Chappell Hill, Texas

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Image:Chapel Hill Church.jpg Chappell Hill is situated in the southeast portion of Washington County, Texas, USA, which lies halfway between Houston and College Station on U.S. Highway 290.

The town of Chappell Hill was founded in 1847 by Mary Hargrove Haller, granddaughter of Robert Wooding Chappell, for whom she named the town. Mary Haller’s husband, Jacob, was the town’s first postmaster. Mary Haller purchased the townsite and it was divided into blocks, with streets and alleys laid off in a regular pattern. The sale of lots began in the fall of 1849.

Situated in the heart of Stephen F. Austin’s original colony, the Chappell Hill area had seen earlier efforts at settlement along nearby creeks. In the late 1840s, the town attracted settlers from prominent families of the Old South who were drawn to the fertile land of the Brazos River with its abundant stands of native cedar. The area became an agricultural community with cotton the principal crop.

By the mid-1800s the town gained prominence in the region, boasting sawmills, a railroad line, a Masonic Lodge, five churches, and two institutes of higher learning - the Chappell Hill Female College and Soule University for males founded in 1856.

The American Civil War and Reconstruction era brought violent changes to Chappell Hill, as to all the South. But the yellow fever epidemic of 1867 decimated the population to such an extent that the town never fully recovered. Entire families perished, and many others left never to return.

Polish immigrants appeared in the early 1870s and rescued the town from permanent ruin. More Poles from Poznań were recruited and made the trip after 1884 and in 1889 The priest Jozef Grabinger of St. Mary's in Brenham founded their own missionchurch - St. Stanislaus, to which plans for the church were approved by the Archbishop of Galveston. The population reached it's maximum point after that point - over 800 in population.

Present-day Chappell Hill is a small village with a history offering visitors destination spots. The town has a combination of restored homes, shops and buildings. Many are found on Main Street, which has been designated as a National Register Historic District.

Chappell Hill is renowned for its bluebonnet hills, views, and Bluebonnet and Scarecrow Festivals each year.

This area has many historical sites from the Republic of Texas era.

The Southern Baptists in Chappell Hill are mostly people moving from Houston. The Methodists are descendants of the original settlers of Chappell Hill. The Baptists are the African-American community in Chappell Hill (most of whom with the surname Chappell) There are as well many Roman Catholics (descended from the Polish indentured servants) in Chappell Hill. There is also a very obscure Jewish population living in Chappell Hill (mostly Polish) who don't say much on the matter.

Chappell Hill-eans often joke that Chappell Hill is possibly the only town in the United States where one can find tractors driving down main street and cars must stop and wait for chickens and ducks to cross the road.^{[citation needed]}