Site of Scyene Meeting Place

Duane's take

Here's the story as the official marker at this site tells it: and it's one worth sittin' with for a moment. Way back in the 1840s, before there were buildings, before there were railroads, before there was much of anything to speak of in this corner of Dallas County, settlers were already gatherin' here. Not inside anywhere (just out under a tree).

That was the meetin' place. Whatever needed decidin', whatever needed prayin' over, whatever needed celebratin'; it happened right here, under that tree, out in the open air. Then came the 1850s, and folks got a little more ambitious.

They put up a two-story frame building. And when that one ran its course, another one went up. And then another.

Several successive structures, the marker says, each one two stories, each one made of frame, each one standin' in roughly the same spot and servin' the same stubborn purpose. The Masonic Lodge met here. Churches held services here.

Elections were decided here. Dances, gatherings, the whole social fabric of a growin' community; it all ran through this one place. And somewhere in there, the Scyene Meeting Place did something that echoes a little louder than the rest.

It housed one of the first public school sessions in all of Dallas County. Children sat down here and learned their letters and their numbers in one of the earliest organized schools this county had ever seen. Now.

Among those children (and this is the part where you might want to slow down a little), was a girl. A girl who, in her girlhood, was just a pupil. Sat in that school, same as the others.

That girl was Belle Starr. The very same Belle Starr who would go on to earn the name outlaw. But here, at this site, she was just a kid in school.

Funny how a place can hold that kind of quiet before the storm. Then 1872 arrived, and it brought the Texas and Pacific Railroad (or rather, it didn't). The railroad bypassed Scyene entirely, and the town began to dwindle.

That's how these things go. The railroad chooses its path, and whole communities feel the weight of that choice. But here's what I find worth notin': the place didn't just roll over.

The Woodmen of the World kept meetin' here. Other groups did too. And that school (the one where Belle Starr once sat as a pupil), kept holdin' sessions all the way until 1927.

Long after the town had dwindled, long after the railroad had gone its other way, people were still showin' up here. Still meetin'. Still teachin' children.

Under a tree in the 1840s. A school that outlasted a railroad's indifference by more than half a century. Some places just refuse to be finished.

What the marker says

In the 1840s, settlers held public meetings under a tree at this site. Beginning in the 1850s, several successive 2-story frame buildings stood here and housed Masonic Lodge, church, elections, and social activities. Scyene Meeting Place housed one of the first public school sessions in Dallas County. In her girlhood, outlaw Belle Starr was a pupil in that school. In 1872, Texas & Pacific Railroad bypassed Scyene and the town dwindled. Yet the Woodmen of the World and other groups continued to meet in the community building, and school was held here until 1927. Bicentennial project donated by Mesquite Historical and Genealogical Society