PROPOSED REUNION OLD SPRING CREEK SCHOOL AT
PLANO
Old Educational Center Where Old Settlers
Received Their Schooling
Daily Courier-Gazette, April, 1926
Much interest is being aroused in
the proposed reunion of the pupils of the old Spring Creek school, near Plano to
be held this summer at a date to be fixed upon soon.
Among the pupils of that old
school that was successfully conducted during the sixties and seventies who now
live in McKinney are Hon. George P. Brown, Mrs. M. W. Abernathy, Mrs. W. H.
Dowell and perhpas others. Jim and Price Bush of Allen were both also students.
John H. Carpenter, big Plano farmer has the following interesting contribution
to the Plano Star-Courier.
Plano, Texas, April 26, 1926
Plano Star-Courier: Dear Editor
--
In reply to a number of my old
schoolmates of the old Spring Creek school house, I want to say that I am
heartily in favor of the meeting, and think it should be at its old ground if
agreeable to Mrs. John Rice nee Beth Forman.
I would suggest that it be
sometime in August, preferable one day prior to the Old Settlers Barbecue and
picnic.
My good friend Joe Barnett
suggested the last day of May, but that is in the midst of our harvest and
cotton chopping time and we all would be very busy at that time.
I drove over to the old grounds
this morning and came away saddened by the great change that has been made by
the hand of time in the sixty odd years that has elapsed since we attended that
school.
I stood on the little mound of
dirt that is the sole remaining monument to the once happy days
spent there by the rising generation of that day, and looking to the west and
the old Joseph Klepper homestead is the only one remaining today that was there
in 1864, the first year of my school days at that place.
The Blackburn homestead is
gone. It was about three-fourths of a mile to the northwest midway getween the
school house and John Beverly's home, which stood on the west bank of the creek
just where the road climbed the bank; it like the Blackburn house is also gone
as is the Brown house that stood on the east bank of the same creek about half a
mile above the Beverly house.
Our road, or I should say, our
footpath, was past the Blackburn house, up the creek by the Beverly place, then
the F. R. Brown place, thence on by the old Harrington house, also
on the east bank of the creek at that time occupied by a Mrs. Leach, who had
quite a family of both boys and girls, but I only recall one of them going to
school at that time. His name was Hugh but we called him Bud for short. He was
living near Brownwood, Texas, a few years ago.
It was about one and a half miles
from the Harrington place to father's house making a total of about four miles
to the old school house. We used to walk this distance every morning and evening
during the school term except when we would ride three deep on a horse
with only a rope for bridle and no saddle. I have often wondered what the
present day boys and girls would do if they had to go to school that way.
This morning as I looked over the
old school grounds I could not recognize a single tree that was growing at the
time of which I write. The large cottonwood trees that stood on the banks of the
little branch just east of the school house are gone, not even a stump left to
show where they once stood in all their grandeur towering far above their near
neighbors, the hackberry, elm and red buds.
The spring from which we use to
carry water, of which Jim Bush wrote in a recent issue, is covered with a wall
of black dirt some three or four feet deep. It was up on a little white rock
beach east side of and near the mouth of the little branch, running from north
to south in front of the school building. A hold had been cut out of the solid
rock about twelve inches deep. This held enough to fill the bucket and not get
the water muddy. The path from the house to the spring is still to be seen
though overgrown thickly with grass at present.
The spot where the house stood
has recently been turned into a field and the little mound of dirt that we
helped pack u-p there on our feet will soon be gone and if any of the old boys
and girls of that day wish to see any thing they can recognize, they had better
come to the reunion this year as it will soon be leveled by the hand of time,
with not a single reminder of those happy days gone by.
The first teacher I went to at
this school was named McMinn. He was a large red-faced, freckled old fellow, and
was about fifty years old. He was the first, last and only man that gave me a
whipping. I was just five years old, learning my ab's, ba's, c's, be's, de's,
etc. in the old Webster's Blue Back speller which was bought and paid for by my
mother and given to me. It was my own book the only one I had, therefore, it was
highly prized by men, and to keep it from being soiled or injured in any way, I
carried the book to and from school with me each day. Uncle Bob Brown had build
him a little dam across the creek, above his house some three or four hundred
yards. This dam had caught and was holding quite a quantity of water, which was
backed up the creek a quarter of a mile or so. One hot, sultry afternoon the
latter part of May, I sat down on the bank that overlooked the dam in which and
around which a hundred herd of cattle or so had collected. After throwing rocks
and scaring the cattle as they were rather wild in those days, to see them run
through the water tiring of this sport I went home forgetting all about my Blue
Back Speller. The next morning early I started back to school and found my book
none the worse from the exposure except for one leaf was slightly soiled and
torn and of course, that had to be where my lesson was for that day. When I went
up to recite my lesson, he asked me about the torn leaf, and I told him the
truth about it. He just reached back into the corner where stood a half
dozen dogwood switches, gathering one of those in his hand he preceeded to
soundly thrash me. Will I ever forget or forgive him for that? Thousand times
"No." Come to the re-union and I'll tell you the rest.
By all means let us have that
spelling match, also some old time singing. I am sure that Belle Brown, Alle and
Molly Brown Wells have not forgotten. "How Firm a Foundation," or "There's a
Land That is Fairer Than Day." Let us hear from some more of the old boys and
girls.
Yours for the meeting.
J. H. Carpenter
Former Pupils of Old School
Hold Reunion
Weekly Democrat Gazette, July 29, 1926
Pupils of Old Spring Creek
School Met at Plano; Out-Of-Town Guests Present.
Hon. George P.
Brown of this city, former pupil of the old Spring Creek school near Plano
in his boyhood days, was one of the out-of-town visitors at a reunion of
former pupils of that old school held in Plano Tuesday, July 27.
It was the first
reunion these pupils of that well known and popular old Spring Creek school
had ever held and the occasion was a most delightful one. The reunion was
held in the Plano City auditorium, instead of the city park on account of
wet condition of the grounds.
A tempting
basket dinner was served at noon in the basement of the public school
building.
Out-Of-Town
Pupils.
Out-of-town
pupils present at this meeting were: S. P. Bush of Allen; Carrie Barnett
Graham, Gainesville; Mrs. J. M. Alle, Crowell; Mrs. Emma Klepper Stults,
Irving; Mrs. Millie Brownwells, Dalhart; J. N. Bush, Allen; Joe W. Beverly,
Crowell; George P. Brown, McKinney; Jerome Ward, Dallas; Joe F. Barnett, New
Castle; T. M. Beverly, Crowell; W. T. Foreman, Dallas; L. Frank Butler,
Effie Batler Kelner, Fort Worth; Alonzo Forman, Coleman; S. H. Lyles,
Saginaw; Susan Thomas Dowell, Bells; Oglesby Wythe, Weatherford; W. A.
Klepper, Denton; Della Mathews Martin, Dallas; George Lyles, Denton; J. D.
Carpenter, Frisco; Mrs. Addie Dye Brown, Mrs. Anne Beverly Hughston, Mrs.
Lin Barnett Gulledge, Gip Carpenter, J. L. Carpenter, S. J. Harrington,
William T. Land, Belle Foreman Rice, William Foreman, W. T. Blalock, R. C.
Clark, Fannie Mathews Harrington, Rena Forman Rice, Mollie Haggard Shepard,
Ruth Forman Chaddick, and August Lamm, Plano. Families present: Forman 29;
Bush 12; L. Butler, 2; R. H. Brown, 6; Beverly, 17; Blalock, 11, Carpenter
12; R. C. Clark, 1; Dye, 9, Gee, 1; Harrington, 5; Haggard, 3; J. Howard
Porter with letter, 1; Dora Dye Bowman, by letter; W. A. Klepper, 1; Emma
Klepper Stults, 8; Bill Land 1; Lyles, 2; A. Lamm, 1; Oglesby family, 7;
Thomas, 1; J. Ward, 1; Howard family; Mrs. Charles Moore, Dallas.
Some of these students had not met each
other in forty to fifty years.
School Index
- Recommended citation:
- "Spring Creek
- 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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