Born in Germany in 1833, Johann George Heinrich Nelle immigrated to the United States in 1852. Travis County Naturalization Records show that he became a citizen of the United States on July 15, 1856.
On January 12, 1857, Henry Nelle, as he was to become known, made an agreement to purchase two parcels of land in Travis County from John M. Rapp - one being 50 acres “on Wilbargers Creek” and the other 115 acres of the Greenbury Gates survey “on Wilbargers Creek”.The purchase price was to be $332, one dun mare, and an agreement that Nelle would break up “46 acres of Prairie at any given point in the County to be designated by said Rapp, to be broken early in the year 1857, not to be delayed until late in the Summer”. Nelle received title deeds to the 2 parcels of land on June 10, 1857.
He began farming on his land and would become the founder of Nelleville, a mostly German community located about two and one-half to three miles north of what would later be the town of Manor.
Henry married Dorothea “Dora” Lohman in June, 1867.
On November 24, 1877 Henry purchased 20 acres of land “on the waters of Wilbargers Creek, about three miles north east of Manor” from William Schmickle. The purchase price was $100. This land joined the 115 acres he had previously purchased.
Henry Nelle next purchased 200 acres of land “in the Greenbury Gates survey” from David Crews on June 12, 1882. The purchase price was $1000. This land also joined the 115 acres previously purchased in 1857.
On December 3, 1884 Nelle purchased 205 more acres from David Crews for a price of $1200. This land was also “part of the Greenbury Gates Survey” and it also joined the 115 acres Nelle had purchased in 1857.
Records and dates vary somewhat in historical accounts but most seem to agree that the first school in Nelleville was built in 1879.
Travis County Deed Records show that Henry Nelle sold one-half acre of land to the Travis County Judge on October 17, 1887. This deed states that a school already existed on this land at the time of the sale. The sale price was $1.
In December, 1887, Nelle sold five and one-half acres of land in the Greenbury Gates survey to F. Meier, A.J. Sandburg and William Luedecke, Trustees of the Rose Hill Christian Church Society. The deed stipulated that these Trustees, or Board of Managers as they were also called, were to oversee construction of a church on this land. The deed was very detailed in how this was to be done.
- The property line was to run not less than 25 feet away from the west wall of the school house.
- Land was also set aside in the 5 1/2 acre tract as a burial ground for F. Meier and his descendants and to Mrs. C. Nystrom and her descendants, including relations of their respective families.
- A part of this 5 1/2 acre parcel was also set aside and reserved for burial of descendants of Henry Nelle’s family members and relatives.
- The balance of the land was to be used by the Trustees for the construction of the Rose Hill Christian Union Church building.
- This church building was to be not less than 40 feet long and 20 feet wide, with walls not less than 12 feet high and with a sufficient number of doors and windows to credibly correspond with the length, height and breadth of the building.
- The work was to be completed within 3 years from the first day of January, 1888. If the church was not completed in the 3 year time frame, then the deed was to become null and void, with the exception of the burial grounds set aside for Meier and Nystorm.
- If the deed was voided, then the burial plots would still remain the property of Meier and Nystrom.
- No one was to be buried west of the plot reserved for Nelle and his family members.
- All roads laid off for the use of the church members were not to encroach on any land belonging to Nelle.
- Purchase price of the 5 1/2 acres of land was to be one hundred one dollars with one dollar going to Nelle. The one hundred dollars was to be raised from the church members and used in the construction of the church building. It was to be considered a donation from Nelle toward the building of the church.
The Rose Hill Christian Union Church was never built, therefore, on May 29, 1890 a deed was drawn up giving the 5 1/2 acres of land back to Henry Nelle, with the exception of the plots for burial purposes set aside to F. Meier, Mrs. C. Nystrom, and Henry Nelle.
On that same date a new deed was issued by Henry Nelle to Fritz Voelker, Frank Wehlmann, F. Meier, William Luedecke, and Joseph Meier as Trustees of the "Rose Hill German Lutheran Church at Nelleville" for the construction of a new church building. The burial plots remained the same as previously stated in the original deed.
Records say this church was built that same year and existed until 1924 when the building was sold for $225 to St. Peter’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in Elgin and the two congregation merged. The building was dismantled and moved to Elgin where the first service was held in the rebuilt church on September 7, 1924.
Historical accounts say that the community was called Nelleville until roses were planted on the higher area near the cemetery. Thereafter, it went by the name of Rose Hill.
Henry and Dora Nelle had 11 children, one of whom died at the age of 5 years.
All that remains today of Nelleville, or Rose Hill is the Rose Hill Cemetery located directly behind the Good Luck Grill on FM973 about 2 1/2 miles northeast of Manor.
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