Dido School

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Dido School, out here in Tarrant County. Now settle in, because this one goes back a good long way. The Dido community was one of the very first to take root in Tarrant County.

In 1848, settlers homesteaded in this part of Peters Colony, staking their claims along a stage route running from Fort Worth all the way up to Decatur. That road matters. It connected people, and where people connect, a community grows.

And where a community grows, eventually somebody has to teach the children. Dido School organized in 1854, with a man named A.C. McCanne, out of Missouri, stepping up as the first teacher.

Now, here's where the story takes a turn that carries some weight. When A.C. McCanne went off to serve in the Confederate Army, it was his wife, Margaret Caroline, born a Fulton, who stepped into that schoolroom and kept things going through the 1860s.

Classes were sometimes held in church buildings, whatever space the community could offer. Later, trustees built a proper schoolhouse, right there adjacent to Dido Cemetery. A school beside a cemetery.

Make of that what you will. For decades, Dido held on. Then the world started changing around it.

The Rock Island Railroad came through in 1892. Eagle Mountain Lake arrived in 1931. A Marine training base opened in 1941.

Each one of those developments, in its own way, pulled people and attention elsewhere, and school attendance in Dido began to decline. The Tarrant County School Board closed Dido School in 1947. Nearly a hundred years of teaching, started by one Missouri schoolmaster and kept alive by his wife during a war, and the doors finally closed.

That's a run worth remembering.

What the marker says

The Dido community was one of the first established in Tarrant County. In 1848, settlers homesteaded in this part of Peters Colony, establishing a community along a stage route from Fort Worth to Decatur. Dido School organized in 1854, with A.C. McCanne of Missouri as the first teacher. His wife Margaret Caroline (Fulton) taught here in the 1860s while A.C. served in the Confederate Army. Classes were sometimes held in church buildings, and later trustees built a schoolhouse adjacent to Dido Cemetery. Regional development from the Rock Island Railroad (1892), Eagle Mountain Lake (1931) and a Marine training base (1941) caused school attendance in Dido to decline. The Tarrant County School Board closed Dido School in 1947. (2008)