Byers High School

Duane's take

Now this one comes straight from the official marker, and I'm gonna do my best to give it the telling it deserves. You're rolling through Clay County, and if you blink at the wrong moment you might miss Byers. But don't let the size fool you, because what started in Byers turned out to touch the whole state of Texas, and eventually, the whole country.

It began with land. A. W. and G.

W. Byers gave the ground to found a school, the first in all of north Clay County. Now that's the kind of gift that echoes.

You don't just build a building when you do something like that. You build what comes after. The first superintendent was a man named Edgar Haney.

He took that little school and he had ideas bigger than the county lines. Haney went on to become a legislator, and in that role he promoted the first independent school district laws in Texas. Think about that.

The very framework that would govern how schools operate across this state, traced back, at least in part, to a man who started out running a schoolhouse on land donated in north Clay County. But wait. The story isn't done yet.

Among the students who came through those doors, one stands out in a way nobody could have predicted. His name was Rufus Rush, and he holds the distinction of being the school's first graduate. Rufus Rush went on to become a teacher himself.

And one of the students he taught was a young man named Lyndon B. Johnson, who would one day become President of the United States. The first graduate of the first school in north Clay County, teaching the future leader of the free world.

Sometimes a piece of land and a little faith in education sends out ripples you cannot even begin to imagine.

What the marker says

Land given to found school (first in north Clay County) by A. W. and G. W. Byers. First superintendent Edgar Haney, later legislator, promoted first independent school district laws. Rufus Rush, first graduate, later taught President Lyndon B. Johnson. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1967.