Stonewall School

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Way out in Titus County, there's a name with a story behind it. Stonewall School.

Now the marker traces this whole thing back to 1867, when educational instruction was being held right inside Bridges Chapel's First Methodist Church structure. That's where it started, in a house of worship doubling as a schoolhouse, and that arrangement carried on into the early 1880s. Then, according to local tradition, a young teacher stepped up and gave the community a rallying cry.

Stand together, she said, or he said, like a stone wall. Those words took root. The community listened, and about 1884 a much needed school building was erected.

A stone wall of a different kind, you might say, only made of timber and ambition and neighbors who showed up. Now that first building wasn't the last word on the matter. A new school structure was built on this very site in 1898, and then enlarged about 1916, which tells you the community kept growin and kept believing in the place.

But buildings don't last forever, and that 1898 structure was eventually razed and replaced by a two-room structure in 1953. Two rooms. Modest, sure, but still standin, still teachin.

The end, when it came, wasn't dramatic. It was quiet. Falling enrollment brought Stonewall School into the Mount Pleasant Independent School District, and in 1957 it closed its doors.

A young teacher once called on a community to hold the line together. They did, for the better part of a century. That's not nothing.

That's Stonewall.

What the marker says

This school traces its origin to educational instruction held in Bridges Chapel's First Methodist Church structure from 1867 until the early 1880s. According to local tradition a young teacher encouraged the community to "stand together like a stone wall" and a much needed school building was erected about 1884. A new school structure, built here in 1898 and enlarged about 1916 was razed and replaced by a two-room structure in 1953. The Stonewall School joined the Mount Pleasant Independent School District as a result of falling enrollment and closed its doors in 1957.