Site of Wesley School

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Czech immigrants arrived in this corner of Washington County in 1859, and they didn't waste any time putting their mark on the land. They renamed the place Wesley community, and they got to work building a life.

Now, when you've got children and no schoolhouse, you make do. Professor Josef Masik opened his own home as a classroom, tutoring the kids who needed learning and had nowhere else to get it. That's where it started.

But the community had bigger ambitions. The Bohemian Slovakian Reading Club of Wesley, and that is a name that carries some weight, provided the first proper school building around 1863. A reading club building a school.

Think about that. These were people who understood what words were worth. By 1866 the school had outgrown even that, and classes moved into the Wesley Brethren Church, a larger facility that could hold what the community was becoming.

Then 1873 came, and they needed yet another structure. Then 1898, another one after that. Wesley just kept growing.

In 1911 the school relocated to a former store right here on this site, and the story of this particular piece of ground begins. It became an eight-grade school in 1927, then pushed all the way to ten grades by 1949 as a brand new building erected in 1931 filled with the children of a thriving rural community. But the story doesn't hold that shape for long.

People started leaving for the city, the way they did all across rural Texas, and by 1953 the school was back to serving eight grades. Enrollment kept falling. In 1961, Wesley School was closed and merged with the schools in Brenham.

And then, the year after that, 1962, the last Wesley School building on this site burned. Decades of learning, of Professor Masik's tutoring, of a reading club's faith in education, of one building after another rising to meet a growing community. All of it ending not with a ceremony, but with smoke.

What the marker says

Czech immigrants came to this area in 1859 and renamed it Wesley community. Professor Josef Masik tutored children in his home. The Bohemian Slovakian Reading Club of Wesley provided the first area school building about 1863. School was taught in the Wesley Brethren Church, a larger facility, beginning in 1866. As the area grew, another structure was required in 1873 and again in 1898. The school relocated to a former store on this site in 1911. It became an eight-grade school in 1927. A new building was erected in 1931 as the population continued to grow, and the school served ten grades in 1949. Enrollment fell as people left rural areas for the city, and in 1953 the school again served eight grades. It was closed and merged with Brenham schools in 1961. The last Wesley School building on this site burned in 1962. (1999)