Liberty Hill, TX (Williamson County)

Liberty Hill is on State Highway 29 in the Hill Country fifteen miles west of Georgetown and thirty-three miles northwest of Austin in Williamson County. It lies between the north and south forks of the San Gabriel River. Among the early settlers there in the 1840s were Taylor Smith, Greenleaf Fisk, and U. H. Anderson. Families named Bryson, Poole, and Spencer arrived in the early 1850s from Tennessee, Arkansas, and the Carolinas. In 1853 a post office was opened three miles west of the present townsite. William Oliver Spencer was appointed postmaster and suggested the name Liberty Hill. The town moved eastward twice before 1882 in response to relocations of the post office and a local stage stop. When the Austin and Northwestern Railroad bypassed Liberty Hill in 1882, the settlement shifted again. Its population began to grow, and the 1884 chartering of Liberty Normal and Business College there soon added a student population as well. Nevertheless, the town remained small, never (through 1990) reporting a population of more than 500. The area's economy during the 1980s was primarily agricultural, though local growth was increasing as workers moved to the community and commuted to jobs elsewhere. During the mid-1980s the town's population was estimated at 300, though at that time the school enrollment there exceeded 850. In the early 1990s the community continued to report a population of 300, with fifty-five rated businesses. The population grew to 1,409 in 2000 with 134 businesses.