Early Schools in Live Oak County

Duane's take

The way I heard it, this comes straight from the official marker for Early Schools in Live Oak County, and I'll tell it true. Now before the eighteen seventies, if you wanted schooling in Live Oak County, you took what you could get. Clergymen and ranch employees did the teaching, and the classrooms, well, you used what the land gave you.

Cabins. Brush arbors. Dugouts.

Not exactly what you'd call a school building, but knowledge has a way of finding shelter wherever it can. Then along came County Judge G.W. Jones, and in 1876 he decided it was time to do this thing properly.

He initiated community schools across the county, with tuition set at seven and a half cents a day per student. Seven and a half cents. You find that quaint, maybe, but you multiply it across enough students and enough days, and you've got something real beginning to take shape.

In time, there were forty-three of these small schools scattered across Live Oak County. Forty-three. Think about that for a moment.

Forty-three little centers of learning out there on the Texas brush country, each one a community holding itself together through the simple act of teaching its children. Oakville moved first in the permanent sense. In 1881, Oakville erected the county's first actual building put up for a free school.

A building dedicated to the purpose. And Oakville kept leading, because by 1899 it had the county's first independent school district. That's a distinction that stays on the books.

The independent district idea spread. By 1917, George West and Three Rivers had independent districts of their own. The county was organizing itself, knitting together, settling in.

Then came consolidation. It began in 1940, when Live Oak County had nine thousand seven hundred and ninety-nine people calling it home. Nine schools here, a few students there, all those small communities with their own little schoolhouse, their own piece of the county's identity.

The consolidations rolled forward across the decades, steady as the seasons. And by 1970, two consolidated schools served the entire county. Two, where once there had been forty-three.

The marker lists the schools absorbed by George West, and it is quite a roll call. Anna Rose. Bell Kidd.

Booth. Cadiz. Cardwell.

Clegg. Cornelia. Dinero.

Dobie. Goodwin. Gussettville.

Hyman. Jarratt. Lagarto.

Lapara. Leopard. Lewis.

Lyne. Mahala. Marbach.

Mikeska. Mote. Oakridge.

Oakville. Ramirena. Votaw.

Every one of those names was once a community standing on its own, sending its kids to a school of its own. Now they live on a marker by the road, and in the memory of anyone willing to stop and read. Some things consolidate.

Some things just concentrate. The learning went on either way.

What the marker says

Until the 1870's, Live Oak county had private schools taught by clergymen and ranch employees in cabins, brush arbors, dugouts. County Judge G.W. Jones initiated (1876) community schools with tuition set at 71/2 cents a day per student. In time there were 43 of these small schools. Oakville in 1881 erected the county's first building for a free school and in 1899 had the first independent district. By 1917 George West and Three Rivers also had independent districts. Consolidations began in 1940, when the county had 9,799 people. By 1970, two consolidated schools served the entire county. (1975) [See school district names on back] Schools absorbed by George West: Anna Rose, Bell Kidd, Booth, Cadiz, Cardwell, Clegg, Cornelia, Dinero, Dobie, Goodwin, Gussettville, Hyman, Jarratt, Lagarto, Lapara, Leopard, Lewis, Lyne, Mahala, Marbach, Mikeska, Mote, Oakridge, Oakville, Ramirena, Votaw