More on Hill County, TX and Sterling Clack Robertson

The first Anglo to reach the area that became Hill County was Philip Nolan, in 1801. He established a camp and three stockade fences northeast of Blum on Battle Creek to hold wild mustangs captured in the area. Nolan was killed by the Spanish in March 1801, after being warned to leave the area.

Stephen F. Austin's survey map of 1822 included the Hill County area. A land dispute between Austin and Sterling Clack Robertson began after the Mexican government passed the Law of April 6, 1830. Austin claimed Robertson had not fulfilled his quota of colonists before the execution of the law, but Robertson won the appeal to the Mexican government and received the land that would later include Hill County.

William Steele, the land commissioner for Robertson's colony, had issued the first land grant on March 15, 1825, to Peter Fleming, a twenty-nine-year-old Missourian. The land was located between the Brazos River and Aquilla Creek. In 1835 Robertson kept land for himself and gave further grants to John Burgess, Montgomery Shackelford, and John Carr; he gave the largest grant, twenty-four labores, to William McFarlin. Each parcel of land extended eastward from points along the Brazos River.

source:http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hch15

In an Effort to stimulate land speculation, army doctor Josephus Murray Steiner and Elijah Sterling Clack Robertson, son of Sterling C. Robertson, devised a plan to divide Navarro County. A petition was circulated on September 19, 1852, to carve a new county from Navarro County. Things moved quickly as Governor Peter Hansbrough Bell called a special session of the legislature to deal with frontier problems; a bill to divide Navarro County was signed on February 7, 1853. Hill County was named for Dr. George Washington Hill, who had served as President Sam Houston's secretary of war and who had been elected to the state legislature from Navarro County in 1851. An election of county officials was held on May 14, 1853, in Lexington on Jack's Branch, currently Union Bluff. J. H. Dyer was elected county judge; Charley Davis, sheriff; C. N. Brooks, county and district clerk as well as the first justice of the peace; and Thomas Steiner (brother of Dr. Steiner), one of the county commissioners. A special session of the commissioners' court was called on August 23, 1853, to select the county seat. Thomas Steiner, John Caruthers, and Jonathan Newby offered to donate 260 acres as the county seat; their offer was accepted. Another special session was called on September 24 to survey the town of Hillsborough; town lots went on sale November 1. C. N. Brooks, the county clerk and justice of the peace, built the first courthouse, which was twelve feet square and consisted of elm poles around a dirt floor. A second courthouse was built in 1854, at a cost of $200. In the same year, post office rules changed, and the town's name became spelled as Hillsboro.
http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hch15

in my tree

Spencer Sterling Clack  Birth 28 Mar 1746 in Loudoun, Virginia, Death 9 Jul 1832 in Sevierville, Sevier, Tennessee, 

Besides being Elijah Clack Rogers' wife's father...he had lots of other children...and I bet one ended up married to a Robertson!  

Note to self: Check this out sometime!