DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Pontotoc and San Fernando Academy, out there in Mason County. Pull over if you want the full picture — this one's got layers. Now, Pontotoc.
Settled about 1859, which means somebody looked out at this stretch of Texas hill country and said, yes, this'll do. That somebody who put his stamp on the place — at least in name — was M. R.
Kidd, the first merchant in town. He reached back across the miles to his former home in Mississippi and gave this new settlement the same name: Pontotoc. There's something a little wistful in that, a man building a new life but keeping one hand on the old one.
Things stayed fairly quiet for a good while. Then, in 1878, the post office opened — right there in the B. J.
Willis home, with Mrs. Willis herself serving as postmaster. Not a bad arrangement, having the mail come to your house, though I imagine folks tracking in and out all day had its costs.
Now here's where the story picks up real steam. Interested citizens — and I love that phrase, interested citizens, because it tells you everything about how communities used to build themselves — those folks got together and founded San Fernando Academy. The marker notes it was probably named for the nearby creek.
Opened in 1883. And this wasn't some little schoolhouse teaching kids to spell their names. Two hundred pupils passed through San Fernando Academy over the course of its career, studying regular subjects or working toward teacher certificates.
The principals were K. T. Hamilton and W.
C. Roaten, two names this corner of Mason County ought to remember. But academies, like a lot of ambitious things, don't always last.
San Fernando Academy failed. After it did, W. J. and B.
J. Willis sold the site, and the public school took it over and used it all the way until 1927. The ground itself kept on teaching long after the academy was gone.
The site of the academy, by the way, sits a hundred yards north of where this marker stands. Worth the walk, if only to stand on ground where two hundred students once bent over their books, chasing a certificate and maybe a future — in a town named for a place somebody left behind.
What the marker says
(Site of Academy is 100 yards north) Pontotoc, settled about 1859, was named by first merchant, M. R. Kidd, for his former home town in Mississippi. Post office was opened 1878 in the B. J. Willis home, with Mrs. Willis postmaster. Founded by interested citizens, San Fernando Academy (probably named for nearby creek), opened 1883. Pupils (200 during academy's career) took regular subjects or courses leading toward teacher certificates. Principals were K. T. Hamilton and W. C. Roaten. After academy failed, site was sold by W. J. and B. J. Willis and used by the public school until 1927. (1972)