Oak Valley School

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Way out in Navarro County, there's a story about a little school that started with a list of names on a piece of paper and grew into something a whole community could be proud of. This is the story of Oak Valley School.

In 1867, County Judge John L. Miller sat down with a committee, E. G.

Melton, John M. Bright, L. H.

Dunham, J. C. Wells, J.

M. Quinlan, and G. W.

Foster, and together they carved Navarro County into thirty school districts. Thirty. Oak Valley was one of them.

Now, you might think that's where the story picks up speed, but hold on. Classes weren't held right away. Not for years.

The thing is, there needed to be a way to pay for it all, and it took a new constitutional provision allowing the levying of taxes for public education before any of that could happen. So the 1870s came around, and Oak Valley finally got going. And before long, during those late 1870s, somebody swung a hammer and put up a one-room schoolhouse to serve the surrounding rural area.

One room. That's where it started. Then in 1894, the Garner family did something that mattered.

They formally deeded an acre of land, free, for public school purposes. Just gave it. And then in 1905, the Garners sold the school an additional acre.

The roots were going deeper. By 1919, nearly a hundred students were enrolled, and that one-room building wasn't going to cut it anymore. So a new, two-room schoolhouse was built to accommodate the growth.

Thirty years after that, Oak Valley was annexed by the Corsicana Independent School District. The little district that Judge Miller and that committee drew up in 1867 had run its course as its own place. But here's what the marker wants you to sit with.

For more than seventy years, Oak Valley School provided free public education for the children of this area. Students went on to Corsicana for further schooling. Schoolteachers came out of those classrooms.

Military servicemen came out of those classrooms. All of it traced back to a one-room building, a family willing to deed an acre of land, and a committee of seven men with a plan. The history of Oak Valley School, the marker says, provides a significant link to the beginnings of a public school system in Texas.

One room. One acre. Thirty districts.

And a whole lot of children who got somewhere because of it.

What the marker says

Oak Valley was one of thirty school districts created in Navarro County in 1867 by County Judge John L. Miller and a committee composed of E. G. Melton, John M. Bright, L. H. Dunham, J. C. Wells, J. M. Quinlan, and G. W. Foster. Classes were not held, however, until the 1870s after a new constitutional provision allowed for the levying of taxes for public education. During the late 1870s a one-room schoolhouse was constructed to serve the surrounding rural area. In 1894 an acre of land formally was deeded for free public school purposes by the Garner family. The Garners sold an additional acre of land to the school in 1905. By 1919 enrollment had reached nearly 100 students, and a new, two-room schoolhouse was built to accommodate the growth. Thirty years later, the school was annexed by the Corsicana Independent School District. For more than seventy years, Oak Valley School provided free public education for the children of this area. Many of the students went on to Corsicana for further schooling. Oak Valley produced a number of schoolteachers and military servicemen. The history of Oak Valley School provides a significant link to the beginnings of a public school system in Texas.