DUANE
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Duane's take
Here's the Wheeler Springs School story, just as the marker tells it. Now, every community worth remembering has a few people who made sure something got built, and Wheeler Springs was no different. It all started with a piece of land.
In 1905, a man named French Taylor donated that land, and on it, the Wheeler Springs community would plant the seed of something lasting. The Houston County school board made it official in 1906, designating it Common School District No. 76. Just a number on paper, maybe, but numbers like that meant children were going to learn to read.
The first two teachers to walk through that door were Millie Denby and Lula Dailey, who went by Lula Denby before she became a Dailey. Two women, starting something from scratch, which is about as Texas a story as you can find. The school kept growing, kept serving.
By 1925 there was a proper schoolhouse standing on the grounds. Then in 1930, somebody moved an entire house to the site, turned it into a canning kitchen and a cafeteria. A house.
Picked it up and moved it. Then in 1932, a log cabin went up, giving the community a place for meetings and quilting groups. This wasn't just a school anymore.
It was a gathering place. Come 1948, the students started attending an area high school, and the man who drove them there, the very first bus driver to make that run, was Mose Dailey. The county eventually consolidated, and in 1959 the 1925 schoolhouse was razed.
Gone. But here's the part worth sitting with: the other buildings, the moved house, the log cabin, they kept right on serving that community for many years after. Some things outlast the institution that built them.
Wheeler Springs knew that.
What the marker says
The Wheeler Springs community was shaped in part by its school, which began on land donated in 1905 by French Taylor. The Houston County school board designated it Common School District No. 76 in 1906. Millie Denby and Lula (Denby) Dailey were the first teachers. A house moved to the site in 1930 served as a canning kitchen and cafeteria, and a 1932 log cabin provided space for meetings and quilting groups. In 1948, students began attending an area high school; Mose Dailey was their first bus driver. The county razed the 1925 schoolhouse in 1959, following consolidation, but the other buildings served the community for many years. (2002)