Gillespie County Offers Visit of Country Schools
Throughout the year, visitors can learn and tour some of Gillespie County’s oldest schools. Slated for the fall are Junction, Nebgen and Crabapple. The schools feature the original furniture and some supplies from when the schools were in operation. Pictured is the Cherry Spring School. Standard-Radio Post file photo
During the 19th and early 20th centuries, students learned the three R’s: reading, writing and ’rithmetic in the comfort of a oneroom school house, many of which were located out in the country. Later came schools like Fredericksburg Independent School District, Harper ISD and Doss Consolidated Common School District, and the rural schools took their place in history. Those schools are now things of the past, but the sites and even memories can still be revisited, courtesy of a visit on the Gillespie County Country Schools Trail.
‘Schools Trail’ The “schools trail” gives visitors and residents alike a chance to venture into the earlier days of Texas, when German settlers came to the Texas Hill Country and established country schools to educate their children. Among the old school houses on the driving trail are Cave Creek,
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Cherry Mountain, Cherry Spring, Crabapple, Grapetown, Junction, Lower South Grape Creek, Luckenbach, Meusebach Creek, Nebgen, Pecan Creek, Rheingold, Williams Creek (Albert), White Oak, Willow City and Wrede.
The Friends consists of former students of the closed schools and area community residents.
Due to the Gilmer-Aiken Laws, in the 1950s and 1960s, the schools were consolidated into the Fredericksburg Independent School District.
Open Houses and Other Events
On Jan. 23, 2006, the Gillespie County Commissioners Court established the Gillespie County Country Schools Trail. This trail linked the 16 former historic country schools with the Vereins Kirche, which is a replica of the first school in the county.
‘Friends’ The Friends of Gillespie County Country Schools, in conjunction with several organizations, sponsors the trail and various activities throughout the year so that people can learn more about the county’s educational history.
Their mission statement is “we are preserving the past to enrich the future.”
The schools are available to the public for social activities. The following are open houses and other events: •
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White Oak School and Vereins Kirche Open House: Every Monday through Saturday in September, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Dec. 18: Annual Bake Sale Benefit; 7:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Locations to be announced.
For more information about the historic rural schools tours, call the Friends of Gillespie County Country Schools at 830-685-3321, e-mail them at info@historicschools.org or visit them online at www.historicschools.org.
Fall&Winter2021
