UNION BLUFF, TEXAS. Union Bluff, originally known as Lexington, was located near Hillsboro in Hill County. In the winter of 1851-52 John M. and David Crockett Wornell left Rusk County for what would become Hill County. Their sister and brother-in-law, Mary Ann and Harrison Ables, and six children accompanied them. They bought a half-section of land from Jack Broyles on Grove Creek, thereafter called Jack's Branch. After they built two log cabins, D. C. Wornell, then fifteen years old, returned to Rusk County for a load of stock to set up a store, one of the first in the area. The settlers named the budding settlement Lexington. It soon had a post office, a boardinghouse, and a log jail. Hill County was organized at Lexington on May 14, 1853; at the time there were 150 eligible voters in the county. The first county court was held on May 25, 1853, at the home of Harrison Ables and operated there until special elections for a permanent county seat were held in September. Hillsboro was selected as the permanent county seat by a margin of three votes. Thereafter, as population slowly shifted and transportation improved, the town of Lexington declined. It had a school and a church for a number of years. The name Union Bluff was given to the school, and it gradually became the popular name of the area. School enrollment surpassed 100 in 1905. Sometime thereafter the school building was moved to Hillsboro, but it continued to serve as an elementary school until it closed in 1951. The old schoolhouse was destroyed in 1975 or 1976. In 1965 a Texas Historical Marker was placed at the site of old Lexington.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Ellis Bailey, A History of Hill County, Texas, 1838-1965 (Waco: Texian Press, 1966). Hill County Historical Commission, A History of Hill County, Texas, 1853-1980 (Waco: Texian Press, 1980). Marker Files, Texas Historical Commission, Austin. James Verdo Reese, A History of Hill County, Texas, to 1873 (M.A. thesis, University of Texas, 1961).

Nauty Byrd Pelphrey Mayer