Fairview School

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Fairview School in Angelina County. Now, some stories start with a bang. This one starts with a school board meeting, and a number: sixty-nine.

That's the district number the Angelina County School Board assigned when they created Fairview Common School District Number 69 back in the late eighteen hundreds. Just a number on paper at first. But numbers have a way of growing into something.

They built a one-room schoolhouse, and that little building drew students in from a wide rural area. The first school term came in 1898, five months long. Five months to learn everything a child needed to carry into the world.

You make the most of what you've got. Now, somewhere around 1905, the students stopped meeting at that schoolhouse and started gathering at Fairview Baptist Church instead. That arrangement held for nearly a decade, right up until 1913, when the county school board reorganized the common school districts.

Change was coming, and the community was ready to meet it. In 1915 land was purchased for a proper school site. Two years later, in 1917, a two-room schoolhouse went up on that land.

Then the nineteen forties arrived and brought with them a cafeteria and an auditorium, expanding the building into something that served a whole lot more than reading and arithmetic. See, that's the thing about Fairview School. It was never just a school.

It was where people voted. It was where the community gathered for social activities and holiday events. County-wide sporting events were held right there on the grounds.

And the programs it hosted reached beyond the children sitting in those seats. Government advisors came out and gave instruction on agricultural techniques, working to increase production of cattle and the local crops: peanuts, corn, and cotton. Grades one through seven got a quality education, and the farmers surrounding that school got something useful too.

The whole community was leaning in. That's a lot of living for a building that started as one room. It ran that way, year after year, until 1963.

That's when Fairview School closed and was consolidated with the Lufkin School District. The doors shut, but the marker's still out there on the road, telling you what that little district number sixty-nine became. Turns out a school board meeting in Angelina County, sometime in the late eighteen hundreds, started something worth remembering.

What the marker says

The Angelina County School Board created Fairview Common School District Number 69 in the late 1800s. A one-room schoolhouse was built that served students from a wide rural area. The first school term, in 1898, was five months long. Fairview School students met at Fairview Baptist Church from about 1905 until 1913, when the county school board reorganized the common school districts. In 1915 land was purchased for a school site. A two-room schoolhouse was constructed in 1917 and enlarged with the additions of a cafeteria and an auditorium in the 1940s. The school became a community center for area residents. It served as a voting place and was the focus of social activities and holiday events. County-wide sporting events were held on the grounds. The Fairview School not only provided quality education for grades one through seven, but also hosted programs that benefited farmers. Government advisors gave instruction on agricultural techniques to increase production of cattle and the local crops of peanuts, corn, and cotton. The school closed in 1963 and was consolidated with the Lufkin School District. (1997)