Bodiford’s Brown County Histories: Rural Public Education, 1870 – 1920

The Courage to Change: Rural Public Education in Brown County, 1870 – 1920

“To defend a country you need an army, but to defend a civilization you need education.” – Jonathan Sacks
“Education is the foundation upon which we build our future.” – Christine Gregoire

Written by Carl Bodiford – My study of Brown County history over the last year has supported an overall opinion about heroism: that heroism usually originates from the most ordinary beginnings. Often, the real heroes are unaware of their positive influence on people and events. The tennis player, Arthur Ashe, once said: “True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever cost.” Using this definition, Brown County is blessed with a wealth of persons from a wide variety of professions and vocations who fit this description, and certainly teachers as a group fit easily in this category. Rural teachers are prime example of heroism as defined above. In the early years of Texas public education, facing momentous challenges with little institutional support, and with paltry financial recognition for their efforts, rural teachers equipped generations of students with the basic intellectual tools needed to succeed in a rapidly changing economy.

Interest in education in Brown County increased with rapid population growth in the 1870s. Recently arrived settlers in isolated communities built their own school houses and hired their own teachers. The facilities available and the level of training possessed by the teacher were usually rudimentary at best. The school at Thrifty, (Mullin’s Ranch) gives some insight regarding the educational provisions made for rural students in the early period of Brown County history.  In 1876, John Mullins and R.Y. Cross built a fourteen foot square log cabin school house. In 1877, the two men hired “Uncle Bill” Adams for the monthly pay of forty dollars (approx. 900 in 2015 dollars) to teach sixteen students. Seating and flooring was provided by split cottonwood logs. The one entrance had a door that was covered by cowhide and one window to “look out for” and “spy” Indians. We are told by Maudie Jane Fields in her 1927 Master’s Thesis The Educational History of Brown County that: Indians regularly “came close to holler like coyotes and to disturb and frighten them.” Cowboys driving cattle were known to wave at the easily – distracted students and occasionally stopped to recruit the older boys to join their outfit. In 1877, County School Superintendent J.S. Cleveland, (also Brown County Judge) reported twenty – eight rural schools in the county. The average pay of the sixteen teachers was thirty – eight dollars per month. The length of the school term was only sixty days meaning that these rural teachers received only two months’ pay. By 1881, Judge Cleveland reported forty – seven school “districts” in the county. The term district did not have the same formal meaning that we understand today. Rather a district was an unspecific term referring to a general area serviced by a particular school. A state appointed Superintendent of Education functioned as little more than a figurehead and provided only a marginal amount of guidance.

The apparent apathy of state officials regarding public schools was in reality a political necessity dictated by the dominant socio-political culture of the people of Texas. From the beginnings during the Mexican colonial era through the attempted educational centralization by Governor Edmund J. Davis in the Reconstruction Era, the citizens of Texas demonstrated a militant skepticism toward centralized authority of any type. As a result of overwhelming support for decentralized administration of schools, cities and towns began forming independent school districts while rural schools maintained their autonomy under loose oversight of a County Superintendent. In the waning moments of the Reconstruction government, a newly elected Legislature in 1873 gave complete control of rural school administration to the individual counties. The fact that the County Judge usually filled the role of Superintendent greatly inhibited effective rural school administration. Legal responsibilities as chief judicial officer of the county combined with the political realities attached to his elected office understandably distracted the judge from his educational administrative role. In practice, the local autonomy allowed by the county system of administration cost heavily in the currency of inefficiency and reduced standards. Trustees of individual rural schools set curricula, determined teacher qualifications, devised school calendars around the labor needs of local farms and ranches and made contracts with teachers that could be terminated without reason or repercussion.

Poor working conditions were a main cause of a teacher shortage. Trustees in rural schools were often forced to hire persons without experience or training. All too often, for lack of a better option, trustees were forced to certify the eldest or most advanced student to fill vacant teaching positions. In order to improve the level of teacher training, in 1884, each county was required to hold summer “institutes.” Teachers could theoretically gain an increased salary by attending these meetings. The state created three classes of teacher certification. Teachers with a third grade certification demonstrated minimal knowledge in content areas while teachers who possessed a second grade certification demonstrated significant knowledge in content areas. The teacher with a first grade certificate demonstrated not only a broad understanding in all curriculum areas but also showed formal proof of training in the science of teaching. This cumbersome system was slow to catch on in rural areas where teachers were awarded county certificates based on exams administered by local trustees or the County Superintendent. Not until 1911 was the county examination – certification process ended.

One rural school not listed on the Brown County scholastic rolls was the Griffin School northwest of Brownwood. An African – American couple George and Bettie Griffin built a one – room school house for the education of their children. Oral history from descendants of the Griffins tells us that George requested that County Superintendent Courtney Gray provide funding for a “colored” school in an area near his farm in northwest Brown County. While not listed on the county scholastic roll, family accounts tell us that unspecified assistance was given for building a structure and supplying a salary for a teacher. Between 1905 and 1909, an unknown portion of the ten Griffin children attended this school.

Bettie Harris Griffin (photo provided by Melvin Houston)

The Griffin School School is in the background. The teacher in the foreground is either Helen Johnson of Terrell, Texas or a Ms. Fulbright of Fort Worth Notice the “I’m mad” inscription at the top of the photograph.

Visit the Griffin School at the Brown County Museum of History.

The improvement of schools did not become an important issue for Texans until the beginning of the twentieth century. A new class of educational bureaucrats appeared during the Progressive Era armed with “scientific” methods of measurement.Schools in Texas fared poorly under their scrutiny compared to other (particularly northern) states. The Bulletin of the University of Texas for October 1914 reported that Texas public schools registered an “embarrassingly low” forty – fourth out of forty – eight states in the Union.

Windom School c. 1908

Rural schools were identified as the primary source of the problem. All of the statistical indicators were much higher in urban areas. Observers concluded that school consolidation as the answer. Fewer, larger schools would cut costs and facilitate more effective guidance from education bureaucrats in Austin. In 1915, the Legislature passed the first cumpulsory school attendance law setting a minimum standard of sixty days attendance beginning in the 1916 – 17 school year. In 1918, the state began providing free textbooks. Reduced population and worsening economic conditions pressed many living in isolated areas of the county to support consolidation. Brown County voters in rural districts began to see the benefits of centralized administration. Where the County Superintendent recorded sixty – two schools in 1903, by 1923 the number had dropped to fifty. State funding for public schools was greatly increased in 1920 and in 1921 a new certification law required that all new certificates be based on college studies.

The revolutionary changes occurring in Texas education were evident in Brown County. The number of teachers holding the highest level certification (1st grade) increased from forty – two per cent in 1881 to eighty – four per cent in 1921.The annual average of school attendance rose from seventy – three days in 1885 to 100 days in 1927. Expenditure per student increased from $3.25 in 1882 to $7.50 in 1917 and $14.00 by 1925. In response to a rapidly changing industrial economy, the citizens of Brown County madefinancial commitment necessary to build a modern educational system that would prepare their children for the challenges of the twentieth century.

Cedar Point School c. 1921

First Grade Class Indian Creek School c. 1932