DUANE
Duane's take
The official marker's the one tellin' this tale, and I'm just the voice carryin' it down the road. Now, this story starts about eight-tenths of a mile south of where you're sittin', out in the rolling farmland of Williamson County — and it starts, as so many good Texas stories do, with a man, a piece of land, and a whole lot of ambition. Uriah H.
Anderson, a native of Tennessee, received a land grant from the state of Texas and set down roots here in the late 1840s. First settler on the ground. And from that one man with a grant, a whole community would eventually grow.
By 1875, there was a rural school running, holding classes right inside the Bethel Church sanctuary. You make do with what you have out on the frontier. Then came Macedonia Church, organized in 1873 — early services and camp meetings held in a tabernacle, voices rising up under open beams and Texas sky.
Macedonia would go on to become a Missionary Baptist congregation. Around 1885, a man named T. C.
Sowell opened a general store, and after that the settlement filled out the way settlements do — a grist mill, a blacksmith shop, a farmers' union that was apparently quite active, and a string band. A string band, folks. That detail right there tells you something about a place.
Now, the settlement had a name, and the name came from a stone structure everyone simply called the Rock House. That building gave this whole community its identity. But here's the wrinkle — when a post office finally opened in 1890, it didn't open under the name Rock House.
It opened under the name Draco. That's an Indian word for the area, meaning favorite place. Favorite place.
It opened in 1890, and it closed two years later. The name Draco didn't stick, but the love for the land apparently did. The school kept going and going — all the way until the 1940s, when it was consolidated with Liberty Hill, five miles to the southwest.
Sowell's general store, passed on to other residents of the area over the years, stayed open until 1960. And then, one by one, the structures that held this community together fell quiet. Today, all that remains of the original townsite is the Rock House Cemetery and the evidence of early buildings.
That's it. A cemetery and the ghosts of foundations. But you know what?
A community that gets remembered — its first settler named, its churches dated, its string band mentioned — that community never fully disappears. Uriah H. Anderson planted something here in the late 1840s, and the ground still holds the memory.
What the marker says
(0.8 mi.S) A pioneer agricultural community of Williamson County, this site was first settled in the late 1840s by Uriah H. Anderson, a native of Tennessee who received a land grant here from the state of Texas. By 1875 a rural school was in operation and classes were held in the Bethel Church sanctuary. The settlement was named for the stone structure, which was known as the Rock House. Another church, Macedonia, which later became a Missionary Baptist congregation, was organized in 1873. Early services and camp meetings were conducted in a tabernacle. The settlement also included a general store started about 1885 by T. C. Sowell, The village was later the site of a grist mill, a blacksmith shop, an active farmers' union, and a string band. A post office was opened in 1890 under the name of Draco, an Indian word for the area meaning "favorite place." It closed two years later. The school continued until the 1940s when it was consolidated with Liberty Hill (5 mi.SW). The general store, later owned by other residents of the area, was in operation until 1960. All that remains of the original townsite is the Rock House Cemetery and the evidence of early buildings. (1981)