DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Giles Academy, out in Delta County. Now, picture a group of settlers arriving in East Texas carrying something most folks don't think to pack — homesickness. These early arrivals had come all the way from Giles County, Tennessee, and in 1859, they did what people do when they miss a place: they named something after it.
They founded an academy right here at this site, and they called it Giles. But a school needs a teacher, and for that they reached back to the old country — well, the old state, anyway. They hired a fellow Tennessean by the name of Thomas Hart Benton Hockaday, born in 1835, to be the very first teacher Giles Academy ever had.
Now that is a name that commands attention even before a man opens his mouth. Hockaday stepped up to the front of that large log schoolhouse and set about presenting a curriculum that emphasized arithmetic, reading the classics, and uses of the English language. Not bad for a frontier settlement still finding its footing.
He taught at Giles until 1862, when he enlisted in the Confederate Army. After the Civil War, he returned for several more years before eventually moving on to Fannin County in the 1870s. But here's a detail the marker drops almost as an aside, and it deserves a moment: Hockaday's daughter, Ela Hockaday, born in 1876 and living until 1956, went on to found the well-known Hockaday School for Girls in Dallas in 1913.
The apple, as they say, did not fall far from the schoolhouse. Back at Giles, the community had grown up around that log building — a blacksmith shop, a general merchandise store, a church. School expenses, teachers' salaries and all, were paid by the parents of the students.
This was a community that built its own things and paid its own way. Then came 1883, when Texas organized its common school districts, and Giles Academy officially became Giles School, District No. 4. The old log house gave way to a frame structure in 1886.
Progress kept marching, and a more modern building was erected on this very site in 1924. And that's where the story turns. In 1936, a tornado came through and badly damaged that building.
The Giles School never reopened. Its students were distributed between the Ben Franklin and Pecan Gap schools, and just like that, what had started with a group of homesick Tennesseans and a man with a name as big as Texas went quiet. Some places leave their mark on the people who pass through them.
Giles Academy left its mark on quite a few — and through one of those students' teacher's daughters, maybe on a few thousand more in Dallas who never knew to say thank you to a log schoolhouse in Delta County.
What the marker says
Early settlers, who came to this area from Giles County, Tenn., founded an academy at this site in 1859. Hired fellow-Tennessean Thomas Hart Benton Hockaday (1835 - 1918) as the first teacher, and named the new school in memory of their southern Tennessee homeland. Hockaday taught at Giles until his enlistment in the Confederate Army in 1862, and after the Civil War for several years before moving to Fannin County in 1870s. He presented a curriculum emphasizing arithmetic, reading the classics, and uses of the English language. (His daughter, Ela Hockaday, 1876 - 1956) founded the well-known Hockaday School for Girls in Dallas in 1913.) School expenses, including teachers' salaries, were paid by parents of the students. A small community center, with a blacksmith shop, general merchandise store, and church, grew up around the large log schoolhouse. After the organization of common school districts in Texas in 1883, the Academy became Giles School, District No. 4. The old log house was replaced with a frame structure in 1886. A more modern building, erected on this site in 1924, was badly damaged by a tornado in 1936. The Giles School never reopened, and its students were distributed between the Ben Franklin and Pecan Gap schools. (1973)