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Reflections Upon 150 Years: CURATED HISTORICAL HIGHLIGHTS OF ROUND TOP, TEXAS On the occasion of its sesquicentennial, Round Top town historian SALLY REYNOLDS traverses high points and recounts anecdotes about one of America's greatest small towns, founded May 6, 1870. D ateline mid-19th century: Imagine yourself jostling along on a fast moving stagecoach between Austin and Houston, and it's time for a rest stop. An early settler, John York, fortuitously built his house about 1 ½ miles north and east of a small hamlet along this thoroughfare, and his home became a stopping place for the cargo wagons and later stagecoach drivers to exchange horses and quickly refresh. York erected an eight-sided tower on top of this dwelling as a lookout. Its roof was round and could be seen from the dusty road. So, when the driver glimpsed that round roof, he would yell, "Round Top, next stop!" Settlement of the land that would become the town of Round Top began between the 1820s and 1840s, when vast tracks of rolling acreage were given to entrepreneurial settlers committed to homesteading and farming the land. By the 1850s, Round Top had a population of 150 hardworking, primarily German An early Round Top family, circa late 19th century COURTESY OF ROUND TOP AREA HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. PAGE 63, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: PHOTO BY FRIEDERIKE RECKNAGEL; COURTESY OF THE COLLECTION OF ROUND TOP FESTIVAL INSTITUTE; PHOTO BY FRIEDERIKE RECKNAGEL, ENHANCED BY NEALE RABENSBURG, COURTESY OF ROUND TOP AREA HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION; COURTESY OF ROUND TOP AREA HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 62