McNeil

McNeil is fifteen miles north of Austin in northern Travis County. The International and Great Northern Railroad completed its track between Rockdale and Austin in 1876; the Austin and Northwestern Railroad built a section of track from Austin to Burnet in 1882. The community that grew up at the intersection of these two tracks was named in honor of George McNeil, section foreman for the Austin and Northwestern. A post office opened at McNeil in December 1888 with Adison A. Shepperd as postmaster. In the late 1880s McNeil became the base of operations for the Austin White Lime Company, which was still in business in the early 1990s. By the 1890s the community also had a hotel, a general store, and a population of 200. The number of residents fell to 125 by the 1930s and to seventy by the 1940s; estimates remained at seventy through 2000. McNeil High School in the Round Rock Independent School District began classes in 1992, and the first senior class graduated in 1994.