Site of Friendship Community School

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker says about the Site of Friendship Community School in Van Zandt County. Now settle in, because this is one of those stories where a community just quietly refuses to quit. It starts around 1880, out here in this stretch of East Texas, where somebody decided the children needed schooling.

The first teacher on record was a Mr. E. L.

Richardson, and he had to work around the rhythms of the land itself. Classes were scheduled around the local farmers' growing seasons, because when the crops called, everybody answered, students included. That's just the shape of life out here in those years.

Mr. and Mrs. W. N.

Farmer, and you cannot invent a name more fitting for this story, deeded two acres of land to the community for school and church purposes. Two acres. A gift that said: we are putting down roots.

Then comes December 14, 1905, the day Friendship was formally established. Give that date a moment. Somebody had to write it down, make it official, and they chose a name, Friendship, that told you everything about what they were trying to build.

By 1907, enrollment had grown enough that the community could justify the funds for a new building. Then David and Nettie King deeded one and a half acres to the community, and in 1915, a brand new two-room structure went up for eighteen hundred dollars. Two rooms.

Eighteen hundred dollars. And I expect every penny of it meant something. That building stood and served until 1949, when Friendship school consolidated with the Grand Saline schools.

Four years later, in 1952, the school board sold the building and its land back to the Friendship community itself. Back to the people it had always belonged to, in one way or another. And the community used it as a community center for several more years.

No fancy ending, no grand finale. Just neighbors finding one more use for something they had built together. Friendship, it turns out, is pretty hard to consolidate away.

What the marker says

Organized in about 1880, the community school in this area was first taught by Mr. E. L. Richardson. Classes were scheduled around the local farmers' growing seasons. Mr. And Mrs. W. N. Farmer deeded two acres of land to the community for school and church purposes. Friendship was established on December 14, 1905; by 1907, school enrollment was sufficient to justify funds for a new building. David and Nettie King deeded 1½ acres of land to the community, and in 1915 a new two-room structure was erected for $1800. The Friendship school was consolidated with Grand Saline schools in 1949, and in 1952 the school board sold the school building and its land back to Friendship community. The structure was used as a community center for several years. (2000)