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- Schools
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- The term "higher
education" was a condition not easily attained in the early
days of the high plains of Texas. Most people (not all by any
means) were able to attend some school to learn the basic reading,
writing, and arithmetic, and to acquire some skill in their use.
It was not uncommon to find people who went to school only to
the fourth, fifth, or sixth grade. Many had to leave school to
help earn a living for the family. As the plains settlers moved
in, more and more families were here to help start schools and
more families had children of school age. As these schools were
started, the teacher often found that several members of the
same family were all starting school together, having never before
attended school. Many persons were grown in size when they were
starting to school for the first time. This was a general situation
and was continued for several years.
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- Abernathy
School
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- Mrs. Ola Legg, wife of
the town doctor, taught the first school in Abernathy. A private
residence was made available for the first school and Dr. Overton
financed the school. Beulah Wilson taught the next year because
Mrs. Legg had a baby to attend. The first trustees were J.I.
Powell, Vint Stambaugh, and J.C. Atwood. Mrs. Legg returned to
teaching in Abernathy in 1911 and taught here until 1922, except
for two years when she taught at Petersburg. In 1922 she was
elected County Superintendent of Hale County and resigned her
job in Abernathy.
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- The first building to
be designated as a schoolhouse was a square bungalow at 9th Street
and Jones, northwest of where the red brick school stood. This
building burned in 1911. Mrs. Legg and Mary Evans were the teachers
.in this building.
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- While a new building was
being constructed for school, classes were held in the Yellow
Hotel, which had been moved in from Bartonsite. The hotel was
located on the northeast corner of the block west of the town
square. The hotel also burned.
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- The next school building
was a wood frame building built in 1913. The school had three
rooms and was located where the original part of the red brick
school stood. Two rooms were added to this building and later
two little buildings were built for the growing enrollment.
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- Abernathy was classified
as a high school and the first graduating class was 1913. The
first student to receive a diploma was Helen Evans. Others in
the class were Susie Ragland, Wenzl Matejowsky, Verner Oliver,
Elvere Tannehill, Willie Minnie Matejowsky, and Velva Oliver.
This was the largest graduating class in a rural school in Hale
County in 1913.
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- Enrollment had swelled
to sixty- five by the term 1915-1916.
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- Abernathy was named an
Independent School District in 1917.
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- The wooden school building
was moved to the Thomas place north of Abernathy and a red brick
school building was built in 1917. An architect from Austin designed
the structure. The two story building had eight classrooms, an
office, and a study hall downstairs, and an auditorium on the
second floor. Walls were plaster, floors were wood, and the outside
was red brick.
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- Water was hauled from
a windmill southwest of the building. Cleaning was done by the
students and the teachers. Lunches were carried from home in
pails or boxes.
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- Clubs in town had fund
raising activities to help furnish the auditorium. The Mothers
Club had an ice cream supper to help raise money for seats in
the new auditorium.
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- In 1927 a wing was added
on the north and south ends of the two story building. Eight
classrooms were located in the south wing and an auditorium was
in the north wing. The original auditorium was converted into
classrooms, which included a homemaking lab.
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- Again organizations helped
furnish the auditorium. The Community Club sponsored a Parcel
Post Sale to raise funds for curtains and screens for the new
auditorium. A live pig was donated by Johnson Riley and the teachers
donated a live turkey to be auctioned. Many other items were
also offered for sale.
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- Sidewalks were added as
different organizations and classes at school raised funds for
the financing.
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- Athletic competition was
among the schools in the county. A dirt football field with plenty
of grass burrs and outdoor basketball with a dirt court were
the facilities
- The eleventh grade was
added during the 1930's, and the twelfth grade was added in 1941.
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- County Line, Eagle Springs,
and Reed schools consolidated with Abernathy and the students
started to school here.
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- A gym was built in 1935
onto the west side of the auditorium. A building was moved from
Eagle Springs in 1938 to serve as the Homemaking cottage.
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- In 1941 a bus garage was
added to the facilities.
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- Lakeview consolidated
with Abernathy in 1944.
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- A bond election provided
funds for a new high school building and a cafeteria. The cafeteria
was added to the west side of the gym and was opened in 1944.
The high school, built where the administration offices are located,
was completed in February, 1945.
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- More improvements were
made to the school facilities in 1946. Curbs were run on the
east and west sides of the football field for the entire length
of the field and bleachers were constructed on the east and west
sides. These steel grandstands were ninety feet long and had
eight rows of seats. Concrete tennis courts 84 x 108 feet were
added in 1947.
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- The enrollment was still
on the increase. The auditorium was converted into classrooms
in 1949. A new auditorium with a band hall on the west side was
completed in 1950.
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- A new high school building
was constructed in 1955. This also included a new gym. The homemaking
department and the ag department were finished at the new high
school in 1960. Junior High (6th, 7th, and 8th grades) was moved
to the old high school building.
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- An elementary building
and cafeteria was constructed south of the auditorium in 1960.
The old red school building was torn down in 196 I. The gym remains
as the oldest building on campus.
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- More improvements were
made with the building of a Junior High building just in front
of where the old red brick building stood. The fourth and fifth
grades occupy this building now.
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- An Academic Center with
the Junior High school located underneath was built in 1974.
Barracks for vocational education were moved to the west of the
high school and were later replaced with a new building in 1978.
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- In 1981 the old high school
building, later used for the Junior High building, and then for
part of grade school, was torn down to the concrete floor. The
concrete floor seemed to be the only salvageable item in the
structure. The administrative offices now occupy the newly constructed
building.
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- Improvements over the
entire campus include a new football field, an all-weather track,
new tennis courts, an elementary recreation building, elementary
playground equipment, and an outdoor learning center, which includes
a map of the United States layed in concrete.
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- The residents in the Abernathy
School District take pride in their school facilities and the
accomplishments of its students. They support the school and
the many school activities.
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- The future of our nation
depends on the education of the coming generations.
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- Renfroe Dugout
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- J.H. Lutrick, W.H. Pearce,
Mr. Horlacher, Mr. Spears, and John H. Reed were neighbors northeast
of what is now Abernathy. In 1893 these neighbors had a total
of eleven children of school age who needed an education. No
building was available, so an abandoned dugout was used.
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- The county would assist
with the school and help pay the teacher if there were at least
twelve pupils. A younger child of one of the families was admitted
to school so the county would help with the finances. The teacher
was Lula Beasley, who was paid twenty-five dollars per month.
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- The dugout faced east.
The morning sun helped warm the dugout if weather permitted the
door to be opened. There were homemade benches, like picnic benches.
The students used their knees to write on their slates. Paper
was too scarce to waste in a classroom.
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- The school probably was
only here one year. The twelve children included Clint, Molly,
and May Pearce, John and Nancy Horlacher, Lula and Ray Spears,
Arthur, Alfred, and Vada Reed, and Carrie and Robert Lutrick.
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- A tale from
the Renfroe Dugout School
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- The school was held in
a dugout that a family had abandoned, and there was an earthen
ledge about two feet wide around the room.
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- One of the girls of the
school, perched on the ledge, had seen a mouse run across the
ledge and into a hole in the dirt wall. The students thought
it was funny.
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- When a bull snake came
crawling out of the hole, carrying the little mouse, the girl
on the ledge fell off onto a lid of a lunch pail that had molasses
in it.
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- Ivey School
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- Established in 1892, the
Ivey School was six miles east of the Lutrick homestead, about
one mile east of FM 400 and four miles north of FM 54.
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- T.L. Vanvacter was the
first teacher. Trustees were J.M. Snider and J.N. Donohoo.
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- The three-room school
was moved to a new location just south of FM 54 and FM 400 crossroads.
Ivey School consolidated with Star School to form Lakeview School.
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- Pearce School
/ Strip School
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- What was originally called
Pearce School became known as Strip School as the years passed.
Begun in 1895, the first teacher was Leslie Maupin. Trustees
were W.H. Pearce, A.L. Maupin, and M.T. Cocke. In the report
of schools in 1913 it was reported to be one of the best one-room
schools in the county.
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- The schoolhouse was on
land owned by Mr. Tedford and was located to the northwest of
the Pearce Chapel-Strip Cemetery.
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- Students called the schoolhouse
"round top" school although it didn't have a round
top. The construction of the roof was just a little different
than what some of the children had seen.
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- A Church of Christ preacher
purchased the building after the school was discontinued. The
building was moved to a location between Strip and Petersburg.
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- Weather and time took
a toll on the building and it "just blew away".
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McWhorter
School
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- McWhorter School was established
in 1896, with Ida L. Oliver as the first teacher. The McWhorters
lived in a mud house just across. The little schoolhouse was
about fifteen feet by thirty feet. Living with her sister and
her family, Dr. and Mrs. E.M. Harp, Miss Oliver drove the distance
by horse and buggy to school.
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- In order to be more centrally
located the school building was moved to a site on the Saigling
Ranch across east from the Oswalt farm six miles north of the
present city of Abernathy.
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- The school district went
to the south as far as the Lubbock County and Hale County line.
The district included the section where the city of Abernathy
was founded.
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- Mrs. A.H. Reed, whose
maiden name was Cooper, taught at McWhorter School in 1908-1909.
Miss Cooper went to Plainview in a buggy and purchased all the
school supplies. The pupils then paid for them.
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- The immigrants moving
into this area made the school enrollment swell. By mid-term
that year there were twenty-eight students.
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- When Christmas came, 1909,
Miss Cooper and Mrs. Legg, the Abernathy teacher, put their pupils
together and gave a public program and had a Christmas tree.
Dr. Legg and R.H. Hester helped them. No evergreen tree was available
and very few Christmas decorations. They used an old apple tree
which they covered with cotton-every limb and twig. Handmade
decorations were used and festooning of strung cranberries and
popcorn. There was a full house and many gifts.
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- McWhorter was a community
center. A Baptist Sunday School singings each Sunday night, and
prayer meetings on Wednesday night were part of the activities
at the school building. Sometimes they brought chairs from home
to seat everyone.
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- When the schoolhouse burned
in 1921, a new school was built two miles west of the old one
and the name was changed to Science Hill.
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- County Line
School
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- The late summer of 1901
found three men, John Pettit, Will Murray, and A.O. Vaughn, planning
to educate their children. They bought the lumber from Canyon
City and erected a frame building one and a half miles east of
the present County Line. Eleven grades were taught for a term
of nine months. The pupils warmed by a blast heater which burned
coal hauled from Canyon City. Various kinds of books were used
for texts. New double desks were purchased for the school because
logs were not plentiful. The pupils, of which were mostly Pettit's,
came to school on horseback and in buggies. The pupils' families
and the teacher received mail sometimes as often as once a week
from the Post Office Hale Center.
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- In 1910 the second teacher
was elected to help the present teacher. This lady's sister was
hired to teach music and a piano was brought from Swisher County.
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- A school was built in
1917 on the five acres donated by Mr. Murray. This one room building
replaced the one room building then in use. Two rooms were added
later. There were about seventeen students then. Another wooden
building was built on the southeast corner hr the older students.
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- In 1926 anew, modern,
brick building, costing $20,000 was erected. There were six classrooms,
a library, and an auditorium equipped with stage and dressing
rooms. A laboratory and equipment were added later.
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- County Line School consolidated
with Abernathy in 1935 and the brick building was torn down.
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- Star School
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- Star School was established
in 1904. J.W. Ware was the first teacher. The first trustee was
John Reed. Another teacher was Jim Taylor, a widower who had
two small daughters who lived with his parents between Happy
Union and Lockney.
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- The Star School was located
two miles south of the Lutrick homestead, on the southeast corner
of the Vernon Bartlett farm one mile north of FM 54 five miles
west of 1-27.
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- School dismissed for awhile
in the fall one year so the boys could help herd cattle to Hereford
to send to market in Kansas City.
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- Star School and Ivey School
consolidated to form the Lakeview school and the schoolhouse
was moved there.
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- Bartonsite
School
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- Bartonsite was platted
in 1907, a building was secured for the school, and Bartonsite
School started in 1908. B.W. Wilkins was the first teacher. The
trustees were J.J. Barton, J.P. Carr, and E. Harlan.
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- The school records show
Bartonsite School consolidated with several other schools to
become Cotton Center School in 1925.
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- Caldwell
School
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- Caldwell School was located
nine miles south west of Abernathy. This was a one room school
with about thirty students. The teacher, Ruby Lattimore, lived
north of Abernathy and drove a buggy fourteen miles to school
and then home each day.
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- Lakeview
School
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- Established in 1914, the
school houses at Star and Ivey were moved together to form the
Lakeview School The first teacher was A.H. Tedford and trustees
were J.B. Jones, Elbert Overton, and G.C. Pearce. It was organized
as an Independent School District in 1919, with Star and Ivey
schools consolidating.
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- A brick schoolhouse was
built in the 1920's. An auditorium was included in the building.
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- In 1943 the students at
Lakeview went to Abernathy to school, and the residents voted
in March, 1944 to consolidate with Abernathy.
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- Reed School
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- Established in 1918, the
first teacher was Hazel Crouch. The first trustees were A.H.
Reed, J.H. Brown, and C.H. Buckingham. The one room school was
located on one acre of land. Heated by a coal stove, the teacher
usually arrived one hour early to light the stove so the school
room would be warm when the children arrived. The coal shed outside
was filled the first of the fall to last all winter, if it lasted
that long. Waste paper was used to start the fire.
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- There was a cloak closet.
The teacher and the students did the cleaning. Punishment was
sweeping the school, usually done after school.
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- Grades one through seven
were taught here. There were about twenty-five children. Sometimes
there were only two or three in each grade.
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- The school ground was
small. There was one slide and some swings. They played games
and ball. There was a fifteen minute recess in the morning, an
hour for lunch, and another fifteen minute recess in the afternoon.
A handheld bell was rung to summon the students in from recess
and lunch. Pupils lined up orderly to march in and out of the
room.
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- The children brought their
lunch and ate outside when the weather was pretty. They ate at
their desks when the weather did not permit going outside to
eat, Sandwiches, fruit, and cookies were the usual lunch brought
from home.
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- Parents were willing to
help when called upon to do something for the school. They always
came to the programs.
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- In 1937 the students were
sent by bus to Abernathy to school and the school consolidated
with Abernathy in 1940. The school building was moved to Abernathy
and used as the ag shop at school. It was later a residence near
the depot.
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- Science Hill
School
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- Science Hill School was
established in 1921 after the McWhorter School burned. The school
was named by C.D. Hughes in memory of a school by that name in
Kentucky. The first teacher was Helen Evans. The school was located
six miles north and two and three-fourths west of Abernathy.
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- In 1937 an election affected
the division of this district and the consolidation of the south
side wit h Abernathy and the north side with Cotton Center was
made.
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- Eagle Springs
School
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- Established in 1925, the
Eagle Springs School was named for the springs up the draw. It
is said that an eagle had been seen there. The first teacher
was Vera Truett. The first trustees were A.N. Johnson, C.I. Rhodes,
and H.M. Moorhead.
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- The school opened in a
two room house furnished by N.G. Moorhead. In 1926 a red brick
school building with two rooms was built. Lucy Garrison was teacher
of the lower grades. Bess Houston taught the lower grades at
one time.
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- A one room building was
built on the school yard in 1931. There were three teachers for
one or two years, then back to two teachers. In 1934, the juniors
and seniors went to Abernathy. Consolidation with Abernathy came
in 1935 and the school bus picked up the students for the 1935-1936
term.
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- This school was located
on FM 54 six miles west of 1-27.
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- Some of the teachers at
Eagle Springs include: Johnny Watson, Holly Watson, Icelia Crouch,
Hazel Crouch, Lois Pollard, Loray Covington, Jerry Moorhead,
Harshal Vandervort, Vera Truett, Lucy Garrison, Bess Houston,
and Mr. Matthews.
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- East Ward
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- In 1945, Mr. Swinburn,
Superintendent of the Abernathy schools, saw a need for the children
of color to be provided an education in Abernathy. Classes were
started January 2, 1946, in the old Gulf service station building.
This building was two blocks east of the red brick school building.
Seven pupils enrolled that semester, but when the 1946-1947 term
started, there were nineteen students. The teacher was Mamie
Rosborough.
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- Before this school was
started, the children went to Lubbock for schooling, or they
did not attend public school.
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- The school was accredited
for ten grades. However, most of the high school age students
attended Dunbar in Lubbock.
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- A building was obtained
in the east part of town and classes were held there until 1965.
The school was then closed, and the students attended school
with the other children of the community.
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- The 1941 school census
showed ten students in the district and the 1943 school census
showed fifteen students in the district.
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