Site of Bedford School

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and it's quite a story. Way out in the Bedford area of Tarrant County, schoolin' got its start in a log building sometime in the early 1860s. Nothing fancy, nothing permanent; just four walls, a roof, and the stubborn belief that children out here deserved an education.

Then the Civil War came and went, and when the dust settled, classes moved to a frame structure up at Spring Garden, north of where we're standing now. That building served its time. And then, in the early 1880s, it burned.

Now here's where the story starts finding its shape. A man named Milton Moore (born in 1828) looked at the ashes and apparently decided that Bedford wasn't done yet. He deeded land right here, on this very site, for the construction of Bedford College.

And don't let the name throw you; this was an elementary and high school academy, serving the young folks of the community from the ground up. It had a proper name, a proper purpose, and by all accounts, a proper future ahead of it. Then 1893 arrived.

And Bedford College burned too. Two schools, two fires. The community could have walked away from this particular patch of ground.

They didn't. Local citizens raised funds, and a new elementary school went up nearby. That one held on long enough to be replaced (in 1908) by something that clearly said we are not going anywhere: a two-story brick schoolhouse.

Brick doesn't burn like a log building burns. Brick doesn't go quietly. That schoolhouse stood and served, and when the time came in 1958, it consolidated with the Hurst-Euless district.

The building itself kept right on being used all the way until 1969. From a log cabin in the early 1860s to a brick building standing past the middle of the twentieth century, this little stretch of Tarrant County ground outlasted the fires, outlasted the doubts, and turned out to be exactly the kind of place worth building on.

What the marker says

The first Bedford area school met in a log building during the early 1860s. After the Civil War classes were held in a frame structure at Spring Garden, north of this site. After it burned in the early 1880s, Milton Moore (1828-1914) deeded land here for construction of Bedford College, an elementary and high school academy. In 1893 it was also destroyed by fire and local citizens raised funds for a new elementary school nearby. It was replaced in 1908 by a 2-story brick schoolhouse. The school consolidated with the Hurst-Euless district in 1958 and the building was used until 1969. (1980)