PRAIRIE CENTER

Matagorda County, Texas
 

PRAIRIE CENTER
 

Written by Margaret Hill Lawson McElrath Linn

During the year 1912, Common School District No. 12 was established between the Tres Palacios River and Cash's Creek. The two-room schoolhouse was first situated in the Dunbar community by the river and near the church and store. It was called "The School House." A. L. Dyer, Lela Driskell, and Harley Lewis were the teachers. In 1914 the building was moved to the middle of the district (about three miles west) on the prairie, hence "Prairie Center." Emma Shadel and Clara Schley were the faculty.
 

In 1917 the new three-room school was completed. These small schools throughout the state of Texas were known as "Jim Ferguson schools." Outdoor plumbing consisted of two nice little white buildings with half-moon blinds covering the entrances. The Sears-Roebuck Catalog had a secondary value then. The boys' outhouse was to the northeast, while the girls' was to the southeast. There were no paved walks, so during the wet season, rubber boots were a much needed item. Of course if you did not possess these, you went barefoot and put your shoes back on when returning to the classroom. The entire campus was a low area. Drinking water was furnished with a hand pump until sometime in the 1930s when a pretty white fountain with six outlets was installed.

From the time of the new building, teachers included: James Luther, Stella Dyer, Bessie Belnap, Robert Margarum, J. R. Laslie, Jane Ross, Helen Ward, Julie Lee Stapp, Christine Evans, Wilma Thomas, Mae Walker, Mary Aileen Elliott, and Margaret Hill. Margaret Hill Lawson attended the first grade at Prairie Center and ten years later taught her first year there, riding horseback during both times. Other teachers included Tina Dickerson, Helen Sanders, Monte Sweeny, Cherry Price, Ann Lane, and Ruth Miller.

Sometime in the 1930s, a horse shed with ten stalls and a saddle rest was built on the south side of the campus. After this, the book and storage rooms were converted to accommodate indoor plumbing. During Helen Sanders' tenure, a piano was acquired. Box suppers were held as fundraisers. The holiday programs were a joy to the community. The building was also used as a voting precinct. "So goes Prairie Center, so goes the nation" was the prediction. During this time the high-school-age children attended Collegeport and Palacios schools. A Model-T Ford transported five girls in 1931-32 to Palacios. Later a school bus was used to transport the children to the Center school.

During the spring of 1943, one of the teachers, Helen Sanders Murphy, left to join her soldier husband. The remaining teacher, Margaret Hill Lawson, taught seven grades, did the janitor work, drove the school bus, prepared hot stew on Friday from whatever the children brought, and helped deliver a baby for a nearby neighbor.

Prairie Center did not have the playground equipment like schools have today, but the pupils still enjoyed recess and noon time. Some of the games played were blind man bluff, froggie in the middle, wolf over the river, horseshoe, mumble peg, and marbles. The boys always kept a supply of horned toads to hitch up to matchboxes, and the girls were allowed to bring their dolls. Baseball had a season, too.

Many men served as trustees. Some of the first were Elmer Johnson, Charles Viets, T. A. McFarland, S. J. Hill, Frank Stallard, Stadig, Brown, Anderson, Lee, Harrison, Powers, Luther Hill, Ramsey Hunt, Laslie, and others.

Some of the children who attended the school were

George Anderson, son of G. W. Anderson;

Clarence, Bill, Mabel, Ruby and Buster Chamblee;

Clinton, Helen Leona, Leeta, and Loyal, children of S. B. Lee;

Elmer Johnson's sons, Spencer and Leo;

Honor, Agnes, Elinor and Joyce McFarlain;

Carl and Josephine Holiday;

Walter Woodruf;

Winfred, Charlie, Ruby, Mary, Margaret and George, children of Guy Johnson;

Fern, Faye, J. W., Wilbur, Eldon, and Maxine, children of Frank Powers;

Theodore, Alice and Margaret, children of Bill Dannels;

George Harrison's children, Ruth, Naomi, and Marion;

Ray, Donald, and Dorothy, children of L. Dorsey;

Violet and Ernest Rolene;

Ruth Callihan;

Sam, Mattie, and Opal Sexton;

Gertrude Knoff;

Margaret and Eldon, children of Luther Hill;

David and W. B. Carpenter;

Eunice, Euneve, Ada Mae, Ruth and Doris Brown;

Velma, Walter, and Leona Leadford;

Bertha and Bill Wright;

Howard and Lois Parker;

Lester and Erma Wilson;

Lottie Kilgore;

Elizabeth Stadig;

Hugh, James, Chester, and Ovie Warner;

George Stubblefield;

Harley, Minnie and Merle Viets;

Mary Lee and Carrie Lee Taylor;

Olga, Littleton and Raymond Harvey;

Mamie, Bessie, Effie, and Floyd Singleton;

Frances, Ethel, Ernest, and Vernon Snider;

Freeman, Hessel, and Audrey Harvey;

George, Alice, and Wesley Jones;

Anderson White's son Richard;

Rodin, Donie Fay, and Hope Pursewell;

Johnie Mae, Chrlsie, Eldon, L. J. and Nell Brister;

Jesse, Eva, and Judy Jones;

Mava Nee Ramsey;

Fleshana Alvarez and her brothers and sisters;

Cleddie Harvey's children, Carroll and Bobbie Joyce;

John and Bessie Bohuslav and their brothers and sisters;

Lorane and Gladys Rudenes;

Howard, Richard and Raymond Mozley;

Alfred and Ray Winfield;

the three Heath children;

the Rowlinson children;

Ray Dorsey's children, Joy, Ray, and Donald;

Harold, Carl, Carol, and Vernon Hunt;

Charles, James, Lurleen, and Correan Sikes.

When, in 1945, the doors finally closed for school, the building continued to serve as a community house for meetings, voting, and the like.

In 1955 the property was deeded to the Prairie Center Home Demonstration Club. The building was given a new roof, but in the process lost the cupola (bell tower) and the tall chimneys at either end. The campus was never landscaped since the cows could push through the fence at will and destroy any plants. The old building looks rather forlorn now, stripped of paint, but it had its day.

Historic Matagorda County, Volume 1, pages 393-394

Prairie Center Common School District No. 12
 

Copyright 2006 - Present by Carol Sue Gibbs
All rights reserved

This page was created Dec. 3, 2006

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