Pleasant Run School

Duane's take

Here's how the marker tells it, and here's how I'm passin' it on to you. Out here in Tarrant County, there's a piece of ground with a long memory; and the story of Pleasant Run School is the kind that sneaks up on you, quiet at first, then keeps building until you realize just how much happened on two acres of Texas soil. Early settlers recalled a log school standing near this very site as early as 1870.

Just a log school. Nothing fancy. But it was a start.

By 1877, forty-five students were enrolled; kids hauling themselves out to that little building, learning what they could. Then in 1884, a man named A.J. Colwell deeded two acres right here to the Pleasant Run School Trustees, set aside for a public school and a church.

Two acres. That's all it took to plant something that would last nearly a century. Now jump forward to 1897.

Because here's where the story gets something worth sayin' out loud. One teacher. One.

Her name was Emma Dixon. And Emma Dixon was teaching ninety-three students during a hundred-and-twenty-day term in a wooden schoolhouse. You do that arithmetic and you start to appreciate what the word dedication actually means.

Ninety-three kids, one teacher, one building, one hundred and twenty days. Sometime around 1913, a two-story brick building went up on that land; a real structure now, a statement. But nothing stands forever, and by 1939 a Works Progress Administration building replaced it, the new taking the place of the old the way it tends to do.

Come 1960, about two hundred and thirty-three students were enrolled. The place had come a long way from that first log school in 1870. But 1962 is where the story closes.

Classes were last held here that year, soon after consolidation with Grapevine. From a log cabin and forty-five kids to two hundred and thirty-three students and a brick building, and then, quiet. That's the thing about these old school sites.

The bell stops ringing, but the ground remembers every single one of them.

What the marker says

Early settlers have recalled that a log school stood near this site as early as 1870. By 1877, 45 students were enrolled. In 1884, A.J. Colwell deeded two acres here to the Pleasant Run School Trustees for a public school and church. In 1897 a wooden school-house stood here and one teacher, Emma Dixon, was teaching 93 students during a 120-day term. A 2-story brick building was completed c. 1913, replaced by a Works Progress Administration structure in 1939. About 233 students were enrolled in 1960. Classes were last held here in 1962, soon after consolidation with Grapevine.