Site of Old Taylor School

Duane's take

The official marker's the authority here, and I'm just the one bringing it to life for you. So let me tell you about the Old Taylor School, out in Bandera County, and the people who built something lasting out of raw Texas land and sheer determination. The year was 1883.

Henry Taylor, Gid Thompson, and other early settlers did something that takes a particular kind of faith in the future. They gave their own land to found a school. Think about that.

Land was everything out here. And they gave it. The first trustees stepping up to make it official were D.

Harper, H. Kennedy, and H. Taylor.

They got their one-room frame building up, and inside, the desks and recitation benches weren't ordered from any catalog. They were home made. Somebody built the place where children learned to read, and then built the very seats those children sat in to do it.

Now, that building burned. The marker doesn't linger on it, and neither will I, except to say it burned, and the community didn't scatter. They built again.

And then they built again after that. Two more schoolhouses rose on that ground before the school finally consolidated with Utopia in 1937. Among the teachers who left a mark worth remembering: Miss Sue Harper, Frank Robinson, and a woman the whole community apparently called Miss Mattie, Miss Mattie Noel.

The school wasn't just a school, either. The Literary Society met there every week. Sunday school gathered there.

Church services too. It was the beating heart of the community, the place people came to when they needed to be together. And here's the thing that lands this story where it ought to land.

This marker wasn't placed by a government agency or a historical society at arm's length. It was given by and in memory of former pupils. The people who sat on those home made benches, who listened to Miss Mattie and learned their letters, they're the ones who made sure the place wouldn't be forgotten.

That's not history at a distance. That's a community refusing to let go of itself.

What the marker says

Founded 1883, named for Henry Taylor. He, Gid Thompson and other early settlers gave land and founded school. First trustees were D. Harper, H. Kennedy, H. Taylor. In the first one-room frame building, desks and recitation benches were home made. After it burned, two more were built before consolidation with Utopia, 1937. Miss Sue Harper, Frank Robinson, and "Miss Mattie" Noel listed among outstanding teachers. This was community center; weekly Literary Society, Sunday school, church met here. This marker given by and in memory of former pupils. (1967)