Noll School and Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Way out in Victoria County, there's a piece of ground that holds more history than its two acres might suggest. It starts with a man named Valentin Noll, born in 1816, a German immigrant who found his way to Texas and purchased land in the C.W.

Vickery survey before 1860. He built something here. A life, a family, a future in new soil.

Valentin passed in 1882, but what he started didn't stop with him. His eldest son Joseph, born in 1848, carried it forward. And in 1893, Joseph Noll did something worth remembering.

He deeded two acres, right out of his own land, for a free community school. Free. That word mattered out here.

Now, Joseph didn't build it alone. The marker names the men who showed up: Ben Arnold, Joseph Dentler, Otto Dentler, Fred Diebel, and Joe Preiss. Neighbors turning out to raise something together, the way things got done.

One of those two acres became a schoolhouse, a one-room affair where children of this community came to learn. The other acre became something quieter. A cemetery.

And the first soul laid to rest there was Jacob Dentler, born in 1825, a German settler in the Mission Valley area, who died in 1894. The plot holds seventeen graves in all, including members of the Dentler, Noll, and Preiss families. The very same names that built the school.

As for that little one-room schoolhouse, it was removed from the site in 1919. The building left. The cemetery stayed.

And two acres of Victoria County still carry the name of the man who bought the land before the war and the son who gave it away so his neighbors' children could read.

What the marker says

Valentin Noll (1816-1882), a German immigrant, purchased land in the C.W. Vickery survey before 1860. In 1893 his eldest son Joseph (1848-1938) deeded two acres for a free community school, built with the help of Ben Arnold, Joseph Dentler, Otto Dentler, Fred Diebel and Joe Preiss. One acre became a cemetery, opened with the burial of Jacob Dentler (1825-1894), a German settler in the Mission Valley area. The plot contains 17 graves, including those of Dentler, Noll and Preiss family members. The one-room school building was removed from this site in 1919. (1977)