Anneville School

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, friends, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, out in Wise County, there's a patch of ground that carries a lot of history in just three acres. Three acres donated in 1883; that's the whole foundation of this story.

Four men put up that land: E. M. Curtner, N.

E. Young, and P. H. and N.

C. Neal. Three acres, and on it they meant to raise a cemetery, a school, and a church.

That's birth, learning, and salvation all on the same modest plot. Folks out here didn't believe in wasting good Texas earth. The first school they built was a two-story affair, and don't let the prairie fool you, two stories was a statement, sitting thirty yards west of the cemetery.

Close enough to keep the children humble, I suppose. The first church went up about three hundred yards south of that same cemetery. So you had the school, the church, and the resting place all within hollerin' distance of each other, which is about as tight a community as a community gets.

Around 1913, they put up a new school, right there on the original school site. Same ground, fresh start. That building carried the children of Wise County through their lessons until 1930, when the school district consolidated with the Boyd District.

The schoolhouse had done its duty. But the story doesn't end there; it just changes shape. After the consolidation, that structure became a church.

Kept on serving. Kept on standing. Right up until 1959, when it burned.

Just like that, gone. A building that had been a school and then a church, holding the community together across the decades, and fire took it in the end. You sit with that a moment.

Now, a mile south of all this stood Anneville itself, a proper little settlement with two stores, a post office, a gin, a gristmill, and other businesses besides. A whole small world humming along. And the name?

Well, the marker says it was probably named in honor of Mrs. Annie Davis, an early settler out this way. Probably, and in Texas history, probably is plenty enough to carry a name forward through time.

Three acres donated by four men in 1883, a two-story schoolhouse, a church built three hundred yards south, a new school by 1913, consolidation in 1930, a fire in 1959, and a town a mile south named (probably) for one woman who got here early and mattered. That's Anneville. Small in acreage, long in story.

What the marker says

Located on 3-acres donated in 1883 by E. M. Curtner, N. E. Young, P. H. and N. C. Neal for a cemetery, school, and church. First school (a 2-story building) was 30 yards west of cemetery. First church was about 300 yards south of the cemetery. About 1913 a new school was erected on original school site. In 1930 the school district consolidated with Boyd District. The structure was then used as a church until it burned, 1959. Anneville, one-mile south, had 2 stores, a post office, gin, gristmill, and other businesses. It was probably named in honor of Mrs. Annie Davis, early settler.