Union Hill School

Duane's take

Now, I'm tellin' this one straight from the official marker, so you know it's the real article. Pull up a chair, because the story of Union Hill School has been unfolding out here in Bosque County longer than most folks care to count. It started before 1879.

Before 1879. Nobody wrote down the exact day somebody dragged a few benches together and called it a school, but the record shows it was already going before that year came around. Out here among the early settlers of Bosque County, that kind of quiet persistence meant everything.

Union Hill was one of several rural schools serving those families, and it had no intention of giving up. By 1888, there was a proper two-room schoolhouse standing across the road from where you're sitting right now. Two rooms.

Not fancy, but it did its job for over two decades. And somewhere nearby, a stable kept the students' horses out of the weather while lessons were being learned inside. Think about that for a moment.

The children riding in every morning, tying off their horses, then sitting down to read and cipher. That's a different world, and yet the ambition running through it feels familiar. Then came 1914, and Union Hill made a move.

A two-story building went up right here at this site. Two stories, rising out of the Bosque County landscape like a statement of purpose. The school kept growing, kept pulling in the community around it.

In 1926, a merger with the Auburn Hill District enlarged Union Hill further still. And then, in 1939, Union Hill became part of the Kopperl District. That's a long arc, from sometime before 1879 all the way to 1939, from a rough beginning to a merger, from a two-room building across the road to a two-story building on this very spot.

But here's the part that really lands. The former students of Union Hill, many of them gone on to become business leaders, professional leaders, agricultural leaders across this area, they still come back. A biennial reunion.

Every two years, they gather, and the school that started before 1879 turns out to have never really ended at all.

What the marker says

Started before 1879, the Union Hill School was one of several rural schools that served the early settlers of Bosque County. A two-room 1888 schoolhouse, located across the road, was used until 1914, when a two-story building was constructed at this site. A nearby stable housed the student's horses during the school day. Enlarged by the 1926 merger with the Auburn Hill District, Union Hill became part of the Kopperl District in 1939. Former students, which include many area business, professional, and agricultural leaders, still meet for a biennial school reunion. (1981)