DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Back in 1890, out in Tarrant County Common School District Number 34, there was a little school going by the name of Green Glade. Now that name alone ought to conjure something — a clearing, maybe some shade, kids arriving dusty from cotton country.
But Green Glade was just the beginning of the story. The real chapter opens in 1903, when a school trustee by the name of Thomas Richard Sandidge and his wife Nannie did something that doesn't happen every day: they gave up one acre of their own land, right at this very site, for school purposes. Just handed it over.
The old Green Glade property was sold off, and up went the Florence Schoolhouse — one room, wood frame, standing among a grove of post oak trees. One room. Grades one through eight.
Average enrollment of thirty souls. Now here's the detail that'll tell you everything about where and when this was: the school term ran from October to May. Not September to June like you might expect.
October — after the cotton harvest. May — just as cotton chopping time was getting underway. The school calendar bent itself around the fields, because that was the life.
And in between the lessons, that little one-room building pulled double duty as a community center. Singings were held there. You want to picture the whole community gathered under those post oaks on some cool evening, voices carrying — well, that's what the marker's pointing at.
But enrollment started declining, and by 1914, the district needed something it couldn't provide: high school curriculum. So the district was abolished. Just like that.
Florence School students scattered to Bedford, Pleasant Run, and Smithfield Schools. And Thomas Richard Sandidge — the man who'd given that acre in the first place — he reclaimed it. The land set aside for school purposes came back to him, and from there the property changed hands several times through the years.
Then came 1966. The Tarrant County Junior College District bought the land, folded it into what would become its Northeast Campus. That campus opened in September of 1968, and among the students who enrolled were descendants of the very children who'd once sat in that one-room frame building among the post oaks.
Thirty kids to a campus. One generation to the next. Some roots run quiet and deep.
What the marker says
In 1890, the forerunner of Florence School in the Tarrant County Common School District No. 34 was called "Green Glade". In 1903 Thomas Richard Sandidge, a school trustee, and his wife Nannie provided one acre at this site for school purposes. The nearby Green Glade site was sold, and the Florence Schoolhouse, a one-room frame building, was erected here among a grove of post oak trees. The new institution provided grades one through eight and had an average enrollment of 30. The term ran from October, after cotton harvest, to May, the beginning of cotton chopping time. The building served as a community center where singings were held. By 1914, with declining enrollment and the need for high school curriculum, the district was abolished and Florence School students attended Bedford, Pleasant Run, and Smithfield Schools. Sandidge reclaimed the land which had been set aside for school purposes, and the property was sold several times through the years. In 1966 the Tarrant County Junior College District bought the land as part of its Northeast Campus which opened in September 1968. Among the enrollment were descendants of students who attended the old Florence School. (1979)