(1 Coats School—located on today’s University Drive; 2nd one built 1926—seesaws, slides, merry-goround, swings on tall, metal pipes with ropes…..This school may have been the “Lodge” building that for a long time sat on Old Hwy. 80 a little before Prairie View Cemetery.
(2) Cedar School—probably 1st called Elm Springs in 1898—Through the years, many students came from “Gossett Farm” and spoke little English, necessitating classes held ½ of each day in English and “Tex-Mex.”
(3) Forney Public School—located a few yards from where the “old McKellar store” stood in 1870— grades 8-12
(4) Forney High School—1923-1939 and called Lewis High School on Buffalo Street
(5) Independence Consolidated School, No. 3— consolidation of Grand View (previously Long Prairie located on Porter’s Bluff Road, Kaufman Co.) and “Old” Independence (Henderson County) and Gravel Hill (south of Shiloh Cemetery)—opened in 1924 south of Styx, which finally became the school’s name in 1937
(6) Rand School—was the “set point of most of Rand’s community life—Students who attended considered it the “golden days of their learning.” Of all the early school articles I have found, Rand’s is by far the longest and most glorious!
(7) Kemp Schools—1904: 2 ½ story red brick, tallest building in Kemp’s history, graduated a total of 3 students in its first year, 1905— was torn down in 1936 for the building of a needed elementary school, and a two-story (building built in 1924) that had been used as the high school burned in 1968.
(8) Phoenix High School (1917) burned in 1928 and replaced with Stubbs High School, which was known for its trade/vocational schooling. When it closed during World War II times, transfers went to Kemp, leaving a grade school until 1950.
(9) Kaufman Grammar School—built in 1894 by Albert Wirtz of Switzerland and burned in 1901. Had been the 1st public school built there after the city took over the schools in 1884! (heated by wood fires, as evidenced by the wood stacks and two tall chimneys)
(10) Scurry-Rosser School was consolidated in 1929, one of the 1st in the state, and became an independent district in 1956. 1929: new, white-framed building for grades 7-11, while the 1st six grades were housed in various buildings!
(11) Lewis Academy—established in Forney, 1892, by Mr. E. C. Lewis, whose parents were residents of the town of Brooklyn, which was renamed “Forney” in 1874; in operation 1893-1903
(12) Mrs. Westley’s Kindergarden—1920s private school in Terrell, Texas, at 700 South Rockwall Street
(13) St. Martin’s Academy—1902 at Layden’s Ridge near Forney and averaged about 80 “day students” and 20-30 “boarding students;” disbanded 1945-1946
(14) Forney Sanitarium and Boarding School—1903 (North Texas Hospital Training School for Nurses)—closed 1905
And this concludes the look back of some of the “pictured” early schools of the Kaufman County area. Thanks for asking me to do this. I learned more information, and Mrs. Warren (teacher) would be proud that I have not just been “hanging around.”
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