Bertram School

The cotton boom that pulled pupils into the fields was county-wide. In 1880 Burnet County farmers planted about 7,000 acres of cotton and made some 1,400 bales; by 1890 they planted 20,500 acres, a third of the improved land, and made 8,650. Tenant farming and sharecropping spread with it, from 29 percent of farms in 1880 to a peak of 54 percent in 1930. Then cotton fell from sixteen cents a pound in 1929 to five cents in 1931, and the number of farms in the county dropped from 1,548 in 1930 to 810 by 1960.

What the plaque says

Bertram School When Bertram was founded in 1882 along the Austin & Northwestern Railroad, one of the first structures erected was a combination school, Sunday School, and Masonic Lodge hall. Rudolph Bertram, Austin Railroad executive for whom the town was named, contributed $50 for construction of the school. The frame building was enlarged as the community grew. By 1908, however, new facilities were needed for the 264 students. In May 1909, Bertram voters approved incorporation as an independent school district and construction of a new school building. This 2-story red brick structure was erected on property purchased from T. D. Vaughn. Designed by architect George Endress and built by contractor M. L. Langford, it opened in the fall of 1909 with J. N. Matthews as the first principal. Bertram was then in the midst of a cotton-growing boom, and students often missed the beginning of school to help in the fields. As the enrollment increased, sports and other extracurricular activities were introduced. a separate high school was erected in 1925 and a gymnasium in 1948. Over a period of years, several smaller county schools transferred their students to Bertram. In 1970 Bertram schools merged with the Burnet district. (1976)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Balcones Canyonlands National Wildlife Refuge: Doeskin Ranch — 8.8 mi
  A free federal refuge north of Lake Travis kept for two songbirds that need old juniper and oak, with trails at the Doeskin Ranch unit near Bertram.
• Longhorn Cavern State Park — 18 mi
  A cave carved by an underground river in the Hill Country, cleared of mud by hand in the 1930s and reached down 52 stone steps on a guided tour.
• Inks Lake State Park — 19 mi
  A state park on a constant-level lake of the Colorado, between Buchanan and Inks dams, with pink granite and gneiss at the water and CCC work along Park Road 4.
• Inks Dam National Fish Hatchery — 20 mi
  A free federal hatchery below Inks Dam on the Colorado, with thirty production ponds that draw birds and a look at how fish are raised from egg to harvest.

More markers nearby

• Bertram — 0.6 mi
• The Village of South Gabriel — 2.1 mi
• Site of Prairie Point Community — 3.6 mi
• Mount Zion Cemetery — 3.8 mi