Sand Hill Community was a center of pioneer culture in North Texas, drawing crowds to a good spring of water issuing from beneath the hill that gave the community its name. The first church, Methodist, in the territory that became Wise County was organized in Jim Brooks's home in 1854 by the Reverend W. H. H. ("Buck") Bradford, Brooks, Charles Browder, Lemuel Cartwright, Thomas Cogdell, Benjamin Monroe, the Reverend John Roe, and Dr. Standifer. Cartwright soon built a new home and gave his original house to the church, and the structure was affectionately called "Old Swayback" because its long ridgepole sagged under the weight of the roof. All faiths held services there, and it probably was the site of the first school within the boundaries of Wise County, taught in 1855 by Eli Hoag, before the county was created in 1856. The county's first Masonic Lodge was also organized in Jim Brooks's home, and its first gristmill and other pioneer improvements were situated in this community. The last church on this site was burned on April 3, 1970. For years Sand Hill Campground was the site of social and religious gatherings, and the cemetery holds the graves of settlers and veterans of the Civil War and other conflicts, including Captain Ira Long, a celebrated Texas Ranger.