The first school at or near Tap, Texas, was located about one mile west and one half mile north of the Tap store. The land was on the Airhart place, sold for the sum of $5.00 to the county judge and paid to Mr. C.A. McKnight, the presiding county judge at that time. consignees, J.H. and Avy Airheart, husband and wife, sold a specified plot of land to be used for the purpose of building a school house on, belong to Mr. C.A. McKnight and his successors in office in trust for the sole purpose of school. Consignees: J.H. Airheart Avy Airheart (Seal) Count Clerk Acknowledgement: Fred O. McFall, County Clerk Recorded October 20, 1898 at 4:00 p.m.I have a list of several of the school teachers who had certificates and who taught schools in the county.
R.F. Self 1901 and 1902 R.S. Crawford 1903 and 1904 Ford Cotton 1903 and 1904 Aura Adams 1903 and 1904 Annet Tinsley 1904 Clara Locket 1904 and 1905 Cora Lindsey 1904 and 1905 L.E. Walker 1905 and 1906 Edna McClain 1910 and 1911 Lila Garrett 1920 and 1921 Debbie Cross 1906 and 1907 L. Jackson 1906 and 1907 Mrs. L. Jackson 1907 and 1908 Lizzie Perkins 1914 and 1915 Eliza Greer 1906 and 1907 Callie Smith 1917 and 1918 Annie Cross 1920 and 1921Several of the Red Mud girls were able to take a teacher's examination under Mr. L.E. Walker, who managed to be on the examining board and was able to see that they always passed the examination and got about a third grade certificate to teach in the country schools. Then later they were able to go on to school and finish their education.
During the time this little school was in operation, several teachers taught there. Among whom was Mr. and Mrs. L. Jackson, Lora Lindsey, Firm Self, that I can remember, before it moved away and changed to Red Top building or I should say a larger building in about 1909. It was about 30 x 50 by the year of 1910. a Miss Queen McPheran was hired to teach this school.
Mr. Firm Self was the first school teacher in the locality, Cora was the next one. So many people were interested in sending their children to school they moved closer to send their children to Mrs. Cora Linsey. So many she had to resign and leave there. After cutting the district and making two schools, the attendance was about the same as the community had settled up and more families had moved in.
This school house was located just about a hundred yards north of where Douglas Hinson's house now stands. I would say there was an attendance of 30 or 40 pupils by this time. The north end of this district built a small school and called it SHINNERY TWIG. I would say there were as many as 25 pupils who went to it. In later years this school was moved out on what was then the public road and the name was changed to PEACEFUL HILL and the school was held there for several years. Now to think about the other school from this district, which had grown to a nice sized community building, a much larger building, which would be small now, but looked big then, I would say they had 50 or more pupils.
This building was located on the Hinson place, just west of the cemetery. They painted it white with a Red Top, so it was called RED TOP for years. It was used for all community gatherings, anytime school was not in session. Church services for the Baptist Church was held there, also the Lodge Woodmen of the World held their meetings there. All the civic community meetings as well as the Christmas trees and Literary Society Plays and the cemetery dinners were spread there where everyone attended. This building stayed there until 1920, when it was decided to move it a mile further south. The school further south, known as the TURKEY HOLLER or the TOBIE SMITH SCHOOL disbanded and some of those pupils came up there to school. The other pupils further south went to another little school that had been constructed down in Kent county, called the BUD MORRISON SCHOOL. I think it is quite a coincidence that as much as has been said about Tap, Texas, that it never had a Tap School. The AIRHEART SCHOOL was the first and only school located nearest to the store. Professor R.F. (Firm) Self was the first teacher. About the most prominent person in the community for a period of time was professor E.L. (Earnest) Walker, school teacher who taught the little AIRHEART SCHOOL for a couple of years. All the students liked him so much that when he accepted another school and moved about five miles from the first school my brothers asked to be transferred to the other school and walked all that distance to be able to go to their old teacher.
I will always remember the Perkins family, J. T. and Maggie Perkins. They had two children, a boy Jim and a daughter, Lizzie, a school teacher. They came to Tap in 1903, from Jones county, they were close friends of our family down there, when ct they came to Tap they were still close by. Firm Self taught the first school at the Airheart school near Tap and John Self lived over on the river called Catfish and raised a large family. Only one of the family still lives near here; Mrs. Lena Hinson lives at Kalgary on the home place of she and her husband, Right Hinson. I failed to be able to get the names of the children of the family, but there were several.
There was a man by the name of Theophelas Danforth, a half brother to Elihu Luce, who ran the Tap store until the last of the existence of Tap. Mr. Danforth had three children that I can remember. His wife passed away in early life and the father raised the children alone. There were two girls, Ruth and Ruby, and one son, Fred. Fred Danforth married May Turner, who was the daughter of Bud Turner, who was a blacksmith in the early days of the settlement and Fred was also a blacksmith. The two men moved into Spur and ran a blacksmith shop for quite some time. They finally sold their shop and Danforth moved to Red Land, New Mexico. I believe one of the girls is still living in Portales, New Mexico, she married a Mr. Bilberry and raised a family there. All of the others have passed away. Another family of the Tap community by the name of Allcorn were leaders of the community. there were two brothers, Frank and Seth. Frank had six children; Stella, Susie, Cleeta, Willie, Frankethel and Mance. Seth's family consisted of all girls; Jewel, Edna, Maida Cleo, and Jimmie. They were members of the Baptist church where he was a leader. He was also the chairman of the W.O.W. (Woodmen of the World) lodge in the community.
Later a professor Jackson from Ft. Worth was hired to teach. he was boarding in the home of Sam Smith. One afternoon Mr. Jackson walked over to Tap to get his mail, when he was late for supper they wondered what had happened to him. They waited on him for some time and finally he came in and began to tell his story. They really didn't need to hear the story to know what had happened, but in his own words the story went like this: "I saw the prettiest little things down the road, I tried to catch them but I couldn't. They ran away from me." Well, as you have decided by now, it was a mother polecat and her youngun's. To finish the story, the professor had to have his fine suit of clothes buried.
In later years, a brother of mine to east Texas looking for cotton pickers, as he had a fine crop and he needed to get it picked. As he was looking for hands, some one mentioned that there was a Mr. Jackson who managed a group of cotton pickers. So when he contacted this man, he turned out to be his old school teacher at Tap, Texas. It taken a little time to connect him with his old teacher or for Brookie Martin to place him as his old teacher, but when he did, they were both very happy.
Another little incident about the teacher; he didn't like for the school children to play Mumble peg with a sharp knife. When he saw a group of big boys playing, he forbid them to play, so the boys all went home. At that time all schools opened school with a prayer and a song, which was so much nicer than it is now. This little incident occurred many years ago but it is a wonderful thing to do.
COUNTRY SCHOOLS AROUND TAP, TEXAS p. 488
Records of Mrs. Donnie Pace
by Winona Rinehart
- "Airheart School" land cost $5.00. Recorded October 20, 1898 at 4:00 p.m.
- "Red Top" later "Red Mud", 1909. Later divided and "Shinnery Twig" was built to northwest. This was later moved out on the road and named "Peaceful Hill."
- To the south was "Turkey Holler" later called "Tobie Smith School." Farther south was "Lower Red Mud School." Still farther south in Kent County was "Bud Morrison School."
3RD Grade Poetry at Red Mud- To the north of Tap a school was built on the Jim Garrett place, and later moved on J. J. Greer place and called "Greer School." It was later moved on Bird land by the gate which was the main road across their land to Spur - ten miles. Then it was moved 150 yards north by the canyon and named "West End." It remained until they consolidated with Highway School.
- To the west only one school that I know of east of the river, the "White River School." It consolidated with "Kalgary" in the 1937 fall semester.
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