Site of Old Town of Union Valley

(Settled in 1860s) Original schoolhouse of logs on site given by Harriet Smith Beaty in 1872 to trustees John Coleman, King Holstein, and Samuel McCracken, was replaced 1877 by a frame one on William Cone land, serving as Masonic hall, church, court room. Union post office opened 1883. Stores, gins, saloons, blacksmith and butcher shops were owned by men named Burnside, Cone, Creech, Dunn, Hightower, Hoy, Hudson, Irvin, Johnson, Murray, Magee, Patterson, Spear, Treadwell, Watkins, Wiley, and Wright. Town dwindled when bypassed in 1906 by Galveston, Harrisburg & San Antonio Railroad. (1972)