetery and was burned in the late 1800s,” said Freddie Vaughn, Peggy’s sister. “You see the stones? Now burn this down.

That was the attitude they had

when they built this.”

Just 100 feet away from where the chapel stands now, a single room school building once stood.

The school was for the Black community and taught up to eighth grade. Students interested in further education would attend high schools in other areas. Today all that remains of the schoolhouse is a stone block.

Stephens isn’t sure but believes the school eventually combined with Liberty Hill.

“It might have closed in the 50s.

My parents and their generation

The photos were both taken in the 1950s during a normal Sunday service.

Included in the group photo are Mabel Thomas Barton, Dora Barton, Bertha Houston, Lee Earl Forbin, Pinky Mason, Cynthia Houston, Eula Houston and Freddie Houston.

With a community that took pride in its Black heritage, Stephens and Vaughn remember the church coming together every Juneteenth. June 19th is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States.

probably finished the eighth grade here,” said Stephens. “My uncle Earnest went to Austin in high school but went here through the eighth grade.”

With a community that took pride in its Black heritage, Stephens and Vaughn remember the church coming together every Juneteenth.

June 19th is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States.

“We would have Juneteenth celebrations here every year.

Once Juneteenth came, it was like a family reunion,” said Vaughn.

(Court

esy Ph

otos)

“Everyone would be there. They would come from everywhere. They were coming home.”

Celebrations of Juneteenth carried the vibes of a July 4th event with food and activities all over the chapel grounds.

“In the lot next door people would play baseball. They’d bring their barbecue pits or make them.

They’d dig a pit into the ground and cook goat,” said Vaughn. “In the schoolhouse, the women would be inside making sides like potato salad and desserts like homemade ice cream and cakes.”

With many of the younger

generations moving on, eventually, the church stopped sending pastors out to the chapel, and things went quiet for a few years in the 1970s.

“When we were gone, the people left up here were the elders. At the time, it was our grandparents and two or three elderly people, so they didn’t send anyone,” said Stephens.

“We came back in 1975, and I think it was in ’76 that Thelma D arrived.

The preacher that came, her father had preached in the 30s and lived in the parsonage.”

Embracing female involvement in the church, Liberty Chapel CONTINUED ON 54

L I B E RT Y H I L L L I V I N G 2 02 0

53

CONTINUED FROM 53

and the AME congregation has had several female pastors. The current pastor is Rev. Constance M. Coleman-Fletcher, appointed in 2018.

Since services restarted in 1976, the church has continued consistently to this day, with new improvements added in the early 2000s, including air conditioning, new windows, and indoor restrooms.

“We want a fellowship hall so we don’t have to do everything in the

chapel and can preserve it,” said Vaughn.

“It would be separate from the grounds." Of course, as with most things, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to temporary closure for the safety of the congregation.

The congregation does meet occasionally but is exploring new ways of conducting worship services.

To Stephens and Vaughn, maintaining the church is of utmost importance. It serves as a critical aspect of the Black community in

this area’s history. For the sisters, the stone chapel is part of their life tapestry, a reminder of leaving the city to spend the summer with grandma and grandpa.

“We lived in different areas like San Antonio, Wichita Falls, but when school was out, we were on to the country,” said Vaughn. “For us, it was fun. We weren’t exposed to anything negative because we stayed in our community. We knew everybody, and if we weren’t related then we were just like family.”

Musical Interlude In the 1970s, the chapel was leased out and used as a recording studio

by Sonobeat Records, whose founder Bill Josey Sr. named the studio "Blue Hole Sounds" after the nearby natural swimming hole.

A variety of artists were recorded in the stone chapel, including Michele "Mike" Murphy, a former resident who persuaded Josey to relocate the Austin-based studio to Liberty Hill. Murphy later served one term as Mayor of Liberty Hill from 2011-2012.

According to the website www.sonobeatrecords.com,

Sisters Peggy Stephens (left) and Freddie Vaughn (right) share fond memories of Liberty Chapel AME Church. (Anthony Flores Photo)

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L I B E RT Y H I L L L I V I N G 2 02 0

Josey refurbished the church by wiring the building for sound, soundproofing doors and windows, and adding air conditioning. He moved a mobile home onto the property for his living quarters.

“When there was nobody left up here except my grandmother and her sister and another neighbor, they didn’t send a pastor out, and it was vacant,” said Stephens.

“Mr. Josey wanted to lease it out because it was just sitting here.

Mr. Josey had the recording studio. After that, a band from Liberty Hill would come in here and practice even after he left.”

Josey passed away in 1976. In the mid 1980s, his family began the task of collecting and cataloging the Sonobeat work, and in the mid-2000s, created Sonobeat Historical Archives and launched the website.

An inside view of Blue Hole Sounds, whose home was in the Liberty Chapel AME Church during the 1970s.

(Photo Courtesy sonobeatrecords.com)

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PRESERVING THE PAST

Historic cemetery, cabin home to Williamson County’s first judge and family LOCALS, DESCENDANTS SEEK TO PRESERVE THE PAST

BY RACHEL MADISON COURTESY PHOTOS

James Crabtree and his family are working with Mariann Fisk Laughlin to restore a historic cemetery in the Larkspur subdivision where her ancestors are buried.

I

t’s not every day you stumble across an overgrown, seemingly abandoned cemetery with headstones from the mid-1800s in the middle of your neighborhood, but that’s exactly what happened to James Crabtree, who lives in the Larkspur subdivision in north Leander.

“It was during the pandemic back in April, when the kids were home all the time,” he said. “We’d go for these long walks, and I’d run on County Roads 266 and 267 [through Larkspur]. One day we decided to go explore some of the trails that we hadn’t been on before. As we started walking through that area, we saw a modern looking fence, but the grass was waist high. Our first thought was that we must have stumbled on somebody’s land, but then I saw a gravestone.”

As Crabtree and his family walked into the cemetery, they tried to read the headstone, but it was hard to make out, and the entire area was completely overgrown, he said. Crabtree, who is a big history buff, went home and did an internet search to see if he could learn more about the cemetery.

His search led him to Mariann Fisk Laughlin, who founded and serves as director of the Mary Ann Manlove Fisk Fund for Historic Preservation and Education, and is also a descendent of many of those who were laid to rest in the cemetery.

Laughlin remembers attending many family reunions on the property where the cemetery is when she was a child, but it wasn’t until 2004 that the land and its history became important to her.

“I went out to see if I could find the cemetery in 2004,” she said.

“We were going along the county road and finally I saw this man out in his field. We stopped and went to talk to him, and he knew where the cemetery was. We had to walk up and down this ravine to get there, but when I went in, I just started to remember things. The only grave that was marked was [my great-great-grandmother] Mary Ann Manlove Fisk. I put my hand on her grave, and all of a sudden, this warmth came into me. It was like a shot from heaven to me in my spirit. I heard her say, ‘Do something about us, about me—we want to be remembered.’ I had forgotten all about my family history until that day in 2004.”

Now, Laughlin’s family history has become a major part of her life.

Laughlin is a direct descendent of Greenleaf Fisk, a pioneer who was instrumental in founding Brownwood, Texas. Greenleaf Fisk also served in the Texas army at the battle of San Jacinto and as a member of the House of Representatives of the Republic of Texas from Bastrop. He also served as a volunteer Texas Ranger, as CONTINUED ON 58

“The cabin needs more community attention as a project. We’ve done most of the work on the cemetery, but the cabin site needs much more work. It’s really about what the community wants and if they want this preserved. I see it being restored with a picnic area, and having docent tours on the weekend, but it’s really up to the community.”

— Mariann Fisk Laughlin L I B E RT Y H I L L L I V I N G 2 02 0

57

IT’S NOT EVERY DAY YOU STUMBLE ACROSS AN OVERGROWN, SEEMINGLY ABANDONED CEMETERY...

“We’d go for these long walks, and I’d run on County Roads 266 and 267. One day we decided to go explore some of the trails that we hadn’t been on before.

As we started walking through that area, we saw a modern looking fence, but the grass was waist high.

Our first thought was that we must have stumbled on somebody’s land, but then I saw a gravestone.”

— James Crabtree

CONTINUED FROM 57

well as chief justice (now known as county judge) of Bastrop County, Williamson County and Brown County. During his time serving in Williamson County in the 1840s and 1850s, Greenleaf Fisk moved his family to the area where the cemetery is now and built a log cabin a short distance away.

Laughlin’s work began with the formation of the Mary Ann Manlove Fisk Fund for Historic Preservation and Education. Through that organization, she was able to create a board and get help in measuring and marking out graves, as well as start showing her friends and relatives the cemetery and sharing its history.

In 2010, after nearly two years of paperwork, the cemetery was officially recognized as a historic cemetery by the Texas Historical Commission. “When Milestone (Community Builders) came in and started building Larkspur, a lot of stuff was torn up that I wish hadn’t been, but I had no control over it,” 58

L I B E RT Y H I L L L I V I N G 2 02 0

she said. “They bought the land from the Cashion family. In about 2014 or 2015, they sent someone out to pull up some trees, and he went into the cemetery and tore up the barbed wire fence and marked graves, too.

"The stakes were gone, and there were big holes where the trees were, and some of those were right at the gravesites. At that point, I got together with Milestone and asked them what they were going to do about this.”

Laughlin said Milestone agreed to place a wrought iron fence around the cemetery in 2017 to protect it.

Milestone also hired a company to perform a ground-penetrating radar survey in 2017 to rediscover the location of the graves. Laughlin said the survey located 15 graves, 14 of which had remains. The only marked grave was that of her great-great-grandmother Mary Ann Manlove Fisk.

Others buried in the cemetery include Avarilla Perkins Manlove, Mary Ann’s mother; James

Bartholomew “Bat” Manlove, Mary Ann’s father; Margaret Jane Manlove Lane Fisk, who was Greenleaf Fisk’s second wife, and her baby; Sarah Anne Fisk, daughter of Greenleaf and Mary Ann; and Margaret Jane Fisk, daughter of Greenleaf and Mary Ann. Other unknown persons buried there include a young girl who died of a snake bite, five settlers traveling through the area, and two Mexican ranch hands who most likely died in a shootout.

Laughlin’s next goal for the cemetery is to have a historical marker installed, as well as cenotaphs marking each of the graves. Crabtree and his family have essentially adopted the upkeep and maintenance of the cemetery.

“We cleaned it all up, and now I go every month or so to mow and edge it,” he said. “It’s only a half mile or so from my house. It’s such a pretty place and you feel like you’re out in the middle of the country, even though you’re in a neighborhood. It’s

just a really neat place.”

Laughlin is also hoping to restore, or at least preserve, what’s left of the Fisk cabin site.

“The cabin needs more community attention as a project,” she said. “We’ve done most of the work on the cemetery, but the cabin site needs much more work. It’s really about what the community wants and if they want this preserved. I see it being restored with a picnic area, and having docent tours on the weekend, but it’s really up to the community.”

The cabin site is unrecognizable unless you know it’s there, Crabtree

said, because all that remains of the cabin is some pieces of wood and the bases of a couple of stone chimneys. He and Laughlin also got Milestone to put a protective fence around the cabin site a few months ago, to preserve what is left of the building.

“Our hope is that at some point, with this land turned over to Liberty Hill, we will have enough stone to build at least one of the chimneys and outline where the cabin was,” Crabtree said. “It’s neat because you can see in the pieces of wood where Fisk used hand crank drills to drill holes into the wood, and you can see the iron nails. That stuff is all still

there, which is really amazing.”

Mary Lyn Jones, of the Liberty Hill Parks Board, said Larkspur has deeded 53 acres to the City of Liberty Hill in that same area, but the acreage deeded does not include the acre the cemetery sits on. It does include the Fisk cabin site.

“With the Liberty Hill mayor changing, the council may want to revisit that,” she said. “But as it stands now, based on the last meeting, the cemetery has not been deeded to the city.”

Jones added that the 53 acres of parkland will eventually be developed, but a timeline has not been set.

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Luxury, Value & Quality L I B E RT Y H I L L L I V I N G 2 02 0

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Hill Country Vehicle Inspection Pro’s 123 Holmes Rd #3 Liberty Hill, TX 78642 (512) 548-6773 ■ See our ad on Page 13 Adrienne Hughes, Hughes & Company Real Estate, 3106 Ranch Rd 1869 Liberty Hill, TX 78642 (512) 563-5550 www.hughes-and-company.com ■ See our ad on Page 3 Independence Title 14362 W State Hwy 29 Liberty Hill, TX 78642 (512) 515-0110 www.independencetitle.com ■ See our ad on Page 60

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Royal Bliss Day Spa 100 E Myrtle Ln Suite C Liberty Hill, TX 78642 (512) 548-6733 www.royalblissdayspa.com ■ See our ad on Page 60 Scott Solutions PO Box 203 Liberty Hill, TX 78642 (508) 451-8227 www.scottsolutions.us ■ See our ad on Page 56 Stubblefield Park Apartments 304 Stubblefield Ln Liberty Hill, TX 78642 (512) 453-6566 www.stubblefieldpark.com ■ See our ad on Page 29 Texas Academy of Gymnastics 2041 S Hwy 183 Leander, TX 78641 (512) 986-5815 www.texasacademyofgymnastics.com ■ See our ad on Page 51 Texas Physical Therapy Specialists 13740 W State Hwy 29, Ste. 3 Liberty Hill, TX 78642 (512) 778-6700 www.texpts.com ■ See our ad on Page 47 Two Brand It 14262 W State Hwy 29 Liberty Hill, TX 78642 (512) 548-5056 www.twobrandit.com ■ See our ad on Page 5 Vera Bank 13601 W State Hwy 29 Liberty Hill, TX 78462 (512) 515-6300 www.verabank.com ■ See our ad on Page 27 Vita Nova Counseling 14001 W State Hwy 29, Ste 201 Liberty Hill, TX 78642 (512) 777-0899 www.vnclh.com ■ See our ad on Page 40 West Family Dentistry 101 Jonathan Dr #1 Liberty Hill, TX 78642 (512) 778-9977 www.westfamilydentistry.com ■ See our ad on Page 42 Shane T. White Team, RE/MAX Town & Country 13561 W State Hwy Liberty Hill, TX 78642 (512) 515-5263 www.shanetwhiteteam.com ■ See our ad on the Back Cover Whittlesey Landscape Supplies 14775 W State Hwy 29 Liberty Hill, TX 78642 (512) 515-1336 www.989rock.com ■ See our ad on Page 21

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*During normal business hours

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Whether you are looking for your first home, acreage for horses and gardening, a high-tech home in one of the community’s newest subdivisions, or commercial property – the Shane T. White Team of agents can help you find exactly what you’re looking for in your new hometown.

RE/MAX Town & Country 13561 W. State Hwy 29, Liberty Hill shanetwhite@remax.com www.ShaneTWhiteTeam.com

512.515.5253

With over 150 combined years of selling real estate, no one knows Liberty Hill better than the Shane T. White Team.

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