Mormon Mill is a vanished

Mormon Mormons are a religious and cultural group related to Mormonism, the principal branch of the Latter Day Saint movement started by Joseph Smith in upstate New York during the 1820s. After Smith's death in 1844, the movement split into several ...

colony established in 1851 on Hamilton Creek in Burnet County, in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

. The site is located on Mormon Mills Road north of Marble Falls and south of Burnet. Mormon Mill has also been known as Mormon Mills, Mormon Mill Colony and Mormon Mill Historical Site. Designated a

Recorded Texas Historic Landmark Recorded Texas Historic Landmark (RTHL) is a designation awarded by the Texas Historical Commission for historically and architecturally significant properties in the U.S. state of Texas. RTHL is a legal designation and the highest honor the st ...

in 1936, Marker number 9733. The population moved to another county in 1853, and no buildings remain of the colony.

The settlement

Upon leaving

Zodiac The zodiac is a belt-shaped region of the sky that extends approximately 8° north and south celestial latitude of the ecliptic – the apparent path of the Sun across the celestial sphere over the course of the year. Within this zodiac ...

in Gillespie County in 1851,

Lyman Wight Lyman Wight (May 9, 1796 – March 31, 1858) was an early leader in the Latter Day Saint movement. He was the leader of the Latter Day Saints in Daviess County, Missouri, in 1838. In 1841, he was ordained a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apo ...

led a group which settled at Hamilton Creek to establish their new colony. As they had at Zodiac, the colonists set up mills for flour, grist, lumber and cotton, along with their furniture factories. One of their achievements was a three-story mill and water wheel by a wooden dam they had erected on the creek. Self-sustaining, while also supplying needed goods and services to nearby communities, the colonists engaged in agriculture, the blacksmith and furniture trades, as well as basketry and clothing manufacturing. Forty-five of the colonists signed the 1851 petition to create Burnet County. In Burnet County, the Mormons suffered religious persecution, lived in fear of Indian depredations, and found themselves in financial debt. Wight decided to move the group elsewhere, and sold the property to Noah Smithwick. Some of the Mormons remained in Burnet County to work at the mill. Smithwick opened a store and a school for the remaining Mormons, and made mill modifications to encourage use by local farmers. In December 1853 Wight and his followers moved to Bandera County, establishing Mormon Camp in March 1854. While working to establish Mormon Camp, Wight died and was returned to Zodiac for burial. Mormon Camp is now located beneath the man-made Medina Lake in Bandera County.

Decline

Noah Smithwick eventually sold Mormon Mill to his nephew John R. Hubbard. A post office was established on May 23, 1856, with Hubbard as the first postmaster. The post office had four postmasters before being discontinued on April 10, 1860, only to be re-established May 17, 1860, with Joshua H. Eubank as postmaster. The post office was again discontinued January 20, 1869, but re-established June 6, 1870 with Louis Thomas as postmaster. It was then discontinued October 3, 1871, but re-established November 13, 1871, with Louis Winter as postmaster. The post office was discontinued permanently May 6, 1875.Jim Wheat The mill had several owners, and the population declined after the post office closed for the last time in 1875. The mill closed permanently in 1901, and most of the structures either later burned down, or the materials recycled elsewhere.

The settlement

Decline

See also

References

Further reading