Site of Evergreen School

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about this piece of Lavaca County history. Now, every good school story starts with a little dirt, and this one starts with exactly two acres of it. Back in 1897, three trustees, Ernest Meyer, W.

M. Krause, and Otto Henkhaus, sat down with August and Anna Seifert and made a purchase right here. Two acres.

That was enough to get started. They raised up a two-room frame schoolhouse, and they called it Evergreen. Simple name.

Solid promise. Then in 1903, they added two more acres to the property, because a growing school needs room to breathe. And Evergreen was growing.

It served the Henkhaus community and the surrounding area, pulling in an average of sixty students for a seven-month school term. Sixty kids, two rooms. You do the math on elbow room, and it gets tight.

One room held grades one through four. The other held grades five through eight. A principal and an assistant teacher handled all of it, and they didn't commute, either.

They lived right there in a teacherage adjacent to the school. The school had a windmill powered water well and a wood burning stove for heat. Out on the Texas plains, that combination of wind and fire kept the whole operation going.

Now, for decades, Evergreen hummed along on that seven-month rhythm. Then 1939 came, and things started to change. The school term stretched to eight months, and the eighth grade held its very first graduation exercise.

That's the kind of milestone that makes a community stand a little straighter. Then in the 1940 to 41 school year, the ninth grade was added. And that same year, the community raised funds to install electric lights in the building, doing it the old-fashioned way, through plays, dances, volleyball tournaments, and softball tournaments.

Neighbors putting on a show so the schoolhouse could glow. But the 1940s also brought a pressure that no school dance could fix. Overcrowded conditions sent many Evergreen students transferring out to nearby communities, to schools in Moulton and Shiner.

The hallways got quieter as the years went on. And in the fall of 1951, Evergreen School closed its doors for the last time. Eventually, the schoolhouse itself was razed.

Gone from the land, but not from the record. Sixty students, two rooms, a windmill, a wood stove, and a community that put on dances just to keep the lights on. That, right there, is a Texas education.

What the marker says

School trustees Ernest Meyer, W. M. Krause and Otto Henkhaus purchased two acres here from August and Anna Seifert in 1897. The two-room frame Evergreen schoolhouse was built at this site and in 1903 an additional two acres were added to the property. Evergreen School served the Henkhaus community and the surrounding area. It maintained a windmill powered water well and was heated with a wood burning stove. A principal and an assistant teacher lived in a teacherage adjacent to the school and taught grades 1-4 in one room and grades 5-8 in the other. The school averaged 60 students for its seven-month school term. In 1939 an eight-month school term was instituted and the eight grade held its first graduation exercise. The ninth grade was added in the 1940-41 school year. Funds to install electric lights at the school in 1940-41 were raised through community sponsored activities such as plays, dances, and volleyball and softball tournaments. Overcrowded conditions at Evergreen School resulted in many of its students transferring to schools in the nearby communities of Moulton and Shiner during the 1940s. Evergreen School closed in the fall of 1951 and eventually the schoolhouse was razed. 1995