A Guide to the James Monroe Hill Papers, 1833-1930
Born in Putnam County, Georgia, James Monroe Hill (1818 - 1904) moved to Texas with his family in the spring of 1835, eventually settling in Washington County. In 1836, Hill and his brother John Christopher Columbus Hill volunteered to fight the invasion of Santa Anna’s army. James participated in the battle of San Jacinto, and his brother was a member of the Mier Expedition. After the Revolution, Hill became active in the Texas Veterans Association and served as a commissioner in the state’s 1897 purchase of the San Jacinto battleground.
In 1843, Hill married Jane Hallowell Kerr (1824-1871). Born in Giles County, Tennessee, Kerr and her parents, Hugh and Lucy, came to Texas by steamboat, settling in Washington County before fleeing Santa Anna’s army in 1836 as part of the Runaway Scrape. James and Jane Hill settled in Fayette County, where they lived for 41 years, until moving to Austin. At least one of the couples’ four sons, J. L. Hill, served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War.
A typed transcript of letters, reminiscences, biographies, and a literary effort composing the James Monroe Hill Papers, 1833-1930, document the military service and biographies of Hill and his family. Reminiscences and letters pertain to Hill and Moses Austin Bryan’s participation in the battle of San Jacinto and Hill’s role in the purchase of the battleground by the state of Texas for use as a state park. Furthermore, a letter (1863) from J. L. Hill to his father describes the son’s service in the Confederate Army in Mississippi, while another (1833) by Alexander Thomson, a member of Stephen F. Austin’s Colony and grandfather of Jane Hill, describes life, politics, and land in the settlement. Biographical information concerns the lives of Hill, his wife Jane, his brother John Christopher Columbus Hill, and Jane’s mother Lucy Kerr. Additionally, the collection includes a poem by Maclovia Hill about the Texas Revolution.
This collection is open for research use.
James Monroe Hill Papers, 1833-1930, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin.
Basic processing and cataloging of this collection was supported with funds from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) for the Briscoe Center’s "History Revealed: Bringing Collections to Light" project, 2009-2011.
Detailed Description of the Papers