**Keep in mind that most early “history” is sometimes/ often “general” and “approximate” and may not be totally verifiable!** Kaufman County apparently had “white” settlers around 1840, but Forney received a small influx probably after 1845— and the first mentioning of a “recorded” school in this area was in 1849 in a mentioning by the Commissioners’ Court of a “no-name” schoolhouse/building between the Buffalo and Mustang Creeks on the really old Kaufman-Dallas Roadway. 1850s County records name a Mustang School in the same general area!
The Renshaw School (Lou Emma Price Riter’s HISTORY) was referred to by RITER, and it was “teaching” in the same locality about 1860/1861. Common belief had/has it that the Mustang and Renshaw Schools are the same! The land was owned by an Arthur Renshaw, and the building was located about a half mile east of Mustang Creek and two miles west of Little Buffalo Creek.
1858 Mustang School Board Members (Trustees) were listed as Jacob G. Sheltman and J. H. McIntire (probably was not hard to get a unanimous vote one way or the other!—Themer), and the Teacher was A. M. Wilson.
1859 saw Bailey Daugherty replace Mr. Sheltman on the School Board, and a J. B. Dillingham took over as the Teacher.
1860 found two new School Board Members— Captain Dubart Murphy and Arthur Renshaw—and the new Teacher was Lewis J. Hawks, who left to join the Confederacy and was soon killed in the fighting. Some sources say that George W. McDaniel of nearby Prairieville finished out the school term.
So, as you may have surmised, the Community that was to not too much later become Brooklynn and then Forney was already in existence about a decade or more before the name of the town was ‘Brooklynn”—and then that era became known as “Old Brooklynn”—and the town became known again as “Brooklynn” and then became known as “New Brooklynn”—and then when the town received the first Post Office Charter in the name of FORNEY, we became known the way we have been ever since! **And, sir, that should pretty much answer your question concerning if there was a school or schools and if there was a town before we were officially named FORNEY. 1840s—residents in the area of what is now Forney…..1850s and 1860s—some local schools and communities… ..1870—a named town, Brooklynn….. 1873 and still today, FORNEY and Forney schools…..1870s and 1880s, still more local communities and their schools…..local schools at various sites still existed into the 1940s before either discontinuing or consolidating with the Forney School District…..
…..for example, the old East Fork Academy (shared a building with the Pleasant Grove Baptist Sunday School) became the Markout School District and operated until about 1947. The Pleasant Grove Baptist Church—Markout—used the building for several more years…..finally after sitting vacant most of the time for years, the building was demolished in the late 1990s.**
*Note—Laura Pinson Crane was a former Principal of the Markout School in the early 1900s.*
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