Bynum School

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Way out in Hill County, before anybody had gotten around to naming the place, a school was already open for business. The year was 1880, and the community that would one day be called Bynum was still just a settlement with no label to hang on the door.

No name, no post office, no store. Just people, and the conviction that their children ought to have a place to learn. That's the kind of thing that tells you something about a community before the community even knows what to call itself.

Eventually a store came, and a post office followed, and when folks went looking for a name, they found one nearby, in a creek that ran through the area. The settlement took that name and became Bynum. Then came the railroad, and in 1905 the school picked itself up and moved to the new townsite to be part of it all.

That same year an independent school district was organized, and Bynum was in the school business in a serious way. Now here's where the story gets interesting, because Bynum didn't just grow on its own. It gathered.

Over the years, school after school came in from the surrounding country and joined up. Davis, Grovecreek, part of Honest Ridge, Pecan, and Pierce all consolidated with Bynum, and that wave ran from 1905 to 1914. Then Watson came in, in 1931.

Massey and McMurry followed in 1938. Brandon joined in 1953. And finally, Irene, in 1958.

Each one of those names represents a community that had its own schoolhouse, its own children, its own particular patch of Hill County ground. One by one, they folded into Bynum, carrying their histories with them. What stands there now is a historic reminder of all of it, every name on that list, every family that sent a child down a dirt road to learn something.

That school was there before Bynum had a name, and it's still there telling the story.

What the marker says

The first school in Old Bynum community began in 1880 before the settlement had a name. After a store and a post office were built, the area adopted its name from a nearby creek. The school was moved to the new townsite on the railroad in 1905, and an independent school district was organized. Over the years, the following schools consolidated with Bynum: Davis, Grovecreek, part of Honest Ridge, Pecan, Pierce (1905-1914); Watson (1931); Massey, McMurry (1938); Brandon (1953); and Irene (1958). The school now is a historic reminder of the region's heritage.