Zodiac, AKA Rocky Hill, Texas Mormon settlement. (original) (raw)

History in a Pecan Shell

Zodiac was a community of 200 led by Mormon elder Lyman Wight. Frederickburg�s German leader John Meusebach granted permission to the group in the 1840s.

This group built the first gristmill / sawmill in Gillespie County and aided in the construction of nearby Ft. Martin Scott. The 1850 census reported a population of around 160.

Discouraged by a flood that tore out the mills in 1853, the townsfolk left for greener pastures, leaving behind only a small cemetery. The abandonment of the community left a void that was quickly filled by arriving German and Anglo immigrants.

A local school named Rocky Hill was constructed in the 1880s and the community that grew around it adopted the name.

Today a Texas Centennial marker and the Mormon cemetery are all that are left of Zodiac.

Centennial Marker:

Site of Zodiac

A Mormon settlement. Established in 1847 by 150 Mormons under the leadership of Lyman Wight (1796-1858). Abandoned in 1851 after floods destroyed their mill.

Related Articles:

Zodiac

by Michael Barr

A story in the San Antonio Daily Express told of a German farmer, wandering through the Hill Country in search of a stray yoke of oxen, who stumbled upon a thriving Mormon village, 4 miles southeast of Fredericksburg on the Pedernales River. The farmer carried the news of this unknown settlement back to his neighbors on Baron's Creek. more

Texas Mormons

by Clay Coppedge

If Lyman Wight could have had his way, Texas and not Utah might have become home to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and the Mormon Church. Wight brought about 150 fellow Mormons across the Red River into Texas in November of 1845. They spent the winter in Grayson County and in the spring of 1846 migrated south to a spot near present-day Webberville.

They chose that site because Wight said the recently-slain Mormon leader Joseph Smith had told him to build a new colony there, on the Colorado River where Tom Miller Dam is today. They built a mill but it was soon washed away by a flood. That, combined with a generally cool reception from the people in Travis County, led Wight to move his group to the Pedernales River near Fredericksburg where they founded the town of Zodiac. more

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