Site of New Colony School

Duane's take

The way the marker tells it, here's how it went. Around 1905 and 1906, Czech families packed up their lives in Elgin, over in Bastrop County, and in Taylor, up in Williamson County, and they relocated to this stretch of Bell County to build something new. They called it Nova Osada.

New Colony. And they meant it. These folks weren't visiting.

They were planting roots. Now, a community needs a school. That much is certain.

But before they had a proper schoolhouse, they had something else. A one-room fraternal lodge hall, built in 1908 on land purchased from John and Frances Shenkir. That hall became the first school, and it had a name that's almost too good.

They called it the Blue School. Why blue, the marker doesn't say, but somehow that name just sits right, doesn't it. The Blue School opened its doors in 1909, and Nova Osada had itself an education.

Three men stepped up as the first trustees. Vince Stepan, Sam S. Bennett, and B.S.

Guess. Three names worth remembering, because somebody had to hold this thing together, and they did. The community kept growing, kept building.

Come the early 1920s, a proper three-room schoolhouse went up right here on this very site. Three rooms. That was a step up, and the New Colony School served this area for decades to come.

But 1942 arrived, and with it, a merger. New Colony School folded into the Rogers Independent School District. And after that, well, the schoolhouse itself was moved from this site.

Picked up and carried off, the way things go. What's left is the story. Czech families who traveled from Elgin and Taylor, built a lodge hall, opened a blue school, and turned a patch of Bell County into Nova Osada, a new colony that made good on its name.

What the marker says

In 1905-1906 Czech families from Elgin (Bastrop County) and Taylor (Williamson County) relocated to this area and established the Nova Osada (New Colony) community. The first school, known as "Blue School," opened in 1909 in a one-room fraternal lodge hall built in 1908 on land purchased from John and Frances Shenkir. Vince Stepan, Sam S. Bennett, and B.S. Guess served as first trustees. A 3-room school, built here in the early 1920s, served the area until 1942 when New Colony School merged with the Rogers Independent School District. The schoolhouse was later moved from this site. (1995)