Education Research Notes

Education Research Notes

Notes Extracted from Handbook of Texas Online

CROSSROADS The settlement was founded before 1897, when the Crossroads school served twenty-three pupils. In 1904 the community had four schools serving 416 black pupils and sixty-three white pupils.

GILL In 1895 the community had a population of forty, and by 1896 it had a general store. Its post office closed in 1902. In 1904 the Gill school district comprised four schools serving 275 black students and one school serving forty-four white students. Gill had an estimated population of ten and one business in 1933. During the mid-1940s the settlement had a school, two churches, two businesses, and an estimated population of twenty-five.

GRANGE HALL. In 1897 its two schools enrolled fifty-seven white pupils, and in 1904 the community had a school for forty-five white students and another for 104 black students. In the 1930s there were three churches and three schools in the dispersed community. By 1978 Grange Hall comprised a school, a cemetery, and a number of dwellings scattered over two miles of State Highway 43. In 1992 the Grange Hall school had been closed and the building converted into one of three churches still located at the site.

GROVER. In 1904 the Grover school district had six schools serving 333 black students and two schools serving sixty-one white students.

JONESVILLE By 1892 the population had grown to an estimated 275, and Jonesville had Baptist and Methodist churches and a saloon. In 1904 the school district included two schools serving thirty-five white students and three schools serving 223 black students.

LEIGH The community of Antioch, which had a predominantly black population, was founded before 1900 and was centered around the Antioch Baptist Church. Antioch was renamed Leigh in 1901, after the wife of John W. Furrh, who owned much of the land on the railroad, and that same year the Leigh post office opened. In 1904 Leigh had one school with five white students and four schools with 297 black students.

NESBITT. By 1896 Nesbitt had a voting box, and in 1904 the community had five schools serving 256 black pupils and one school serving twenty-seven white pupils. In the 1930s the dispersed community consisted of one business, two churches, two schools, and a number of scattered dwellings.

WASKOM. By 1884 Waskom had an estimated population of 150 inhabitants, two black Baptist churches, a school, a sawmill, and four steam gristmills and cotton gins. The population had grown to an estimated 207 people in 1904. Oil was discovered near Waskom in 1924, and Waskom's population increased to some 1,000 inhabitants by the mid-1920s. In 1930 the Waskom Independent School District served 277 white pupils and 807 black pupils in segregated facilities.

WOODLAWN,. In 1904 Woodlawn's school system included five schools serving some 370 black pupils and two schools serving fifty-five white pupils.

WYALUCING PLANTATION. Wyalucing, the two-story brick plantation home of Beverly Lafayette Holcombe, on a hilltop in Marshall, Texas, was built between 1848 and 1850 by slave labor. In 1880 the home was purchased by former slaves of Harrison County for Bishop College, and Wyalucing was in use as the music hall in the 1940s.

MARSHALL Marshall also benefited during its early years by becoming a regional education center. Marshall University, although more of a secondary school than an institution of higher learning, and Marshall Masonic Female Institute attracted hundreds of students from outlying areas during the era of the Civil War and Reconstruction. Higher education for African Americans^qv began at Wiley College in 1873 and Bishop College in 1881. The latter moved to Dallas in 1961, but Wiley remained. East Texas Baptist College was founded in 1914 and became East Texas Baptist University in 1984.