DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it — and Jollyville, friend, is a name that earns its keep. This stretch of Williamson County got its start back in the 1840s, when a man named Henry Rhodes came out and settled the area. He didn't stay alone for long.
Pioneers have a way of findin' each other on the frontier, and before you know it, Henry had neighbors worth knowing. Among the first to join him was Elisha Prewitt — and Elisha Prewitt was not a man who'd spent his life on the porch. He had fought in the Battle of San Jacinto.
Let that land for a second. San Jacinto. Then came a handful of Civil War veterans: Elisha Rhodes, J.
Bryon Jenkins, and William H. Thompson. Now William H.
Thompson had himself a home right at this very site, and that home didn't just sit there lookin' pretty — it served as a stage stop. Horses rolling in, travelers climbing down, the dust of the road hanging in the air. That was life on this spot.
But the name — well, the name came in 1866, when a Confederate veteran by the name of John G. Jolly established the Jollyville community. And John G.
Jolly was a man who did things. He ran a store. He ran a blacksmith shop.
And then — and this is the part that says everything about the man — he gave land. He gave land for a cemetery, and he gave land for a school, two hundred feet to the west of this very marker. A school that served this community until 1903, when it was merged with Pond Springs.
The area kept on growin' after that, pulled along by nearby urban development spreading its way out into the countryside. One man with a store, a blacksmith shop, and the good sense to give something back — and a whole community carries his name to this day. Some legacies, they just fit right.
What the marker says
This area was first settled in the 1840s by Henry Rhodes. He was soon joined by such pioneers as Elisha Prewitt, who fought in the Battle of San Jacinto, and Civil War veterans Elisha Rhodes, J. Bryon Jenkins, and William H. Thompson, whose home at this site served as a stage stop. In 1866 Confederate veteran John G. Jolly established the Jollyville community. The owner of a store and blacksmith shop, he gave land for a cemetery and for a school (200 ft. W), which was merged with Pond Springs in 1903. Later growth in the Jollyville area resulted from nearby urban development. (1983)