DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Parson McClelland School, up in Upshur County. Now, most stories have one thing happen at a time. One event, one date, one moment you can point to and say — there, that's the night everything changed.
But the night of December 14th, 1876, well, Upshur County didn't get the memo. Let's back up a little. Around 1869, the Reverend William Henry McClelland — Baptist minister, teacher, a man who clearly did not believe in doing things small — built himself a two-story frame building out here.
He lived in it, ran a private school out of it, took in day pupils and boarding pupils both. The Reverend was a serious man with a serious calling. Over forty years in the ministry, he baptized one thousand, three hundred and twenty-four persons.
You don't lose count on a number like that. He was born in Virginia in 1831, and he had built something real out here in East Texas — a school, a community, a legacy in the making. And then came December 14th, 1876.
The building burned. That two-story frame schoolhouse, the one he built, the one he lived in, the one children came from miles around to attend — gone. Now that alone is a tragedy worth marking.
A man's life work, reduced to ash on a cold December night. But here is where the story gets strange, because apparently the universe was not finished with the McClelland family that evening. On that same night — the same night the school burned — the Reverend's son Lee died in a fire.
His step-daughter Nancy Skaggs married a man named R. M. Keasler.
And his first grandson, Mack Florence, was born into the world. Grief. A wedding.
A birth. All of it happening in the dark of one December night while the schoolhouse was still smoldering. That's not a story somebody made up — that's family lore, passed down through the McClellands, because what else do you do with a night like that except hold onto it and tell it again and again until people believe you?
The Reverend himself went on. He had a way of going on. He married four times — to Jane Stanley, to Margaret E.
Blain, to Martha D. Skaggs, and to Leela Wilkinson. He had sixteen children.
Born in Virginia in 1831, he lived until 1897, and he spent those decades baptizing, teaching, marrying, and building. The school is gone. Has been since that December night.
But the marker stands, and the family lore stands with it — a reminder that sometimes an entire human story, with all its loss and love and new beginnings, can fit inside a single night.
What the marker says
Built about 1869 by the Rev. Wm. Henry McClelland, a Baptist minister and teacher. He lived here and operated a private school, with day and boarding pupils, until the 2-story frame building burned on Dec. 14, 1876. Family lore records that on same night, his son Lee died in a fire, step-daughter Nancy Skaggs wed R. M. Keasler, and his first grandson Mack Florence was born. McClelland (1831-1897) was born in Virginia; baptized 1,324 persons in 40 years in the ministry. He married 4 times: To Jane Stanley, Margaret E. Blain, Martha D. Skaggs, Leela Wilkinson. Had 16 children.