Rocky Hill School

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Out in Washington County, there's a piece of ground with a long memory, and the story it holds goes back further than most folks think to look. Rocky Hill.

Sounds simple enough. But simple places have a way of carrying more history than they let on. As early as 1867, the Methodist Church was running a private school out here, making sure the children of the Rocky Hill community had somewhere to learn.

That's not nothing. That's a church stepping up when there wasn't a whole lot else to step up with. But the community had its own ideas about what education ought to look like.

So the people got together, put their names on a petition, and by 1883, they had themselves a real, honest public school. A petition. Sometimes that's all it takes, just enough neighbors willing to put their signatures on the same piece of paper.

Now that school set itself down on land owned by a man named Henry Kruse, and it served the area faithfully, year after year, until 1909. Then Fritz Engelke came into the picture, offering up a site of his own, and a new building went up to carry the work forward. That's two chapters right there, two pieces of ground holding the same promise.

But Rocky Hill wasn't done yet. Come the 1930s, the school found a third home, this time on Henry Klatte's farm, and that building stood and served until 1957, when the Rocky Hill School was consolidated with the Brenham School System. Three buildings.

Three pieces of land given over by three different men. Three generations of children who walked through those doors because somebody in Rocky Hill thought they were worth the trouble. That, right there, is the whole story.

What the marker says

A private school operated by the Methodist Church provided education for the children of the Rocky Hill community as early as 1867. A petition from area citizens resulted in the formation of a public school in 1883. Located on land owned by Henry Kruse, the school served the area until 1909, when a new building was erected at a site provided by Fritz Engelke. A third school building was located at this site on Henry Klatte's farm from the 1930s until 1957, when the Rocky Hill School was consolidated with the Brenham School System.