Bosque County: Land and People (A History of Bosque County, Texas) Page: 49
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Daisy Bible and later Mrs. Clara Richards
were County School Superintendents for a
number of years.
The principal teacher was responsible for
the operation of the school, subject to
authority and requirements of the trustees
and county Superintendent, to whom reports
were made. The subjects usually required for
the first nine grades in public schools were
taught. Some of the people who taught at
Meridian Creek were: Mrs. Velma Watt,
Prentice, Moorman, Majors, Hall, Saddler,
Vivian Jackson, Viola Bronstad, Zenobia
Schow, Ben Anderson, Louis Powers, Wilma
Parks and Otis (Tobie) Pederson. Teacher
salaries were approximately $60 to $150 per
month.
The school terms were shorter than terms
in non-rural schools in order to allow the
children to help harvest the cotton crop. One
term started November 5, 1927, and ended
May 3, 1928. The historic importance of rural
schools should not be forgotten because these
schools provided the only opportunity for
most of the children to learn "reading,
writing and arithmetic" and other basic
studies. "Spelling Bees" were frequently
conducted at the school.
A club gave some of the boys an opportuni-
ty to buy and feed a baby beef calf. Mr. Tom
Parks, a rancher in the district, assisted with
the baby beef program. According to a "State
Certificate of Weights and Measure" one of
the calves weighed 668 pounds before it was
taken to the Ft. Worth Fat Stock Show. Each
boy exhibited his calf at the show before it
was sold to a bidder.
Meridian Creek School also served as the
recreational and religious center of the
community. Some of the students participa-
ted in literary and athletic activities sponso-
red by the Interscholastic League. Baseball
and basketball games with neighboring
schools were common practice. School pro-
grams during the school year provided inter-
esting entertainment for the community.
Some of the programs included fund raising
projects, such as a "box supper", to provide
money for extra school activities or materials.
The last day of the school term was an
important community activity. There was a
students' program in the early afternoon, an
inter-school baseball game later in the after-
noon, then a supper on the ground and the
presentation of a "Play" in the evening.
During a few weeks in the summer, the
community employed person to teach paro-
chial school. Many of the families were
members of one of the Lutheran churches in
the area.
The school activities of District 62 were
discontinued in 1937 when Meridian Creek
School transferred its students to the Cran-
fills Gap School. A school bus provided
transportation for most of the students.
by Allen B. Ellingson
MT. VIEW
C17
Mt. View Common School District No. 3
originated in 1923. On that day a petition
from Terry Common School District No. 3,
Stanford Common School District No. 58,
and South Neills Creek Common School
District No. 49, was heard to establish a
school for high school advantages. The
proposed consolidated district was to belocated on the mountain, along the rock fence
between the land belonging to a Mr. Wallace
and a Mr. Dittrich, just inside Mr. Dittrich's
pasture.
Construction costs and furnishings for the
four room structure was $4,775.00. The
square shaped building consisted of a long
hallway in the center with two classrooms on
either side.
The first teachers were Katy Kellum, Delia
Smith, and Dee Heattey. Two former teach-
ers at Mt. View, Ben and Ada Rhodes, reside
in Cranfills Gap today. Teachers' salaries
were $80-$85 per month.
Mt. View offered grades one through ten.
In 1924, the enrollment was 88 students.
During the next fourteen years, enrollment
ranged from 41 to 92. The lowest enrollment
of 41 was in 1938.
In 1938, the Mt. View District No. 3 was
given permit to sell and dispose of the
teacherage at a price fixed by local trustees.
Mt. View then consolidated with Cranfills
Gap School District.
by Neet Bushee
MUSTANG
C18
It is not well established just when the
Mustang School was first begun. No official
records available to this writer mentions
Mustang before the year 1914. Mustang
School began with a one-room frame building
near a creek in the Mustang community; it
had one teacher. Later another room and
another teacher were added. The school site
was then changed to its present location near
a fork in the county gravel road. A concrete
building was erected. In 1914-15, there was
only one teacher, Miss Clara Johnson. Public
funds available were $488.99; it is assumed
that this represented a year's salary for the
teacher. The only other expenses mentioned
were for wood, hauling water, or for a new
door latch occasionally. In 1915, the only
teacher was S.L. Powell. Teachers roomed
and boarded with families in the community.
Students carried their lunches in "dinner
buckets" and ate under live oak trees across
the road from the school. Kids from grades
one to seven or eight attended Mustang
School. At one time, the school (1934-35) had
an enrollment of 58. In 1938-39, the school
consolidated with Cranfills Gap School.
Mustang School was noted for its commu-
nity-wide entertainments, usually held on
the last day of the school year. Parents
participated and everyone had fun. The
school produced many staunch citizens-some
illustrious and some just hard-working plain
folks who feared and loved God and were
always ready to help neighbors in time of
need.
When the Mustang School consolidated
with the Cranfills Gap School, the building
was abandoned for a time. Then it was bought
by Bruce Lindsey who used it to house his
bees and to package his honey for sale. It was
then bought by Milford Carlson who remod-
eled the building and lived in it with his
young family for a time. The live oak grove
where the kids shared lunches is dying due
to drought and blight, but the building still
stands as a testimony to all who are interested
in the growth of a nation and this part of
regional history.by Mrs. Ray Hastings
49
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Bosque County History Book Committee. Bosque County: Land and People (A History of Bosque County, Texas), book, 1985; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth91038/m1/65/?q=campbell: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Denton Public Library.