DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Saginaw School, right there in Tarrant County. Now, every good Texas story starts with somebody showing up from somewhere else, and this one's no different. Jarvis J.
Green settled here in 1882, and when it came time to name the place, he reached back to where he'd come from — Saginaw, Michigan. Whether that was homesickness or just a man who liked the sound of a familiar word, the name stuck. The Fort Worth and Denver and Santa Fe railroads eventually crossed right through here, and with the rails came people, and with people came the need for a school.
In 1892, the first one opened — a tuition school, meaning you paid your way in, sitting on McLeroy Boulevard. But by the following year, it had turned into a public school. Now here's where the story takes a sharp turn.
In 1910, the teachers went on strike. Not over pay, not over hours — over child labor in the school itself. Think on that a moment.
And out of that strike came something lasting: a local parent-teacher association. Sometimes a fight, even an uncomfortable one, builds the very thing a community needed all along. Then in 1913, a woman named Fannie Gillen donated the land right here at this site, and the trustees got to work and put up a two-story brick schoolhouse.
That building served its time, and in the 1930s it was replaced by a school designed by Preston Geren — funded through the Works Progress Administration. The community kept building on what came before. Saginaw schools combined with Eagle Mountain in 1948, and the campus, with several additions along the way, has kept right on serving the people around it.
From one man's memory of Michigan to a strike that changed how teachers and parents talked to each other — that's a school that earned its place.
What the marker says
Jarvis J. Green settled here in 1882 and named the site for his former home of Saginaw, Michigan. The Fort Worth and Denver and Santa Fe railroads later crossed here, and in 1892 the first school opened. It was a tuition school on McLeroy Boulevard which became a public school the following year. A 1910 teachers strike against child labor in the school led to the creation of a local parent-teacher association. Fannie Gillen donated land at this site in 1913 and trustees built a two-story brick schoolhouse, replaced in the 1930s by a Preston Geren-designed school funded through the Works Progress Administration. Saginaw schools combined with Eagle Mountain in 1948, and the campus, with several additions, has continued to serve the community. (2007)