DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Site of Four Pines School, out here in Anderson County. Now, most schools get their names from a founder, or a county seat, or some politician who donated a parcel of land. But this one — this one got its name from four pine trees.
Four prominent pines standing near the school entrance, tall enough and proud enough that when trustees D. Barry, C. F.
Everett, and W. L. Pickle needed something to call the place, well, the trees spoke for themselves.
It was 1911 when those three trustees purchased one acre of land to establish a school. And what did they have to work with on that acre? An old tobacco barn.
Now, that might sound like a humble beginning, but humble beginnings have a way of growing into something in Texas. They converted that barn into a schoolhouse, and inside those repurposed walls, children sat down to learn everything from first grade through eighth. By 1918, the old barn had been razed and replaced with a proper three-room frame schoolhouse.
Things were moving. Students weren't just learning — they were working, raising farm animals and growing cotton right on the school grounds, and the funds they earned through those sales went back to the trustees, who used them in 1925 to purchase an adjacent lot. The kids, in a very real sense, were helping build their own school.
By 1946, Four Pines had four teachers and sixty-seven students enrolled. And the school kept drawing more. In 1949, the Harmony and Pleasant Grove Consolidated School Districts merged with Four Pines, and just like that, three new classrooms went up, along with a gymnasium and auditorium building.
The school had teams now — athletic teams who wore green and gold and carried a name as Texas as anything you'll find: the Pine Burrs. You don't mess with a pine burr, and apparently, you didn't mess with Four Pines. Meanwhile, the surrounding county had been doing some consolidating of its own.
Back in 1937, the nearby Magnolia, Long Lake, and Tucker schools had formed the Woodhouse School District. And in 1959, Woodhouse merged with Four Pines to form the Tucker Common School District. That district ran under its name until 1976, when it was renamed Westwood.
So here's where the story lands: the school that started as a tobacco barn on one acre of land, named for four pine trees, grew and merged and changed its name more than once — and yet it never moved. Westwood Elementary School stands today on the very same site where D. Barry, C.
F. Everett, and W. L.
Pickle laid down that first acre back in 1911. The trees may be gone, but the ground remembers.
What the marker says
In 1911 school trustees D. Barry, C. F. Everett, and W. L. Pickle purchased one acre of land here to establish a school. An old tobacco barn at this site was converted for use as a schoolhouse. The school was named for four prominent pine trees near the school entrance. By 1918 the barn/school building had been razed and replaced with a 3-room frame schoolhouse. The school offered instruction in grades one through eight. Funds raised by students through the sale of farm animals and cotton grown on school grounds were used by trustees to purchase an adjacent lot in 1925. In 1946 Four Pines had four teachers and a student enrollment of 67. The Harmony and Pleasant Grove Consolidated School Districts merged with Four Pines in 1949, and three classrooms and a gymnasium/auditorium building were added to the school complex. Athletic teams wore the school's green and gold colors and were known as the "Pine Burrs." In 1937 the nearby Magnolia, Long Lake, and Tucker schools formed the Woodhouse School District. In 1959 Woodhouse merged with Four Pines to form the Tucker common School District which in 1976 was renamed Westwood. Westwood Elementary School is currently on the same site as the original Four Pines School. (1993)