Site of Lutie School

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Out here in Collingsworth County, the land has a way of holding onto names, and this particular patch of ground holds the name Lutie. Named for an early settler, Lutie Gresham Templeton, this community traces its history all the way back to 1909.

Now before there was even a Lutie to speak of, local citizens had already gotten to work. Two years prior to 1909, they formed the Pleasant Valley School, sitting about a mile northeast of where the townsite would eventually take shape. That's the kind of forward-thinking that built this part of Texas.

Community leaders moved that school right into Lutie in 1912, gave it a new name to match its new home, and added a room while they were at it. Progress kept coming. By 1929, a third room had been added, and for years that school stood as the beating heart of the community, serving area children through the kind of West Texas seasons that test everything they're made of.

But 1937 brought a change. The school consolidated with the one in Samnorwood, four miles to the northwest, and just like that, the building's chapter in Lutie came to a close. The land where that school had stood, where children had learned and seasons had turned, reverted back to the family of the original donor, John Henry Young, Sr., born in 1874 and gone by 1950.

The school is gone now. The name Lutie lingers. And the land went home.

What the marker says

The community of Lutie, named for early settler Lutie Gresham Templeton. Traces its history to 1909. Two years previously, local citizens had formed the Pleasant Valley School about one mile northeast of the townsite. Community leaders moved the school to Lutie in 1912, renamed it, and added a room. A third room was added in 1929, and the school continued to serve area children until 1937, when it consolidated with the school in Samnorwood (4 miles northwest). Land where the school was located reverted back to the family of the original donor, John Henry Young, Sr. (1874-1950). (1992)