Early Schools in Live Oak County

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm passing it right along to you. Back before Live Oak County had anything you'd call a proper schoolhouse, children were getting their lessons in cabins, brush arbors, and dugouts, taught by clergymen and ranch employees. That was the way of it until the 1870s.

Not glamorous, but it got the job done. Then in 1876, County Judge G.W. Jones stepped in and set something bigger in motion.

He initiated community schools, and he put a price on learning: seven and a half cents a day per student. You heard that right. Not a round number, not a dollar, not free.

Seven and a half cents a day. In time, forty-three of these small schools sprouted up across the county. Forty-three.

Picture that. Scattered out across the brush and the flats, each one holding a little piece of Live Oak County's future. Now, Oakville moved first when it came to buildings.

In 1881, Oakville erected the county's first building put up specifically for a free school. Then in 1899, Oakville had the first independent district in the county. George West and Three Rivers followed, both landing independent districts by 1917.

The county kept on growing, kept on reorganizing, and then came 1940. That year consolidations began, and Live Oak County had nine thousand seven hundred and ninety-nine people to serve. The schools kept folding together, one into another, until by 1970 just two consolidated schools were doing the work that forty-three once shared.

Three Rivers absorbed quite a few of those old names along the way. Arkansaw, Atascosa, Benham, Central, Elwell, Fant City, Kitty, Mapes out on White Creek, Midway, Mountain View, Nell, North, Oakwood, Ray Point, Salt Creek, Simmons, Toms, and Whitsett. Each one of those was a community, a gathering place, a spot where somebody's children sat and learned.

Most folks driving through Live Oak County today wouldn't know those names at all. But they're on the back of this marker, held there, making sure they aren't entirely forgotten.

What the marker says

Until the 1870s, 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 7 1/2 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 Three Rivers: Arkansaw, Atasocsa, Benham, Central, Elwell, Fant City, Kitty, Mapes (White Creek), Midway, Mountain View, Nell, North, Oakwood, Ray Point, Salt Creek, Simmons, Toms, Whitsett