PIONEER SCHOOLS OF COLLIN
COUNTY
February 21, 1907
People
of this day and generation barely appreciate the great advancement along
educational lines that have been made in Collin county during the past fifty
years. In that period of time, our free school system has sprung into existence.
Fifty years ago there were scarcely any school houses in the entire county.
Those that were here were private institutions and free tuition was not even
thought of. IN fact, prejudice against free schools predominated. Among the
pioneer advocates of free public schools, who is still living, was E. W.
Kirkpatrick, one of McKinney's most widely known citizens and still far-famed on
account of his public spirit and progressive ideas.
In 1858
Judge R. L. Waddill wrote to Bethany College, West Virginia for a teacher. In
response, A. L. Darnall came and taught in a frame building erected by Judge
Waddill in the latter's yard. He taught several terms. Mr. Darnall afterwards
edited a paper in McKinney and is still living in Sherman. Among his pupils were
W. B. Newsome, Judge P. B. Muse, Jesse Shain, J. W. B. S., R. L., and G. N.
Waddill, Wm. Beaty, father of Judge A. L. Beaty of Sherman, Addison Clark, long
a distinguished Texas educator, R. C. Horn and others. Judge Waddill provided
house and board for Mr. Darnall in return for free tuition for his children. Mr.
Darnall received for his services tuition charges from all other pupils. He had
about thirty pupils in all.
R. L.
Waddill, son of Judge R. L. Waddill, deceased, is one of McKinney's most
prominent citizens. He says that Peyton Hamilton, father of Mrs. J. N. Davis and
Bob Hamilton, who still live here, taught the first school he remembers of to
have been conducted in McKinney. It was in 1855 and his little school house
occupied the present site of the pretty little cottage home of J. W. Purcell on
North Church street.
Another
early day school which Mr. Waddill spoke of to The Weekly Courier-Gazette and
The Democrat-Gazette reporter was that of Gen. Anson Mills, then a young man,
who taught school in a house that stood on the Plemmons lot near the Methodist
church. That was in 1856. Mills was a West Pointer. He later studied law under
Judge Waddill and then went back into the army where he cared out for himself a
distinguished military career and achieved distinction also as a civil engineer
and inventor. As a retired Major General of the Regular Army, Gen. Mills is a
cousin of Mrs. T. T. Emerson, wife of the president of the First National Bank
of McKinney.
During
the war, Thomas Dixon taught school in the old Masonic building which stood on
the site now occupied by the palatial Shain residence, one block west of the
public square. Prof. Dixon later founded the Milford college for girls, now a
Presbyterian school and one of the Stat's most flourishing educational
institution.
School Index
- Recommended citation:
- "Early Schools -
SCHOOLS OF COLLIN COUNTY." Collin County, Texas History and Genealogy
Webpage by Genealogy Friends of Plano Libraries, Inc., <http://www.geocities/genfriendsghl>
[Accessed Fri February 13 13:37:28 US/Central 2004 ].
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