Harmony I.S.D.

Two of the schools merged into Harmony came from boom towns. The Handbook of Texas ties Upshur's western lumber boom, 1907 to 1917, to Rhonesboro and Rosewood on the Marshall and East Texas Railroad. A 1946 county history says Rosewood grew up when the railroad passed through Double Springs, with stores, a bank, a post office and a large school. After the railroad was discontinued the bank closed and the post office was dropped. By 1946 the Rosewood district belonged to Harmony, with a rock building west of Rosewood on the Rhonesboro road.

What the plaque says

Harmony I.S.D. Early efforts to improve the quality of education and provide a complete high school program in area districts resulted in the merger of rural schools in Wood and Upshur counties. Consolidation began in 1929 when Mt. Gilead and Rosewood schools combined. In 1938 Rosewood joined with schools from Rhonesboro, Honey Creek, and Union. The district was named Harmony, honoring the smooth transition. Classes were relocated in a rock building at this site. Schools added later were Grice, Peach, Enon, Ogburn, Soules Chapel, Latch, and part of the Kelsey District. (1980)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Governor Hogg Shrine — 20 mi
  Quitman's 27-acre city park, once a state historical park, where two houses tied to James Stephen Hogg's marriage stand beside an arboretum, a nature walk and the grounds of the Old Settlers Reunion.
• Lake Bob Sandlin State Park — 21 mi
  A 1987 state park on a 9,000-acre reservoir, where a Republic of Texas stockade called Fort Sherman stood in 1838 and the Caddo lived from A.D. 800 to 1860, now with fishing piers, trails and cabins.
• Tyler State Park — 21 mi
  A 985-acre park eight miles north of Tyler, built by the Civilian Conservation Corps from 1935 to 1941 around a 64-acre spring-fed lake, with more than 13 miles of trails.
• Camp Ford Historic Park — 27 mi
  A free county park north of Tyler on the site of the largest Confederate prison camp west of the Mississippi, with a kiosk, an interpretive trail and a historical society museum downtown.

More markers nearby

• Rhonesboro — 2.0 mi
• Little Mound Baptist Church and Cemetery — 2.6 mi
• Alex Earp — 3.4 mi
• Kelsey School — 3.6 mi