Antebellum Jefferson, Texas: Everyday Life in an East Texas Town

32. Education

439 In January 1853, the editor of the Jefferson Herald cited the national census to the effect that there were 30,000 adults in Texas who could neither read or write. Robert Loughery of the Marshall Texas Republican felt constrained to respond as follows: The whole population of Texas does not, we believe, amount to thirty thousand.... we do not think that ignorance either of books or the ways of the world, can be considered a characteristic of our people. Look at the number of schools that are distributed throughout our young and growing State; look at the number of newspapers, and the extensive patronage they receive. In no place in the Union, of the same population as Marshall, is there a newspaper as large as the Republican ; and yet there is another one published in the same place; one at Jefferson only sixteen miles distant; and another at Henderson, only forty-five miles from Marshall . Loughery was correct in his observations, and there was a welldeveloped system of private academies throughout northeast Texas by the early 1850s, with the most notable in Jefferson, Clarksville, Marshall , and Daingerfield. However, there was no public education in the region prior to the Civil War. The Texas Legislature had established a 32. EDucation 440 Antebellum Jefferson, Texas land grant program as a basis for a public common school system, but there was little response to the opportunity other than to establish districts , acquire land, appoint trustees, and set up school funds. The Cass County commissioners court minutes for the 1840s and 1850s contain numerous references to such activities but never mention schoolhouses . A November 1, 1851, Texas Republican article attributes the lack of action to the fact that the legislature had prohibited sale or lease of the lands for 20 years, rendering them valueless. In the absence of public education, people engaged in home schooling , including some education for slaves, and sent their children to private schools and academies that were sexually segregated. Most children in the 1850 and 1860 censuses are listed as students, although it is difficult to determine precisely what this means. The Social Statistics section of the 1850 census indicates that in Cass County there were six male academies with one teacher each and averaging 30 pupils, four female academies with one teacher each and averaging 40 pupils, and 15 common schools with one teacher each and averaging 33 pupils. None of the common schools received public funds. The Social Statistics section of the 1860 census indicates that in Marion County there were six common schools for males with one teacher each and averaging 30 pupils and seven common schools for females with one teacher each and averaging 25 pupils. None of the common schools received public funds. The first mention of schools in the vicinity of Jefferson occurs in the commissioners court minutes, which refer to J. Williams’ schoolhouse west of Jefferson in 1846 and Wilson’s schoolhouse on the other side of Black Cypress Bayou in 1847. These were probably one-teacher operations . A larger operation is mentioned in a March 1848 deed record, which refers to the Gertrude Academy, north of Jefferson and in the vicinity of present-day Linden. This school did not advertise in the December 16, 1848, Spirit of the Age, which contains advertisements for academies in Kentucky and Virginia, and nothing is known about its operations. On July 5, 1850, William Perry provided a gift of five acres in the Archer headright for the sake of establishing a school in the immediate vicinity of Jefferson. The gift was made to the Cass Academy Trustees Bartholomew Figures, Williamson Freeman, Thomas Watson, C. 441 Education Harrison, and Frederick Schluter, all of whom had property in Paradise . The deed of gift indicates that buildings for a male and female academy were already on the property. The Cass County Male and Female Academy was located near the Spring Branch about 1 ½ miles west of Jefferson on the south side of the Daingerfield Road and west of the Porter and Young steam saw and grist mill, which was west of Williamson Freeman’s plantation. In the November 1849 term of the probate court, Freeman cited the existence of the school as the reason for his desire to purchase property near Jefferson. John Steel is listed in Precinct 1 of the 1850 Cass County census as a 45-year-old teacher born in Virginia. A letter...