DERDEN, TEXAS. Derden, on a spur off Farm Road 2488 midway between Covington and Blum in northwestern Hill County, has served area farmers and ranchers as a school and church community throughout its history. The settlement began to form in the mid-1850s when the Ince brothers arrived in the area and built a cotton gin. In the following years the community gained an additional gin, as well as two merchandise stores, a drugstore, and a church. Later its settlers built a schoolhouse. The settlement was originally called Brushy Knob because of its location near a high wooded hill; it apparently adopted the name Derden sometime after the Civil War, supposedly in honor of a prominent citizen. Between 1875 and 1879 Derden had an active Grange chapter. A post office operated in the community from 1881 to 1903. Derden was the home of an independent school district until 1919, when Derden, Oak Hill, and Old Union Hill consolidated under the name Union Hill. In 1970 a cemetery remained at the site.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Hill County Historical Commission, A History of Hill County, Texas, 1853–1980 (Waco: Texian, 1980).
