DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Wortham Schools, out there in Freestone County. Now, every good Texas town has a story, and Wortham's story starts, as so many do, with folks who believed in two things above all else: faith and education. The first recorded school in Wortham was a two-story frame structure, built back in the 1870s — a joint venture between the Masonic Lodge and the local Methodist church.
The Masons put up the supplies and the textbooks, and the ministers? Well, the ministers put up themselves. They served as the teachers.
You want dedicated? That's dedicated. But that was just the beginning.
By 1883, Wortham had its first public school — a one-room building, the way it so often started out here on the Texas frontier. Professor Miller and Mrs. Thyrsia Garrison stepped in as the first teachers, and you have to appreciate the particular weight of being first at anything.
Seven years later, in 1890, a two-story frame building went up to replace that single room. And then in 1891, Wortham made a little history — it became the first independent school district in all of Freestone County. First.
In the whole county. That's worth sayin' twice. Things kept movin'.
In 1902, the school building was destroyed and replaced by a brick structure, this one with a bell tower, which I imagine rang out across town with a certain authority that wood and good intentions simply cannot match. Then 1922 brought new facilities to handle what the marker calls increased enrollment — and, friend, you don't know the half of what was coming. Because 1924 happened.
Oil was discovered around Wortham in 1924, and what had been a town of one thousand souls swelled — almost overnight, those are the marker's own words — to twenty thousand. Twenty thousand. That's not growth.
That's a flood. And the school felt it like a wall of water. One classroom that had been holding eighteen pupils found itself holding eighty-four — and that happened inside of four days.
Four days. However you feel about overcrowding, you have to tip your hat to whatever teacher stood in that room on day four and kept right on teachin'. As the years went on, several rural community schools were annexed to and consolidated with the Wortham school system, drawing the surrounding countryside into the fold.
And then in 1966, the F. W. Wheeler School for African American students merged with the main Wortham schools.
Buildings were renovated. New structures were added. The district kept on serving its people.
From a two-story frame building raised by Masons and ministers in the 1870s, to a district that bent and stretched and ultimately held together through oil booms and consolidation and integration — the Wortham school system earned every brick in that bell tower, and then some.
What the marker says
The first recorded school in the town of Wortham was a two-story frame structure built in the 1870s by the Masonic Lodge and local Methodist church. The Masons provided supplies and textbooks; ministers served as teachers. The first public school opened in 1883 in a one-room building; Professor Miller and Mrs. Thyrsia Garrison served as the first teachers. A two-story frame building was built in 1890, and in 1891 Wortham became the first independent school district in Freestone County. In 1902 the school building was destroyed and replaced by a brick structure with a bell tower. New facilities were built in 1922 to accommodate increased enrollment. The discovery of oil around Wortham in 1924 caused the town of 1,000 to swell to 20,000 almost overnight. The impact on the school was immediate; one classroom of 18 pupils increased to 84 in a four-day period. Through the years several rural community schools were annexed to and consolidated with the Wortham school system. In 1966 the F. W. Wheeler School for African American students merged with the main Wortham schools. Buildings were renovated and new structures were added to serve the district. (1997)