School House

Farmers Branch holds claim to the first organized school in Dallas County. The first classes were held in 1846 in the Methodist Church. This school was built around 1900 near the intersection of Valley View and Dennis Lane. Around 1915, the T-shaped building was split into three parts. This one-room portion was relocated to Bee Street in Farmers Branch and used as a home. In 1985, we moved the building to the Historical Park and completed its restoration in 1991. We use educational artifacts in the building to interpret a turn-of-the-century, one-room school.

School House - the Story

The first school classes ever held in the Peters Colony were held in early 1846 right here in Farmers Branch. Students attended classes in the Methodist Church, and the first teacher in Farmers Branch, Thomas C. Williams, taught the classes. Mrs. Mary Ann Ryland West taught the second school in her home in the fall of 1846. Many years later, Mrs. West's daughter Alice remembered the school as "built of logs with puncheon floors and puncheon seats without backs. We used slates that we held on our laps. We hung our wraps and slates on nails in the wall. We had a fireplace and drinking bucket and a common dipper, but each family had their own cups with their lunch." 

Members of the community felt the West home was not in a central location and built a new log school house alongside Rawhide Creek, employing A.J. Downing as the teacher. These early schools were private, sponsored by citizens who joined together to hire a teacher and build a school. They paid the teacher's salary through student tuition. The state constitution of 1876 provided funding for public or free schools and a public school was in operation by the late 1800s.

A Schooling Time Capsule

Unlike today's schools, several grade levels were taught in the same room, and the number of children in each grade level would vary with local populations. In two-story schools, the higher-level grades were taught upstairs, hence the term "high school." Older children were expected to oversee the "low school" if the teacher was occupied upstairs.

A typical school day was 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., with morning and afternoon recesses of 15 minutes each and an hour for lunch. Older students had the responsibility of bringing in water and carrying in coal or wood for the stove. The younger students had responsibilities according to their size and gender such as cleaning the blackboard or chalkboard, taking the erasers outside for dusting and other duties that they were capable of doing.

In early Texas schools, portions of the walls were painted black so they could be written on with chalk and/or the students had their own personal slates at their desks. In rural Texas, younger students primarily used slates and blackboards. Older students getting ready to leave school in a year or two were allowed paper and ink. This was mainly due to economic reasons. Paper and ink were a luxury that many parents could not afford.

The Curriculum

Children sat at single or double desks and were taught the basics: reading, writing, spelling, history and arithmetic, but many times the curriculum included rhetoric, penmanship and elocution.

The most commonly used books were Webster's Blueback Speller and McGuffey's Readers. It was common to have a recitation bench in the front of the room, where children recited poems or speeches, multiplication tables and other memory work. School terms might vary from seven to nine months, sandwiched between fall harvest and spring planting. Like the church, schools were also used for community activities like quilting bees, spelling bees, holiday celebrations, parties and political rallies.

Getting to School

Transportation for children who lived too far to walk was often got to school in a horse-drawn kid hack or sulky, which could only travel a limited distance in a reasonable amount of time each morning and evening, or students might ride a horse. The horses were put out to pasture in an adjoining paddock during the day. In more recent times, students rode bicycles.

The Decline of the One-Room School House

The vast majority of one-room schools in the United States are no longer used as schools and have either been torn down or converted for other purposes. However, in some rural communities, including among the Amish, one-room or two-room schools are still used, primarily for elementary education, with students graduating to local or regional middle and high schools.

The School House's Journey to Today

The school house here at the Historical Park was originally located near the intersection of Valley View and Dennis and was built sometime between 1900 and 1910. In 1915, the city constructed a new brick school house that boasted an auditorium and six classrooms.

Before the new brick school could be built, the old school had to be moved. It was divided into three sections. The part you see here at the Park was used as a residence on Bee Street and moved to the Historical Park in 1985 to be restored to a one-room school appearance. The First Baptist Church of Farmers Branch used the other section of roughly the same size until it was torn down in 1980. The third section, a porch, was used as an animal shed on a local farm and later destroyed.

We interpret the school display as a one-room school from 1900 to 1915. During these years, Farmers Branch teachers included: Minni Moore (1908 to 1909), Fannie Baskett (1908 to 1909), Ednah Andrews (1909 to 1910), Mabel Killough (1910 to 1911), Mr. Linville (1914) and Miss Simpson (1914). The average monthly salary for a teacher in Texas at this time was about $53. Teachers had to follow certain rules, as determined by their community.