What is Ghost Hill Ranch?
Treaty Oak Distillery sits on historic land that friends and family lovingly call, “The Ranch,” derived from Ghost Hill Ranch. It is a name with mysterious origins given to the site over a hundred years ago, at least.
Historic Evidence
Archaeological evidence tied with historical records help us understand the stories that stretch back to the 1850’s when Ghost Hill was a dangerous area within the frontier. Raiding parties of warring Comanche and Tonkawa were common and often left homesteads razed and pioneer bodies mutilated. Yet pioneers persisted. Their tenacity and grit drove them out of safety and into new lands, including the settlement of Ghost Hill.
Bounty Land Grant to Charles Wilcox in 1837. Image from the Texas General Land Office Archives.
Parts of stove discovered in buried trash pile, circa 1900.Land Use
Traveler’s Camp & Cattle Drives
The Ghost Hill site, or Ghost Hill Camp, rests “on the old road between Austin and Fredericksburg” a wagon trail built in 1849. Ghost Hill Camp sat 12 miles from the Oak Hill Camp on the way to Austin, a standard full day of travel by foot or wagon and a full day of driving longhorn. It is another nine miles to Austin to buy and sell goods, visit the druggist, or join the Chisholm Trail north to Kansas. Travelers stopping at Ghost Hill Camp would have enjoyed the shady expanse offered by the stands of large oaks and the easy access to water for themselves and their animals. It’s unclear how long this site may have been used as a camp before the land was settled, but it’s possible that its use goes back several hundred years or longer.
Homestead & Ranch
The age of the cowboy quickly died as fences and ranches took hold of the Texas Hill County in the 1870’s. Then pioneers decided to make Ghost Hill their home. Most of the artifacts discovered on the site indicate that the original homestead was located where Alice’s Restaurant now stands.
The People
George Royal Norvell (1828-1902)Many families lived at Ghost Hill. Those of note are the Good, Norvell, and Toungate family. Isham Jones Good, Texas Revolutionary fighter and survivor of the Goliad Massacre started raising cattle in the area in 1855.
The Norvell family called Ghost Hill home from 1882 – 1914, a period that dates the majority of artifacts.
The Toungate family called Ghost Hill home for the longest, staying in the family for two generations from 1939 – 2014.
The Name
The origin of the name “Ghost Hill” is still a mystery. It could be the nature of the low hanging mist from the bog on cool mornings creeping up the landscape as campers woke to fears of ambush. Others recant stories of a family friend, Abe, crashing his Model-T truck on the treacherous Fitzhugh road and his jovial spirit lingering under the old oaks and over pastoral grasses. Whatever the origin, families and friends adopted and embraced the name, and Ghost Hill Ranch became home.
