Cherokee County History Page: 30
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John B. Schochler, teacher at left,
and Black Jack School's students
ca. 1900. School was held in the
Black Jack Church building until
area residents built a separate
structure for it. Students of all ages
attended the single-room school, a
common practice in early days. -
Ruth Wallace Ross CollectionJACKSONVILLE INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT
The first "schoolhouse" erected in present Jacksonville was built
by Hundley Wiggins and Felix C. Hardgraves in 1846-47. It was
located at the east end of the City Cemetery near a spring of water
on the old Saline Road. Jane Walker was the teacher.
In 1873 the first school in the new town of Jacksonville was a
private school called Jacksonville Collegiate Institute. It held
classes in the Methodist Church building, a frame structure on
South Patton Street, and was founded by John A. Patton, for whom
the street was named. He was a son of a Presbyterian minister, who
had moved to Texas in the 1850's. In 1874, Jacksonville Collegiate
Institute moved to a frame building erected for it on a lot later
occupied by the Methodist Church on South Bonner Street. In
spite of high tuition, enrollment passed the 100-mark. R. E. Hendry
succeeded Patton as teacher. The building was used in 1880 for a
private school with A. D. Davies as Principal, but the following year
marked the beginning of public education in that particular struc-
ture.
On Jan. 8, 1881, a meeting of the Trustees of a public school
named Jacksonville Academy was called in the home of A. J.
Chessher, who was elected President. Trustees present were E. B.
Ragsdale, C. G. Boles, J. K. Mitchel, B. F. Britain, and W. H.
Lovelady, said to have resigned. On Jan. 18, 1881, J. M. Hubbard
was employed as teacher, and "the schoolhouse was turned over to
him." He was to pay his own expenses and receive income from fees
charged. Tuition for orthography, reading, writing, and mental
arithmetic was $2; English grammar and arithmetic $2.50; geome-
try, $3; and Latin and Greek, $4.
According to J. A. Templeton, historian, in 1887 a two-story,
frame structure was built on the hill where the Tomato Bowl
Stadium now stands. That building was used until a storm, called
the worst in Jacksonville history, flattened the building in 1890.
These items from The Jacksonville Intelligencer newspaper tell of
the developments of the town's public schools:
A meeting was held last Friday to start a movement to build a new
school. Trustees Frank Templeton, C. S. Boles, A. L. Merritt are to
select a site. The Building Fund Committee consists ofDr. L. L. Lloyd,
Frank Templeton, Dr. J. M. Brittain, W R. Settles, M. D. Morris, and
W A. Brown. - July 24, 1885.
The public schools of Jacksonville started this week with 95 pupils
in attendance. Within a few weeks the number will probably be
swelled to 125. - Sept. 11, 1885.
Contractor Josh Morris is progressing satisfactorily on the newpublic school building. It shows up handsomely now from the inter-
section of Main and Commerce Streets (on present site of the Tomato
Bowl Stadium). - Dec. 25, 1885.
In 1891 as provisions were being made for a new public school, the
Jacksonville Education Association was organized and a private
school at the northeast corner of South Bonner Street and Sunset
Avenue, was opened as Sunset Institute with a capital stock of
$10,000. On this site today is the L. E. Martin home. Directors
included J. A. Templeton, J. H. Bolton, W. A. Brown, J. L. Douglas,
and D. W. Bagley. Incorporators were M. D. Morris, W. P. De-
vereux, R. W. Morgan, S. E. Jones. Trustees were Bolton, Temple-
ton, Brown, Douglas, and Bagley. Continuing until 1894, the assets
of the school were given to the Alexander Collegiate Institute when
it was moved from Kilgore to Jacksonville by the East Texas
Annual Conference of The Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
Founded by Dr. Isaac Alexander in 1873, it later became Alexander
College and operated on this site until it was moved to its present
site on College Avenue. Its name was changed to Lon Morris
College in 1924.
By the early 1890's, a second public school operated by the town
was built "down the hill" south of the location of the demolished
building. That was the first brick school building in the town.
Several smaller buildings across the street were used as classrooms
as the number of students increased.
In 1906, bonds in the amount of $25,000 were voted for the
erection of a school building on the present site of the Tomato Bowl
Stadium. After a delay of uncertainty concerning the title to the
land, given by C. S. Bolton, and the contractor's slowness in finish-
ing the building, the cornerstone was laid in 1910. The structure
was completed in 1912. The Board of Trustees then included J. T.
Smith, J. E. McFarland, M. H. Fite, T. E. Gillespie, John Howard,
G. L. Newton, and J. D. Williams. Final cost of the building was
$45,000.
That building, the latest in architectural style at the time, was
erected for a high school, but before the building was finished
several elementary grades were placed there. Mrs. V. P. Monkress,
known to hundreds as "Miss Lavinia," told of moving her class into
the building before it was finished and making a door out of a
window with steps leading down into the room. The windows had to
be kept closed because of sawdust and shavings that blew into herr-.--
?x
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Cherokee County Historical Commission (Tex.). Cherokee County History, book, 2001; Jacksonville, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth354360/m1/40/: accessed May 4, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Cherokee County Historical Commission.