Early Schools in Live Oak County

Behind the district names on the back were separate schools for separate children. Schools were segregated, and in 1900 Black children in Oakville had to travel to Bee County after their school closed. At Dinero, separate White and Mexican American schools stood until both were annexed to the George West district in 1949. By 1934 the county ran five independent districts and nearly thirty common-school districts. Whitsett's school, which had four teachers and 61 students in 1938, joined the Three Rivers district in 1949 as well.

What the plaque says

Early Schools in Live Oak County Until the 1870's, Live Oak county had private schools taught by clergymen and ranch employees in cabins, brush arbors, dugouts. County Judge G.W. Jones initiated (1876) community schools with tuition set at 71/2 cents a day per student. In time there were 43 of these small schools. Oakville in 1881 erected the county's first building for a free school and in 1899 had the first independent district. By 1917 George West and Three Rivers also had independent districts. Consolidations began in 1940, when the county had 9,799 people. By 1970, two consolidated schools served the entire county. (1975) [See school district names on back] Schools absorbed by George West: Anna Rose, Bell Kidd, Booth, Cadiz, Cardwell, Clegg, Cornelia, Dinero, Dobie, Goodwin, Gussettville, Hyman, Jarratt, Lagarto, Lapara, Leopard, Lewis, Lyne, Mahala, Marbach, Mikeska, Mote, Oakridge, Oakville, Ramirena, Votaw

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Choke Canyon State Park — 18 mi
  A reservoir state park on the Frio River in two units, built after a 1982 dam, with birds, alligators and fishing on land people have crossed for more than 10,000 years.
• Lake Corpus Christi State Park — 24 mi
  A lake park in the South Texas brush country above Mathis, on a reservoir of the Nueces, with a Civilian Conservation Corps refectory and more than 200 bird species.

More markers nearby

• City of George West — 0.6 mi
• Live Oak County — 1.5 mi
• Gussettville — 5.5 mi
• Site of Fort Merrill — 8.2 mi