Knickerbocker Schools

Duane's take

The way the official marker tells it, here's how schooling came to the corner of Tom Green County they call Knickerbocker. Way out in southwestern Tom Green County, back in 1877, a man named A. P.

Baze built himself a schoolhouse on his own farm, two miles north of Knickerbocker. Baze ran what they called a subscription school, meaning folks paid to send their kids. That little building had adobe walls, a shingled roof, and a pine floor.

One room, that's all. Children came on horseback, and the school term ran six months. Not a lot, but out here in that stretch of Texas, it was something.

A. P. Baze, born in 1833 and gone by 1880, left behind a school that kept right on running until 1899.

Long after he was buried, children were still riding up to his farm on horseback to learn their letters. Now that is a legacy. As the population filled in around the area, the county decided it was time to step up.

Around 1889, they put up a frame schoolhouse to replace the old Baze School. That one held for a good while, until 1926, when a proper red brick building went up in its place. Three classrooms, an auditorium, a central hall.

The kind of building that says a community means business. Now here's a chapter the marker doesn't let slide past quietly. In 1895, at the insistence of Dr.

Boyd Cornick, born 1856 and living until 1933, the county built a separate school built primarily for children of Mexican descent. Dr. Cornick pushed for it, and the county built it.

Two schools, side by side in the same community, operating separately. That went on for decades. In the 1930s, that second school was substantially remodeled.

And then, in 1948, the two schools were finally combined into one. It took until 1948. Keep that year in mind as you roll through this landscape.

Then came 1960, and the consolidation of the rural schools in the area. After that, children from the Knickerbocker area weren't walking or riding to a neighborhood school anymore. They were boarding a bus to Christoval.

The red brick building, the one built in 1926 with its three classrooms and its auditorium, it didn't sit empty and forgotten. In 1989 it became a post office and community center. A building that once taught generations of children is still at the center of the community.

Some things in Texas just refuse to be done with.

What the marker says

Education for children in southwestern Tom Green County was available at Knickerbocker Schools as early as 1877. The Baze Subscription School, built by A. P. Baze (1833-1880) on his farm two miles north of Knickerbocker, operated from 1877 to 1899.The one-room schoolhouse had adobe walls, a shingled roof, and a pine floor. Children came on horseback to attend a six-month school term. As the population grew, the county built a frame schoolhouse about 1889 to replace the Baze School. In 1926 a red brick school building with three classrooms, an auditorium, and a central hall replaced the 1889 frame structure. In 1895, at the insistence of Dr. Boyd Cornick (1856-1933), a county school was built primarily for children of Mexican descent. This school was substantially remodeled in the 1930s. The two schools operated separately until 1948 when they were combined. Following the consolidation of area rural schools in 1960, children from the Knickerbocker area traveled by bus to school in Christoval. The red brick Knickerbocker school building became a post office and community center in 1989. (1992)