Plano Daily Star-Courier from Plano, Texas • Page 7

Plano's First Schooling Was In Family CONTINUED FROM PAGE Thursday, January 27, 1972 Plano Star-Courier Section I Page 7 Is My and "This Land Is My were sung. Vance Maultsby, a member of the Board of Trustees, introduced Dr. Barron. He stated, "The guest speaker is a 1943 graduate of Plano High School and a graduate of Baylor Medical School. He is a peditrician in Abilene where he resides with his wife and (four Ray Hopper, principal of the school, thanked the Barron family for the portrait of the namesake which hangs in the school office and the live oak tree which the family also donated.

Reverend Berry gave the benediction to close the ceremony. In his speech, Dr. Barron said, "On February 15, 1875, James M. Barron in Plano and found both Methodist and Baptist churches which had been established 29 and 22 years earlier. The Methodist Church, which was one of the first two Methodist churches of the county, was first established near Indian Hole on Rowlett Creek in 1846.

The Baptist church was begun by Jacob Routh in 1853 in the little log school building on Spring Creek and later moved to Plano. Mr. Barron found both congregations in new buildings--the Methodist's was 2 years old the 60 40 feet Baptist church building was 1 year old. The founding families of Klepper, Beck, Forman, Harrington, Matthews, Aldridge, Huffman, Shepard and Routh were quite proud of their facilities for worship. Agriculture was the leading industry.

Rail fences were in use and bois seeds were selling for $25.00 per bushel because these trees made the best fence posts and house blocks. Barbed wire had been issued in 1867 but was not introduced into Texas until 1875 due to prejudice against the North and its products. Leading farmers were Clint Shepard Haggard, Alfred ton, William Forman IL Land sold for $2.50 per acre and up. Beginning in 1850 a Stage line ran from Mckmney to Dallas charging 10 cents per mile, traveling 5-8 miles per hour in coaches drawn by four horses. Rest stations were provided at about 20 mile intervals.

At some rest stations travelers could get breakfast for 25 cents. The Texas Central Railroad had operated from Houston to Denison for 5 years. The railroad had replaced stage travel which had been discontinued during the Civil War. The railroad was now bringing building materials and staple goods which were in great demand. Train travel from Plano to Sherman cost $7.00.

Retail stores were thriving, Plano had had a Government post office for 24 years. William Forman had served as the first postmaster in 1851. The 10th postmaster, John W. Brock was serving in 1875. W.

G. Carlisle, who served as postmaster from 1933 until 1967 was the 20th postmaster of Plano. The first spring after Mr. Barron arrived in Texas, he and five friends explored Texas as far west as Brownwood. They rode Horseback- carried supplies, guns and ammunition on a 2-horse wagon.

They fished and swam in the creeks, streams, and springs they found; ate watermelon under a tree where three men were hanged for stealing cows. Cut into the bark of this tree were the words "Gone to On this same trip Mr. Barron attended a dance but wrote that "I didn't take any part in the the good Baptist that he was. Land sold for $1.00 $3.00 per acre; some land was considered to be good pastureland but otherwise noted to be real gravly soil with no running water. The explorers decided they did not want it at any price and returned to Plano.

Here he boarded at Kruses for $13.00 per month, but later changed to the Duran Hotel which charged only $11.75 per month. He served as assistant postmaster for a while, clerked in a store from time to time but must have had a bad day on October 26, 1876, because he recorded "decided I would not clerk any Grandfather Barron paid 50 cents for a hair cut and shave; 50 cents per bushel of corn, and the cost of a McGuffey reader was 60 cents. He frequently loaned money --the rates varied from percent per month charged some borrowers to 2 percent per month charged others. The loans were usually for periods of 3-6 months, presumably until the borrower sold a crop. He purchased land south of Plano and farmed the land "on the Almost 3 years after his arrival in Texas, Mr.

Barron married my Grandmother, Virginia Routh, daughter of Jacob Routh, on January 17, 1878. To this marriage were born eight children, seven of whom grew to maturity. Plano's first schooling was in the homes. In 1853, Jacob Routh constructed a small log building on his timberland on a site where the Greenville and Renner Roads now cross. Even though at this time he had no children, Jacob Routh employed a teacher who boarded in his home, to conduct this school which held forth until 1871.

During this time tuition ranged from $1.00 to $1.50 per month, a pay was $30.00 per month, board and room cost $6.00. Children walked to school sometimes long distances and were often endangered by range cattle, wild animals and desperate men. Some fathers plowed furrows from their homes to the school to keep their children from getting lost. School opened at 8:00 in th morning and continued until sundown. In 1871 the larger Mt.

Vale Academy was built on land given by Robert Campbell with money donated by James R. Aldridge, Jacob Routh, Messers Hugely, Alexander, Lively, and Lyle. Other schools in the Plano area were Haggard School, located 1 mile west of the old Clint Haggard home and taught by Jennie Collier and Spring Creek School was located northwest of Plano on land of George Barnett. Barksdale school was begun in 1860 eight miles northwest of Plano with G. F.

Matthews as teacher. The first school in Plano was a private school opened in 1870, located at College and Vance streets under the direction of W. H. Byrens. In 1874 Collin County ranked 12th among all counties in Texas in number of scholastics with 5,258.

Both the school in Plano and the Mt. Vale Academy operated until Professor Mister chartered the Plano Institute in 1882. This Plano Institute first held classes in the Christian Church. One year later the citizens of Plano erected a building and rented it to Professor Mister. In 1884, Dr.

T. G. Harris of Wylie purchased half interest in the school. Together Professor Mister and Dr, Harris operated the school until 1886 when Dr. Harris sold his interest and moved on to become President of Southwest Texas State College.

Plano Institute was located on the grounds of the present Cox school and offered a BA degree. The times were hard in the 19th century. Before he came to Texas, Mr. Barron's first wife had died of childbirth and the infant died five months later most probably of starvation or diarrhea--because little was known about artificial feeding. In 1876 he recorded the death of a friend in Plano due to typhoid fever after being confined to bed for 45 days.

His burial was the next day, His father-in-law died of tuberculosis in 1879. His prescribed treatment had been gargles of ergot and water for lung hemorrhage. On April 30, 1880, a tornado destroyed the Methodist Church and several other buildings and in 1881 a fire destroyed 52 buildings in Plano. The first pike in Collin County was from Plano to Dallas and built in 1908. Before this the roads were dirt.

Fences merely served to confine the wagons to narrow lanes which became impassible during rains. It was 1922 before Plano streets were paved. The tnterurban was opened from Denison to Waco in 1908 and functioned until was abandoned in 1948. 1 rode this many times to Waco for $1.75. But back to Plano schools, in 189! the people voted the first public school.

The Plano Institute was purchased from Professor Mister and the school was city-controlled. This building was destroyed by fire in 1894 and another building was constructed on the same site. In 1899 the school was separated from the city and had its own Board of Trustees which had its first meeting on Monday morning at 7:30 a.m., May 15, 1899. Olney Davis was chairman, and serving with James M. Barron were J.W.

Shepard, C. F. Saigllng, R. T. Shelton, W.

R. Norton, and Watt Wheeler. C. P. Hudson was superintendent.

In the spring of 1903 the school again burned but was reopened the same fall in a brick building built again on the same site with a spiral fire escape. 20 years later, 1923, a $65,000.00 Bond Issue was voted for construction of a new school--which is now A. E. Cox Administration Building and stands where once the Plano Institute of 1883 was built. 1921 was a banner year for Plano.

Paved streets and E. A. Sigler came to town. Plano had lost accreditation in science. Mr.

Sigler was instructed that "we must regain accreditation in all 4 years of I stand here to tell you that he ceeded. When I entered college it was with fear and trepidation. I knew a country boy from a small school was not going to be so well prepared as those from Dallas or Houston schools. Instead, I found my preparation in chemistry better than my college classmates. For this I was both grateful and surprised.

Today, no Plano student can consider himself a graduate of a "small and I see very little "true country" remaining. 1 remember the old city auditorium with its roll-up curtain and the ads for Hedgecoxe Grocery, Allen Drug Store, Harrington Pharmacy, A. R. Schell Insurance Agency, Plano Bakery, Palace Theatre, Harrington Furniture Store and Funeral Home. We would read these over repeatedly while waiting for the curtain to rise.

Before this old white frame building with large white columns in front was torn down to construct the Gymnasium-Auditor turn in 1938, our basketball games were played in the basement of what is now Cox Administration Building. I recall when I was on the football team in 6-7 grade--our dressing room was the boiler room and we tried to keep our clothes from touching the floor covered black with coal-dust. This changed in 1938 when our new Gym-Auditorium was constructed with WPA labor. A modern building in keeping with the time was constructed while the youngest son of James M. Barron was serving as a school board member.

Stanton Barron served in this capacity for 12 years with such notables as Charley Dodley, C. J. Matthews, Charles Harrington, O. H. Hughston, and A.

A. Goodson. Life for the Planoite had made many changes from 1875, Plano Had two newspapers, the Plano Star and the Piano Courier. In 1888 these two publications merged to form the Plano Star-Courier, which is still being published day. Electricity came to Plano in 1915 and natural gas in 1926 with the utility franchise.

Life wasf now easy! We can all agree that in the midst of all these changes your school system has not merely kept pace--tt has excelled. Lead out and forward. It is the Plano Independent School District we salute this Day! Speaker At Convocation O. William Hayes, management consultant of Amarillo, was the speaker at the Convocation of the student body of the University of Plano January 18. Stressing the importance of the value of respect for self and respei for others, he urged the students to be affirmative, expressive and loyal to their commitments.

"A student who is proud of the institution that he represents is a person who will make a good impression on everyone he meets. Conversely, if a person, particularly a student, speaks disparagingly of his institution or his teachers, he only downgrades his image in the eyes of those he confronts," he said. Hayes, a member of the Advisory Board of the University ot Plano, conferred with Chancellor Robert Morris and President Donald G. Scott. A member of the advisory board, he will be a representative of the University of Plano inthe Panhandle.

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Sherrill Plano Star Courier, Inc. 1015 15th Street Plano, Texas 75074 Dear Mrs. Sherrill: The Plano Church Directory, a regular weekly i- ture in your paper, is helping perform a valuable service In this community and we want to say thank you. We also appreciate the cov erage you have given recent news articles released to you. So often, services of this typo are taken for granted but wo want you to know how gratoful we are for your helping our little church in this way.

Please let us know when wo can be of service to you. Sincerely yours, Rev. Dave Reimer, Pastoi Bethany Bible Church 530 N. Central Kxpi ess way Plano, Texas Appointed To Posts Carl M. Pete? has been appointed As i -to of the ComptiUn enter at The Universit' i at Dallas.

William D. Park w. ,4 so named Manager Software Systems, in a ltd 1 orn- puter Center appoin out. Peters, 1712 hcrest, Plano, was a meniL of the computer center stai it Southwest Cent for Advanced Studies, private prod Institution to UT-Dall: from 1963 until 1969. He ha -o been employed at Telp Inc.

Parker Is a gradi He of Auburn University and has an MS In Computer Sclenee from the University of Wisconsin. He has been a co-ordinator and designer of systems software at Collins Radio Company. tx Ow northwest hwy a PIANO to DALLAS DALLAS mi oorrvAL txmss- AT PLANO 1004 NO. PABX- WAT GRANO PRAIRIE 1st A KNMBSiCT ST. GARLAND 210 WMTI BOON.

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