Double Horn Reunion to be held Saturday

By Glynis Crawford Smith

The Highlander

The annual Double Horn – Rockvale Reunion will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday, July 30, at the Church of Christ, 711 Broadway Street in Marble Falls.

The two communities that grew up southeast of Marble Falls in the 1850's first thrived and then diminished over the decades, but a sense of community brings about 100 residents and friends, old and new, together each year.

The surviving physical remnant of the communities, Double Horn School House, was a the longtime gathering place. But over the years, air conditioning and ease of access have brought reunions to town.

“Bring any old pictures you have of past reunions,” said Cathy Heffington, one of the organizers. “We are looking forward to a wonderful gathering of friends and family and sharing memories and tales of Double Horn.”

“People just bring a covered dish and we all share lunch and memories,” said Jean Denniston Eades, a descendant of an early Rockvale family.

“Thirteen families settled the area,” said Eades. “Double Horn was at the head of Double Horn Creek on one side of the road and Rockvale on Grid Iron Creek on the other side of the road.”

Lore has it that Double Horn got its name as the spot a pioneer discovered remains of two bucks with interlocked antlers. The iron bridge dedicated to Madolyn Frasier in Johnson Park was moved there from the stream it had given the name Grid Iron Creek.

“The Handbook of Texas” gives credit to the founding of the town of Double Horn in 1855 to Jesse “Burnam” although other family arrivals have claimed the “Burnham” spelling.

“The Francis Chapel or Frog Pond School, with William H. Holland as its first teacher, was located on the Colorado River; in 1855 among its students were the children of Noah Smithwick,” the “Handbook of Texas” reports. “The school, later known as the Double Horn School, was moved near Grid Iron Creek and then to Double Horn Creek.”

A post office, established in 1857, with Holland as the first postmaster, was serving a population of 50 along with the school, a cotton gin, and two churches by by 1884.

“My great-grandfather Denniston gave land, 35 acres for a camp ground, the first Methodist Church in Burnet County and Rockvale Cemetery,” said Eades. “Great-grandfather Frasier was on the other side of the road.”

Eades said 13 families originally settled the area. Some of the other family names among them and others that became well known in the area over the years were Yett, Sims, Profitt, Michelle, Frasier, Fowler and Faubion. Attendees at the reunion, however, casts a wide reach among descendants, residents and friends and family who enjoyed the communities between Spicewood and Farm to Market Road 2147 East over the years.