Cooper Creek School

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Cooper Creek School in Denton County. Now settle in, because this is one of those stories that starts even before the story starts. Families were already putting down roots in the Cooper Creek area before the Civil War came and went.

A land deed from that early period set aside a portion of the property for three things: a church, a cemetery, and a school. Three things that, in Texas, tend to mean a community is serious about stickin' around. The Cooper Creek Community was formally established in 1872, and then four years on, the Texas State Legislature gave local folks the tools they needed, establishing a county school system that let groups of citizens organize for the creation of a community school.

That very year, 1876, Cooper Creek School formally organized in Denton County. One room, one building, thirty-nine students. Small by any measure.

But it was a start. Now, here is where you start to see what this place really was. The school and the local churches were bound up together so tightly you almost could not tell where one ended and the other began.

Over the years, church parishioners and preachers served as trustees, teachers, and principals. The schoolhouse hosted plays. It hosted lectures on prohibition.

Home demonstration club meetings. Church revivals. Whatever the community needed to gather for, that building was there.

Then came 1918. A smallpox epidemic. And a local doctor who treated the afflicted children right there at the schoolhouse, helping stem the outbreak.

Think about that for a moment. That one room, that one building, held the weight of all of it. In 1919, the Cooper Creek Community approved a bond, pairing it with state funds, to build something bigger.

What went up was a simple, hip-roofed wooden structure with four large rooms, wood burning stoves, outhouses, a well, a barn, sheds, and a three-acre garden behind the building. Not fancy. Functional.

And full of life. The school closed in 1951. But the building kept going.

The home demonstration club used it all the way through 1977. And today, the Cooper Creek Cemetery Association maintains that old school building. A land deed set it aside for community use a long, long time ago.

Turns out, that is exactly what it has been ever since.

What the marker says

Although the Cooper Creek Community was formally established in 1872, families began to settle the area before the Civil War. A land deed from that period set aside a portion of this property for the creation of a church, cemetery, and a school. In 1876, the Texas State Legislature established a county school system that allowed groups of citizens to organize for the creation of a community school. That year, the Cooper Creek School formally organized in Denton County and a one room building on the site served 39 students. In 1919, the Cooper Creek Community approved a bond, to be used in addition to state funds, for the construction of a new school building on the site. The simple, hip-roofed, wooden structure had four large rooms with wood burning stoves and included outhouses, a well, a barn, sheds and a three-acre garden behind the building. Cooper Creek School served as a center for community congregation and its history is closely tied to the local churches. Over the years, church parishioners or preachers were trustees, teachers, and principals of the school. Residents attended plays, lectures on prohibition, and home demonstration club meetings, and convened for church revivals in the building. During a smallpox epidemic in 1918, a local doctor helped stem the outbreak by treating the afflicted children at the schoolhouse. Although the Cooper Creek School closed in 1951, the building continued to be used by the home demonstration club until 1977. The Cooper Creek Cemetery Association maintains the old school building today.