Corn Hill

CORN HILL, TEXAS . Corn Hill was on Willis Creek and Interstate Highway 35 two miles south of Jarrell in north central Williamson County. The site was settled in 1855 by Judge John E. King as a stage stop on the road between Georgetown and Fort Gates and was named for the hill on which the judge's house sat. A post office was established there that same year. Growth seems to have been slow in Corn Hill until the 1870s and 1880s. A store was built in the town in 1869 and a gin about 1871; by 1884 Corn Hill was a thriving community with 250 inhabitants, four churches, three gins, two mills, a Masonic lodge, a weekly newspaper (the Express ), and a school (Corn Hill Academy). Cotton was ginned in a large steam gin and shipped from the town. Corn Hill had a hotel and a population of 350 in 1896 and may have had as many as 500 residents in 1910, but thereafter the community rapidly declined. In 1909 it became clear that the Bartlett and Western Railway would bypass Corn Hill, and a new town, Jarrell, was laid out nearby on the proposed line. Between 1910 and 1920 the post office, the Masonic lodge, and many other of Corn Hill's buildings were moved to Jarrell, and by the end of this period Corn Hill was virtually abandoned. In 1973 the hotel was the only building still standing in Corn Hill.