Round Mountain, Texas

Everything Round Mountain is known for

1 song mention this city 0 artists from here

Music in Round Mountain

Songs About Round Mountain

Round Mountain
Courtney Patton
79%
"I left Round Mountain when the last church closed its doors"

Artists From Round Mountain

No artists from Round Mountain in the database yet.

Rivers & Roads in Song near Round Mountain

Songs written about the waterways and highways that run near Round Mountain.

Pedernales River 6 songs Texas State Highway 71 2 songs Texas Colorado River 6 songs Blanco River 4 songs Guadalupe River 17 songs Interstate 35 43 songs

History of Round Mountain

The Academy on the Hill RoadyGoat

In a town built on ranching, one of Round Mountain's proudest achievements was an intellectual one. In 1871 the community chartered an academy, and for a place this small and this far out on the frontier, that was an enormous thing to do. At its height it had two hundred students - more people than live in Round Mountain today - drawn in from the surrounding Hill Country. And this was no backwater. Round Mountain sat on the stagecoach road between Austin and Fredericksburg, and the elevation up here made it a health resort, with businesses and doctors' offices to match; the Stagecoach Inn and Stable from 1874 is still standing, restored, and so is the Methodist church built in 1876. The academy lasted far longer than most frontier schools - sixty years - until it consolidated into the Johnson City district in 1931. The pioneers who settled this rugged country weren't only thinking about cattle and crops. They were investing in the next generation's minds, on a hill in the middle of nowhere.

RoadyGoat → · 5.6 mi away

Bringing Light to the Hill Country RoadyGoat

Before the late 1930s, the Texas Hill Country was dark. Private utility companies refused to build here, arguing it was unprofitable to run power lines across the rugged limestone terrain for so few customers. This is where engineering and a new social infrastructure model changed everything. Championed by a young Congressman Lyndon Johnson, the Pedernales Electric Cooperative, or PEC, was born in 1938, with its headquarters right here in Johnson City. This wasn't a private company; it was a non-profit cooperative owned by its members. The technical challenge was immense. Surveyors and linemen had to blast holes for poles in solid rock and string miles of wire through dense cedar brakes. It was a massive infrastructure project that required innovative surveying and construction techniques. When the lights finally came on, they didn't just illuminate homes. They powered water pumps, refrigerators, and radios, fundamentally re-engineering the economy and quality of life for an entire region.

RoadyGoat → · 6.9 mi away

Johnson City, TX RoadyGoat

Johnson City was founded by James P. Johnson, who donated a 320-acre site on the Pedernales River for the founding of the town in 1879. It was the hometown of Lyndon B. Johnson, the 36th president of the United States.

6.9 mi away

Home County of Pioneer Leader Joseph Wilson Baines

1846

(1846-1906) Born in Louisiana; in 1850 came to Texas, where his father, Rev. Geo. W. Baines, founded a church newspaper and was president of Baylor University. Served in the Williamson Cadets, in Civil War. Lived in Collin County, 1867-1882. Married Ruth A. Huffman. Was a teacher, lawyer; founder and publisher of McKinney "Advocate." Served 1883-1887 as Secretary of State for Texas. Practiced law in Blanco, 1888-1903. Died in Fredericksburg. His daughter Rebecca (Mrs. Sam Ealy Johnson) became the mother of Lyndon Baines Johnson, 36th president of the United States. (1965)

Historical Marker →

Elitha Smith Martin

1856

(Jan. 30, 1830-Aug. 10, 1899) Prominent local businesswoman; born in Patrick County, Virginia, she married John Martin (1826-69) on June 27, 1848. The couple came to Texas in 1856 with 4 children and settled in Llano County, where 5 more children were born. After John Martin's death, Mrs. Martin and the younger children moved here and built a 2-story hotel (100 yards E.), a livery stable, and a general mercantile store. On December 4, 1879, Mrs. Martin was appointed postmaster and served in that position until May 16, 1896, keeping the post office in the store. She was buried beside her husband in Llano County. (1974)

Historical Marker →

Bird, Joseph

1854

(July 15, 1821-August 15, 1909) For more than 50 years after becoming a pioneer settler of this area, North Carolina native Joseph Bird greatly contributed to the development of Blanco County as a distinguished frontier Baptist minister, postmaster, Civil War soldier, county judge, rancher, and prominent community leader. Bird married Eliza L. Doriss in Arkansas in 1844. About 1854 they and their six children settled on land between Cypress Creek and the Pedernales River. They built a log cabin close to this site about 1858 and eventually their family grew to include 12 children. The area's pioneer settlement, called Birdtown in Joseph's honor, was renamed Round Mountain by the time a post office was established here in 1857. Bird served as postmaster in 1859-66 and in 1873-74. For the Baptist churches he helped found in the area Bird served as an itinerant pastor and performed marriages, baptisms, and funeral services. He enlisted in the Confederate army as a first lieutenant in 1862 and was stationed at Camp Groce, Waller County, Texas. Bird moved to Johnson City while serving his two terms as Blanco county judge in the early 1890s. Eliza Bird died in 1896 and in 1900 Joseph married Martha A. Gill. Bird was buried in the Round Mountain Cemetery. (1994)

Historical Marker →

Round Mountain, TX (Blanco County)

1854

Round Mountain is at the junction of U.S. Highway 281 and Farm Road 962, on the eastern part of the Edwards Plateau eleven miles north of Johnson City in northern Blanco County. The first settler, Joseph Bird, arrived in 1854 and built a log house near the creek. The post office was established in 1857, and the town was named after a local landmark. This was the second post office in Blanco County. Round Mountain became a stage stop on the mail route between Austin and Fredericksburg. In 1871 residents obtained a charter from the state of Texas for a school and founded an academy that at one time had 200 students. Round Mountain became known as a health resort due to its elevation. It flourished with churches, doctors' offices, drug and grocery stores, a shoe shop, a blacksmith shop, a livery stable, and, later, a gin. In 1890 the town had a population of 200 and six businesses. By 1896 the number of residents had doubled to 400, but only five businesses were listed. The population declined after 1900. In 1931 the school was consolidated with the Johnson City Independent School District, and the churches closed. The population was reported at 100 from the 1920s through the early 1950s. It decreased from eighty in 1952 to seventy-three in 1972. In 1990 it was fifty-nine. The population reached 111 in 2000. The town was incorporated in 1989, at which time it had a post office, professional offices, a bank, an auction barn, a volunteer fire department, an assembly plant, and nine other businesses. Longhorn Downs is within the city limits. Joseph Bird's log house of 1854 has been restored, the Round Mountain Stagecoach Inn and Stable of 1874 has been placed in the National Register of Historic Places, and the Methodist church, built in 1876, has been restored.

Tsha Handbook →

Johnson, Samuel Ealy, Jr.

1904

Samuel Ealy Johnson, Jr., legislator and father of Lyndon Baines Johnson , the son of Eliza (Bunton) and Samuel Ealy Johnson, Sr. , was born at Buda, Texas, on October 11, 1877. He moved with his parents to Gillespie County, where he attended school at Johnson City. Although forced to leave school at an early age, he passed the teacher's examination and was awarded a teaching certification. He taught school in 1896 at White Oak School in Sandy and later at Rocky School near Hye. In 1904 he was elected to the state legislature from the Eighty-ninth District, succeeding his future father-in-law, Joseph Wilson Baines . He served in the Twenty-ninth, Thirtieth, Thirty-fifth, Thirty-sixth, Thirty-seventh, and Thirty-eighth legislatures. He was the author of the Alamo Purchase Bill (which appropriated $65,000 for the purchase of the Alamo property), a bill providing $3 million to aid drought-stricken farmers and ranchers of West Texas, the Blue Sky Law , and other important legislative measures. On August 20, 1907, Johnson married Rebekah Baines ( see JOHNSON, REBEKAH BAINES ). The couple were parents of five children, including the thirty-sixth president of the United States. In 1906 Samuel E. Johnson, Jr., suffered severe financial losses, which wiped out his cotton holdings and left him deeply in debt. For a number of years he was engaged in real estate transactions. In 1935 and 1937 he was stricken with heart attacks. He died on October 23, 1937, and was buried in the family cemetery at Johnson City.

Tsha Handbook → · 8.9 mi away

Things to Do in Round Mountain

nature 8.9 mi away
Pedernales Falls

The Pedernales River drops over a staircase of tilted Cretaceous limestone here -- the rock layers dip about three degrees to the southeast and the river…
quirky 14.4 mi away
Hamilton Pool

A domed grotto of limestone where an underground river collapsed thousands of years ago and left a fifty-foot waterfall spilling into a jade-green pool.…
nature 14.4 mi away
Hamilton Pool Preserve

A natural swimming hole under a 50-foot waterfall in a collapsed grotto.
historical 19.0 mi away
LBJ Ranch

Lyndon Baines Johnson was born in this stretch of the Hill Country in 1908 and came home to it every chance he got even as president. The ranch on the…
quirky 19.7 mi away
Willie Nelson's Luck Ranch

Willie built his own ghost town on his Spicewood ranch for the 1986 movie Red Headed Stranger -- a whole frontier village with a saloon chapel livery and…
nature 20.1 mi away
Longhorn Cavern State Park

A cave system carved out of Hill Country limestone by an underground river that vanished thousands of years ago. The walls are polished smooth where the water…
historical 21.2 mi away
Birthplace and Burial of a President

Lyndon Baines Johnson was born in Stonewall on August 27 1908 in a small farmhouse on the Pedernales River. He served as the 36th President and spent about 20…
historical 10.9 mi away
Dead Man's Hole

A 155-foot limestone sinkhole south of Marble Falls in Burnet County -- discovered in 1821 by entomologist Ferdinand Lueders who was chasing bugs and found a…

Everything Near Round Mountain

170 stories, landmarks & places within ~20 miles — the same local lore RoadyGoat plays as you drive through.

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