Six Mile School

Duane's take

The way the marker tells it, here's the story of Six Mile School, out in Llano County. Back in the 1880s, a community took root in this part of Texas. Most folks living around Six Mile were farming, ranching, or putting their hands to work in the granite quarries.

It was the kind of place where the land itself shaped how people lived. And in 1883, two of those people, William A. and Jane E. Stevens, donated a parcel of that land to Llano County.

Their purpose was plain and generous: a school, and a cemetery. Both things a community needs to plant itself somewhere permanent. The first school went up the very next year, in 1884, and it went by the name Union School.

Now, Union School ran the way most rural schools did in those days. Not all year, mind you. Just a few months at a stretch, because the children were needed back on the farm.

Planting season called. Harvest called louder. The school worked around the rhythms of the land, same as everyone else.

Then in 1898, the school got a new name, Six Mile School, and that name stuck. Early in the 1900s, the local Methodist church closed its doors. But the community didn't let the silence settle for long.

That schoolhouse, that patch of donated ground, became the gathering place for church services and revivals. One building carrying more than one kind of weight. In 1930, the schoolhouse was renovated, given new life.

And classes kept on, year after year, until 1945. William and Jane Stevens donated that land for a school and a cemetery. Turns out what they really gave was a place for a whole community to hold itself together.

What the marker says

Six Mile community was established in the 1880s. Most residents farmed, ranched or worked in granite quarries. The land around this site was donated to Llano County by William A. and Jane E. Stevens for a school and cemetery in 1883. The first school, called Union School, was erected in 1884. In 1898 it was renamed Six Mile School. Like many rural schools, it was in operation only a few months at a time so that students could assist their families with farm labor. After the local Methodist church closed in the early 1900s the schoolhouse and land around it became the site of church services and revivals for the community. The schoolhouse was renovated in 1930. Classes were held at Six Mile School until 1945. (1999)