DUANE
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Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm gonna do it justice. Back in 1882, in Honey Grove up in Fannin County, something important took root. The first school for African Americans in that town opened its doors, and it started modest, the way a lot of lasting things do.
Twenty students. One teacher. That's all.
But it was something, and something is where everything begins. The school was named for F. M.
Bralley, an early superintendent, and that name would carry weight in this community for generations to come. Now, watch what happens when you give a community a school. By 1911, those twenty students had grown to a hundred and eighty-eight, and there were two teachers working to meet them.
That's not a small thing. That is a community pouring itself into its children. In 1925, Bralley became a high school, and Smith Hill School opened to handle the elementary grades.
The two were separate for a time, but by 1934 they were joined back together again. Then in 1959, the school received a new name, Bralley-Pendleton, honoring its long-term principal, John W. Pendleton.
A man who stayed. A man who earned that tribute. When the Honey Grove schools were integrated in 1965 and 1966, a chapter closed.
The Bralley-Pendleton School buildings were sold, and then they were razed. Gone from the ground. But here's the thing about a school that ran from 1882 to those final days, with twenty kids who became hundreds, with teachers and a principal whose names got carved into the name of the place itself.
You can sell the building. You can raze it down to nothing. But you cannot raze what happened inside it.
What the marker says
The first school for Africa Americans in Honey Grove began in 1882 with 20 students and one teacher. The school was named for F. M. Bralley, an early superintendent. By 1911 there were 188 students and two teachers. Bralley became a high school in 1925 when Smith Hill School opened for elementary grades, but the two schools were joined again in 1934. In 1959 the school was renamed in honor of its long-term principal John W. Pendleton. After the Honey Grove schools were integrated in 1965-66, the Bralley-Pendleton School buildings were sold and razed. (1997)