Sand Hill Community

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Sand Hill Community, out in Wise County, Texas. Now settle in, because this one goes back a good ways. We're talking about a spring, a good spring of water, the marker calls it, issuing right up from beneath a hill.

That spring drew pioneers from across North Texas like a beacon. Crowds came to meet there. And the community that grew up around it took its name from that very hill: Sand Hill.

A center of pioneer culture, the marker says, and before long, that description was earning its keep. The first church in the territory that would become Wise County was organized in 1854, in the home of a man named Jim Brooks. It was Methodist, and the organizers were a determined bunch; led by the Reverend W.

H. H. Bradford, who went by the name Buck, which tells you something right there.

Alongside Reverend Buck Bradford stood Brooks himself, Charles Browder, Lemuel Cartwright, Thomas Cogdell, Benjamin Monroe, the Reverend John Roe, and a Dr. Standifer. Eight names on the founding of something that mattered.

Now, Lemuel Cartwright (remember that name) he soon built himself a new home, and when he moved in, he gave his original house over to the church. The congregation took that old building to heart and gave it a name only a Texan could love: Old Swayback. Because its long ridgepole sagged under the weight of the roof.

Didn't matter what faith you belonged to; all faiths held services under that bowed-out ridgeline. Old Swayback didn't discriminate. And that humble, listing little building probably served as the site of the first school within what would become Wise County, taught in 1855 by a man named Eli Hoag, one year before the county itself was even created in 1856.

Let that settle over you. The school came before the county. Meanwhile, back in the home of Jim Brooks, that same home where the church was born, the county's first Masonic Lodge was also organized.

Brooks's house must have had good bones and better company. The community didn't stop there. Sand Hill also laid claim to the county's first gristmill and other pioneer improvements.

It was, in every sense, where things got started. And for years, Sand Hill Campground was the gathering place; social and religious meetings drawing folks together, season after season. The cemetery there holds the graves of settlers, of veterans of the Civil War, and of veterans of other conflicts.

And one name buried in that ground carries a particular weight: Captain Ira Long, described on the marker as a celebrated Texas Ranger. He rests at Sand Hill. Now here's the part that lands hard, and the marker doesn't soften it.

The last church on this site, whatever congregation had carried on that tradition stretching all the way back to 1854, back to Buck Bradford and Old Swayback and Lemuel Cartwright's donated house, that church was burned on April 3, 1970. More than a century of faith on that ground, and it ended that way. Sand Hill gave Wise County its first church, its first school, its first Masonic Lodge, its first gristmill.

It gave it a spring and a hill and a place to gather. Some things endure in the cemetery. Some things ended on a April night in 1970.

The marker stands to make sure neither part gets forgotten.

What the marker says

A center of pioneer culture in North Texas, drawing crowds to meet here at good spring of water issuing from beneath hill that gave community its name. First church (Methodist) in territory to become Wise County was organized in home of Jim Brooks in 1854. Organizers, led by the Reverend W. H. H. ("Buck") Bradford, included Brooks, Charles Browder, Lemuel Cartwright, Thomas Cogdell, Benjamin Monroe, the Reverend John Roe, and Dr. Standifer. Cartwright soon built a new home and gave his original house to the church. The structure was affectionately called "Old Swayback", because its long ridgepole sagged under weight of the roof. All faiths held services there; it probably was site of first school (taught in 1855 by Eli Hoag) within the boundaries of Wise County, which was created in 1856. County's first Masonic Lodge was also organized in home of Jim Brooks. Its first gristmill and other pioneer improvements were situated in this community. Last church on this site was burned on April 3, 1970. Sand Hill Campground for years was site of social and religious gatherings. Cemetery has graves of settlers and of veterans of Civil War and other conflicts. Captain Ira Long, a celebrated Texas Ranger, is buried here.