Bellview Community and School

Rural districts like Bellview filled up only after a rescue for the county's first farmers. Most early settlers bought state school land at two dollars an acre, but drought, grasshoppers, no railroad and single sections too small to ranch drove many to abandon their claims in the early 1890s. The Four-Section Act of 1895 changed that, and in the late 1890s hundreds of new settlers came for school land. By 1900 Hale County had 259 farms and ranches and 1,680 people, and in 1907 residents raised $75,000 to bring in the Santa Fe.

What the plaque says

Bellview Community and School Much of this rural community's early social and religious history is closely associated with its schoolhouses. Area residents built their first schoolhouse in 1903, one year after organizing a rural school district. Named for trustee John Bell, the Bellview School began with 12 students. A 4-room school building erected near here in 1918 was the site of social and church activities for the next four decades. Bellview School was merged with Plainview schools in 1942. The last Bellview School building, once the center of community activity, fell into disrepair and was razed in 1968. 1992

Where it stands

More markers nearby

• Snyder Community — 4.8 mi
• Happy Union — 6.5 mi
• Hale County — 7.0 mi
• Green Machinery Co., Inc. — 7.3 mi