The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 51, July 1947 - April, 1948 Page: 51
406 p. : ill., ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Education in Texas during the Spanish-Mexican Periods 51
were well educated, but many of them had no more preparation
than a few months attendance in some backwoods school." Sal-
aries were too low to attract properly qualified persons. "School-
masters are generally needy,"'40 was a common saying. One
teacher in Austin's colony was hired at the munificent salary of
board and lodging plus $1.50 per month per pupil, two-thirds
of which could be paid in young cattle.41 The life of a teacher
was not entirely an academic one. Miss Frances Trask, who
opened at Independence the first boarding school for girls in
Texas in a building which later housed Baylor University, was a
cultured lady as well as a fearless frontierswoman. Wrote one of
her former pupils:
When it was necessary for her to do so, she mounted her Texas
pony, swung a six-shooter on one horn of her saddle, and unattended
would ride a distance of 50 to 75 miles, the whole route infested
with Indians and other lawless characters.42
Settlers on outlying farms who wanted their children to have
the opportunity of attending a school would arrange for the
children to board in a town. Sometimes the schoolmaster and
the older boys would "camp out" at the school.43 In time a num-
ber of boarding schools arose, the most famous being that of
Miss Trask.
The best school in Texas was the academy of T. J. Pilgrim,
who had come to Texas from New York in 1828. Educated at
Hamilton Literary and Theological Seminary, the forerunner of
Colgate University, Pilgrim opened a private school at San Felipe
early in 1829. Within a short time he had forty pupils. Pilgrim's
description of his schoolhouse is enlightening.
In a grove near the center of the town is a rude log cabin
about 18 x 22 feet, the roof is covered with boards held down by
weight-poles, the logs are unhewn and with cracks neither chinked
soWinnie Allen (ed.), "Autobiography of George W. Smyth," Southwestern His-
torical Quarterly, XXXVI, 2o2.
40S. R. Fisher to S. E Austin, January 22, 1832, in E. C. Barker (ed.), The
Austin Papers (3 vols.; Washington and Austin, 1924-28), II, 739.
41Contract of J. T. Garner, November 29, 1825, in Eby, Education in Texas:
Source Materials, 94. Original in the Nacogdoches Papers.
42R. C. Burleson, Life and Writings (Waco, 1go0), 309.
43D. G. Wooten (ed.), Comprehensive History of Texas (2 vols.; Dallas, 1898),
1, 655.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 51, July 1947 - April, 1948, periodical, 1948; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101119/m1/69/: accessed April 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.