Site of Hilliard High School

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the site of Hilliard High School in Matagorda County. Now, some schools get named after a person before anyone's quite sure they've earned it. This one waited.

And when the name finally changed, the man it honored had already spent a lifetime making sure it meant something. The Bay City African American community established a school in the 1890s — built it up from nothing, the way communities do when they decide their children are worth the trouble. A.A.

Deleon stepped in as the first teacher, and before long three others joined him: A.G. Hilliard, A.P. Allen, and J.J.

Grundy. Those are four names worth remembering, because what they were doing was not easy and was not guaranteed. By 1904, the school had already outgrown its first building.

The community went and got a larger one — a two-story frame structure — and named it after noted educator Booker T. Washington. The Bay City School District adopted it in 1905.

Things were moving. But here's where we slow down and talk about one man in particular. A.G.

Hilliard was born in Georgia in 1863. He came to Texas in 1871, a boy of eight traveling with his parents, Bunk and Mary — former slaves who, the marker is careful to tell us, strongly valued education. That detail is not incidental.

It is the whole story underneath the story. Hilliard graduated from the Oakland Normal School, which opened in Gonzales in 1882 to train African American teachers. And then his mother Mary — you get the sense she was not a woman you argued with lightly — encouraged him to continue his education at Prairie View State Normal College.

He did. And then he came back to Bay City and taught. Taught and taught.

He gave twenty-eight of his forty-eight years in education to Bay City. Let those numbers sit with you a moment. By 1926, there were two hundred and twenty-five students at the school and only four teachers.

Hilliard by then had moved from teacher to principal, holding the whole thing together. He died in 1936 and is buried in Bay City's Eastview Cemetery alongside his wife Pearl. After he died, the board of trustees made it official.

They renamed the school Hilliard High School. His son, A.G. Hilliard II, then became principal — and carried the name forward in more ways than one.

A.G. Hilliard II passed in 1983. The school kept growing, as schools will do when a community refuses to let them shrink.

By the 1940s a new building was needed, and acclaimed architect Wyatt C. Hedrick designed it. The new facility was finished in 1948, right here at this very site, and it served as Hilliard High School until 1967.

The district used it for two more years as a junior high after that. And in all those years, Hilliard High produced two state champion football teams and many other award-winning students — a record that reflects, as the marker puts it, the community's pride and goals for its children. That phrase is doing a lot of quiet work.

Goals for its children. Started in the 1890s by a community that built something from nothing, sustained by a man whose own mother wouldn't let him stop learning, and named — at long last — for someone who earned every letter of it.

What the marker says

Site of Hilliard High School The Bay City African American community established a school in the 1890s, and A.A. Deleon served as its first teacher. Three others, A.G. Hilliard, A.P. Allen and J.J. Grundy, began shortly after the school opened. By 1904, the school's enrollment had outgrown the first building, so the community attained a larger one. The new school, a two-story frame structure, was named after noted educator Booker T. Washington and was adopted by the Bay City School District in 1905. By 1926, there were 225 students and only four teachers. Hilliard continued as teacher and later as principal at the school. Born in Georgia in 1863, he came to Texas in 1871 with his parents, Bunk and Mary, former slaves who strongly valued education. After his graduation from the Oakland Normal School, which opened in Gonzales in 1882 to train African American teachers, Mary encouraged her son to continue his education at Prairie View State Normal College. He taught in Bay City for 28 of his 48 years in education. He died in 1936 and is buried in Bay City's Eastview Cemetery with his wife Pearl. Recognizing Hilliard's contribution to the school, the board of trustees renamed it Hilliard High School after he died. His son A.G. Hilliard II (d. 1983) then became principal. The ever-growing school needed a new buidling by the 1940s. Acclaimed architect Wyatt C. Hedrick designed a new facility, finished in 1948 at this site, where it served as Hilliard High School until 1967. The district then used it for two years as a junior high. Over the years, the school produced two state champion football teams and many other award-winning students, reflecting the community's pride and goals for its children. (2002)