Site of Center Point School

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Site of Center Point School, out here in Yoakum County. Now, picture this. The year is 1907, and Yoakum County is just getting itself organized.

No electricity. No paved roads. No railroad.

Just wide open Texas prairie stretching out in every direction, dotted here and there with farm and ranch families living miles apart from one another. That's the world this story starts in. By the 1920s, those scattered families had children who needed schooling, and the land wasn't going to bring a school to them.

So several local men did what folks out here did back then. They handled it themselves. They hauled building lumber in by freight wagon, and in 1924 they erected a one-room frame building near this very site.

One room. One building. One big idea.

They called it Center Point School District No. 8, and that little frame schoolhouse took on a lot for its size. It served sixty-four square miles of open country. Sixty-four square miles.

To put that in terms you can feel, some of those kids walked a mile or more across open prairie just to get there in the morning. Others rode horses, which they kept tethered out behind the building while they sat inside learning their lessons. Classes ran anywhere from four students to more than twenty, depending on the year.

Teachers taught all grades under one roof, and they earned somewhere between eighty and a hundred dollars a month to do it. That salary, by the way, covered teaching, janitorial work, and in some cases even hauling students to school themselves. Teachers generally boarded with local families, which tells you something about the kind of tight-knit community this place was.

And it wasn't just a school, not by a long stretch. That same one-room building hosted Sunday school, monthly services, and Methodist and Baptist revivals. The students even competed in Yoakum County Interscholastic League events.

This little building out in the middle of nowhere was doing the work of a school, a church, a community hall, and more. Enrollment picked up a little in 1935 when oil camps opened in the county, bringing new families into the area. But by the spring of 1939, the voters had made a decision.

They opted to merge Center Point School District No. 8 with other districts to form Plains Rural School District. The school closed, and that one-room frame building was physically moved to Plains, where it found a second life as a music building and later became part of the American Legion hall. Fifteen years.

That's how long Center Point School served the educational, spiritual, and social needs of the surrounding community. Fifteen years of cold mornings and horse hooves in the dirt and a teacher grading every grade in the room at once. Short-lived, the marker says, but its legacy remains a vital part of the history of this part of Yoakum County.

And I'd say any place that carries freight-wagon lumber across open prairie to build something from scratch, then sends it rolling down the road still standing when it's done, earned every word of that.

What the marker says

Yoakum County was organized in 1907. By the 1920s the area around this site was rural farm and ranch land without electricity, paved roads or a railroad. Building lumber was brought by freight wagon. Several local men erected a one-room frame building near this site in 1924 to serve as a school for the widely-scattered rural families. The structure also was used for Sunday school, monthly services and Methodist and Baptist revivals. Designated as Center Point School District No. 8, it served an area of 64 square miles. Classes ranged in size from four to more than twenty students over the years. Some walked a mile or more across open prairie to reach the school. Others rode horses, which they kept tethered behind the building. Students participated in Yoakum County Interscholastic League events in addition to their usual studies. Teachers earned $80-$100 a month to teach all grades, do janitorial work and in some cases even provide daily transportation for the students. Teachers usually boarded with local families. Enrollment increased slightly when oil camps opened in the county in 1935. In the spring of 1939, voters opted to merge Center Point School District No. 8 with others to form Plains Rural School District. The one-room school was closed and moved to Plains for use as a music building, later becoming part of the American Legion hall. Center Point School served the educational, spiritual and social needs of the surrounding community for fifteen years. Although short-lived, its legacy remains a vital part of the history of this part of Yoakum County. (2000)