Harmony Hill is an
unincorporated area
An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...
15 miles northeast of
Henderson Henderson may refer to:
People
*Henderson (surname), description of the surname, and a list of people with the surname
* Clan Henderson, a Scottish clan
Places Argentina
*Henderson, Buenos Aires
Australia
*Henderson, Western Australia
Canada
*H ...
and three miles southwest of
Tatum in northeastern
Rusk County, Texas
Rusk County is a county located in Texas. As of the 2020 census, its population was 52,214. Its county seat is Henderson. The county is named after Thomas Jefferson Rusk, a secretary of war of the Republic of Texas.
Rusk County is part of ...
, United States.
History
The land for the town was donated by John W. Kuykendall, a prosperous plantation owner in the 1840s. The nickname of the town was Nip 'n' Tuck until it was officially named Harmony Hill in 1856. A post office was established in 1854, William P. Johnston was the postmaster, and the post office was closed in 1867. The post office was reopened in 1868 and closed in 1905, with mail then being delivered via
Tatum. A
Baptist
Baptists are a Christian denomination, denomination within Protestant Christianity distinguished by baptizing only professing Christian believers (believer's baptism) and doing so by complete Immersion baptism, immersion. Baptist churches ge ...
church was the first church opened in the community. By 1860, the town had grown to 8-10 stores, a druggist, blacksmith, furniture factory, racetrack, Masonic lodge, doctor, and school. Due to being bypassed by the railroad, the town began to decline in the 1870s and 1880s. In 1906, many of the structures were destroyed by a
tornado
A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with the surface of Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. It is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, although the ...
. Only a few homes and a cemetery remained in 1950. A 1984 county highway map showed a church and business in Harmony Hill. A historical marker now sits in the Harmony Hill Cemetery.
The Harmony Hill Cemetery Association annually honors 20-25 buried Confederate soldiers.
References
{{Rusk County, Texas
Ghost towns in East Texas