Jim Ned High School - Warrior Yearbook (Tuscola, TX)

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Ovalo School Started As Bald Eagle School The early settlers who had bought land and the merchants of old Lawn Ctwo miles north of the present Lawnl realized the need of educational facilities and circulated a petition until they received the required number of signatures requesting a school for their children. The site of the first school building in the Ovalo Rural High School District was deeded to County Judge D . G. Hill and his successors in office by Mr. J.M. Wendelkin and his wife, Sarah M. Wendelkin, for the sum of one dollar. The deed was made and signed in Dallas, Texas, the twenty-fifth day of February 1891: but was not filed for record in the Taylor County Court House until the seventh day of February, 1893. It called for five acres of land taken in a square, out of the southeast corner of the Hood County School Land Survey of four hundred acres. It was located one half mile directly east of Bald Eagle Mountain. Mr. A . B. Britton later acquired ownership of the remaining portion of the Hood County School Land Survey, which gave rise to the impression that he and Mrs. Britton were the donors of the five-acre plot. In 1891 the mountain where Ovalo is now located was named Bald Eagle. On May, 1893, the Commissioners' Court established School Dis- trict number 19, the Bald Eagle School District, out of a part of the Jim Ned District and a part of the Tuscola District. The first school was a one-room , box house , fourteen by sixteen feet. It was furnished with long, home-made pine benches with slanted tops for desks, a blackboard made of twelve-inch pine boards painted black, and a wood stove in the center of the room. A water barrel mounted on a slide to haul drinking water with one tin cup tied on the barrel served as their water fountain. Thirty-five pupils were enrolled the first year. Their teacher was Miss Ella Mills. The first trus- tees were Mr. S.N. Landers, Mr. R.F. Ivey, and Mr. I .R. Landers. When the pupils took all the subjects taught in the school, they quit-no diplo- mas or graduation. Bald Eagle school children had very little ground equipment so they had to play games. Some of the most popular were Wolf Over the River, Red Man's Bluff, Mumble Peg, Marbles, Drop the Handkerchief , Pop the Whip, and Base- ball. Their Saturday night parties were held in the homes and they played Snap and Round Games. In the Round Games they sang and stepped to their music. Children walked to school: some had to walk three or four miles. They had to wear warm clothing such as high-topped shoes, blacked-rib- bed stockings, union suits, and leggins because the boys wore knee pants. They got very warm on some days playing outside and that was when you could smell the sweet aroma from the asafe- tida bags that their mothers put around their necks. Asafetida was to ward off all disease but many of those little bags were lost on the way to school. The string could be broken. Kids were always glad when dinner-time came even if they did have to eat cold food from their buckets of different sizes or the square lunch boxes. The year 1906-07 saw a second room of the same box construction added to the building which already had been enlarged onceg and for the first time an assistant teacher was employed. The year 1908-O9 was the last school in the two-room box house. The teachers were Miss Helen Kesslar, principal, and Miss Lena Tikker, assistant. With the coming of the Abilene Southern Rail- road . a new town came into being. Lots went on sale in 1909 , and in less than twelve months Ovalo had forty-six business houses and distinct industries. Some of these structures were of brick and cement. Two churches were included. The 1909-10 session did not open until January , 1910 . But when it did open, the school was housed in a commodious four-room, two-story brick structure that had just been completed from the proceeds of an S8 , OOO bond issue. This school building stood only a few hundred yards north of Bald Eagle Mountain in the new town of Ovalo , which had sprung up in 1909 on the Abilene Southern Railroad. From this date there have not been fewer than four teachers on the faculty. And the name Bald Eagle School was dropped in favor of Ovalo School. The Ovalo School activities were a carry over from Bald Eagle School except basketball and track events were added. The girls' team wore black sateen bloomers and white middy blouses. The boys' team wore baseball trunks and white

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Mr M C Bnght bu1lt tlus house out of three houses They had an organ and many smgxngs were held here Mr and Mrs Henry Brrght lxved rn the house from 1927 1951 The f1ISI school bu1ld1ng on Buck Creek was a log bu1ld1ng w1th the logs standmg stra1ght up there was one wrndow Later a two stoned school was bu1lt School was held on the f1rst floor and the Masons met on the upper floor The post offrce at Content was called Tokeen Alf Hanscomb a man from Marne was the post master He probably gave the name Tokeen to the post offtce The post 0ff1C6 had a slot for people to ma1l letters after hours When the boys sent comlc valentlnes they would sl1p up rn the dark to mall them so no one would know who sent them At one trme Content had a two stoned hotel a post offrce a blacksrmth shop barber shop drug store a m1ll for gr1nd1ng wluch was powered by a gasolme motor and a gm They bu1lt the rock gm rn 1900 after a gm further west had an explo s1on whlch kllled a man When the rock g1n ceased operatrons the machrnery was moved to Wrngate The Ranger peak was named for the Ranger Troop statroned there to protect the people from the Indrans For recreauon the teachers from the consolldated school were walkrng one Sunday afternoon on the peak They found and dug out the skeleton of an Indlan Hrs knees were on hrs chest and hrs hands were over lus eyes There were no earthly treasures bur1ed w1th htm as was usually the custom of the Indrans One reason for lus pos1t1on may have been because the ground was hard to drg 1n on the peak Two other skele tons were taken out of that area also One young boy was sent to the Ranger Camp to buy some tobacco, when he an'1ved, he found they were sklnning a black bear they had kllled 111 the area . Several doctors 11ved in Content. The Allens, a man and hts wrfe , were both doctors. Dr. Darsey Allen went out on a case one night. She had on a fox neck plece. She stooped over to feed her horse and she lost her neck plece wrthout real1z1ng rt. When she reached down 1n the darkness, she felt the neck P1806 and reacted rn terror because she thought there was a l1ve furry anrmal there. Icy Brrght tntervrewed by Erma Jean Loveland Moro Named for Mountam Named from Moro Mountarn had 1ts f1rst school bu1ld1ng 1n 1887 ten mlles southeast of what was once Moro town It wasn t very well equrpped and just had one room As the commuruty surroundrng rncreased they bu1lt on another room In 1906 a wooden bu1ld1ng was bu1lt and f1nally 1n 1917 a four room br1ck bu1ld1ng was bu1lt cosung S5200 00 Tlus bu1ld1ng was south of the old burldlngs Mtss Alma Harber and Mrs Luctle Green were teachers at th1s trme C The Buffalo Tra11 19225 Moro Baptrst Church Pearre Ranch located near Gu1on The Pearre Ranch 1S srtuated Ln southwest Taylor County on the road from Gu1on to Moro 27 mrles from Ab1lene wlth post offrce at Gu1on Taylor County I own 7 000 acres 1n pasture 200 111 cult1 vauon RBISB wheat oats and Johnson grass for w1n ter feed for my herd of graded Hereford cattle There are four gms w1th1n 8 mrles of my ranch whlch w11l gm about 5000 bales of cotton thrs year Cotton 1S a good money crop rn the West Texas from Our Homes and Country Illustrated publrshed by Chambers and Anderson Ab1lene Texas 1903 Gu1on School was the only one between Buffalo Gap and W1nters Some forty years ago there stood at Lemon s Gap a small one room bu1ld1ng whrch served the double purpose of a church and school Ten years later the d1str1ct was drvrded and the school bu1ld1ng moved to A .L. Iudkrns place wluch 1S now the Ben Mlddleton place. In those days teach ers held second grade certiflcates and recerved 35 or 50 dollars per month for a three or four month term. Eleven years later the school was moved to the Hodges' place and a new one room bu1ld1ng was erected. In 1906 th1s bu1ld1ng was moved to the another srte and a room added for a second teacher. It was named Gu1on for the l1ttle post off1ce nearby. 1922 Buffalo Trarls I .. ' M ,:'.. Y, -' - v ' 4, ' A Q 5 , - e ., ' . x yr e 'I V tx: r -4. I . . 13- Y af -' L 4+-1 ' A A 4 q n I I 1 . . . . . . I . , :-. L. . . . . , . - . . . I I . . . I . I n 1 1 ' A . ' , I ,, . . . n 1 1 v ' l . . . . I . I I , . . .- ' U I I . . . . - - I 1 I . . ' . . . . 1 a , . 5 ' ' ll . . . I 4 1 I , . . . . I 9 Q ' . . . . . . , . . . , .. . , . . . .

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Over Hardware. Ovalo. Texas sleeveless knit shirts. Ovalo has gained territory twice. First, on August 21, 1925 , when the County School Board consolidated Guion and Oak Lawn districts with Ovalo, to form the Ovalo Rural High School dis- trict, the only one in Taylor County to this date, and one of the first in the state to be formed under an act of the thirty-ninth Legislature. The legality of the act of the County School Board was questioned and for several years the matter was before the courts. The final verdict was favorable to the consolidation and the act was never rescinded . The second time Ovalo gained new school terri- tory was on April 18, 1933, when the County School Board partitioned the Dewey School Dis- trict and gave three sections of land , one fourth of the district, to Ovalo . The first school board to serve the new Ovalo Rural High School District was appointed by for- mer County School Superintendent, M.A. Wil- liams. They were the L.H. Tucker and Carl Moore , who represented the Old Oak Lawn Dis- trict: J .H. Moody and C.R. Cottrell, who repre- sented the Old Guion District. A .D . Boozer and J .E. White, who represented the old Ovalo Dis- trictg and 1.1. Stewart, who represented the new district 45 at large. In 1926 , school bonds to the amount of S30 , 000 , were voted to build a modern rural high school plant in the newly consolidated district. These bonds were not sold until six years later, when the present modern and commodious school was erected on a new site in south Ovalo but still at the foot of Bald Eagle Mountain. In 1929 , the only three busses in Taylor County were used to transport children to and from the Ovalo School. That year they transported one hundred eighty-five children at public expense. The Ovalo School consolidated with Tuscola in 1946 , forming the South Taylor Independent School District. At that time the Ovalo School was used for the elementary pupils and Tuscola took the high school pupils. Later on the elemen- tary pupils were transfered to Lawn. The well-constructed building was vacant for several years then sold in 1957 to W.W. Hereford for the brick. Compiled by Della Landers Bibliography Our Homes and Country Illustrated-1903 Taylor County Court House-School deed recorded Feb. 7, 1893 The Southern Eagle COvalo Weekly Newspaperj The Texas Almanac-1910 The Eagle fOvalo Newsweeklyj 1942 Kiwanigram , April 3, 1946 , Abilene , Texas Abilene Reporter News-1959 Taylor County Records-Dr. James Robins Ovalo, 1931-1942 The Ovalo Eagle colors were black and gold. Six- man football games were played on dirt fields in the afternoon because there were no lights for night games. Basketball Cboys onlyj and volleyball Cgirls onlyj could be played at night in Ovalo's excellent well- lighted gym. Showers were located under the p bleachers but there were no indoor toilets. Softball, baseball, and track were popular spring sports. The building had steam heat, a well-equipped laboratory and a well-stocked library . Assembly was held each Friday in the converted- to-auditorium gym . Basketball goals were raised into the celingg folding chairs set up facing the stage located in the north end. There was entertainment by students, teachers, professional traveling shows, or college students practicing their plays. School plays, talent shows Cusually musicalj, and the annual Halloween Carnival were popular community enter- tainment. School days at Ovalo during the late thirties and early forties offered excitement in the simple things of life: emphasis was on self-reliance and basic edu- cation. Did any students own a car? Few teachers did. Many of that era remember Frank Hogue , Supt. . basketball and volleyball coach. history teacher, a firm but fair disciplinarian. We remember also the immaculately kept front lawn and building with vandalism almost unknown. Many good teachers taught and many good citizens evolved at Ovalo. Juarie Walden Aldridge The Small Town of Lawn Present day Lawn was established in 1910 when the Sante Fe Failroad was built. It was named for the attractive site selected. It grew and at one time had a hotel. It was built by E. Mitchell and had 10 rooms. These were above the business which was downstairs. The Griffin Drug Store was owned and operated by A.E. Griffin. He sold ice cream at two dips for a nickel. From 1921 to 1948 , fountain drinks were 5d and 10:5 , milk shakes were 254, and banana splits were 35d . Dr. Le Gear was always there to stock any needed medicine. The local doctor was Dr. Parker. Miles Roberts was the proprietor of the bank. The Lawn