Live Oak Female Seminary

The catalog of Live Oak reads like a small college's. Students could take Latin, Greek, French, chemistry, astronomy, trigonometry, physiology and what the school called mental science, along with elocution, and music and art as extras. Board began at twelve dollars a month and tuition at two to four dollars, with a piano another fifty a session. The Handbook of Texas builds its picture from newspaper advertisements and former students' recollections, because no school records survive. There was also an optional course in embroidery, and the Bible was probably studied daily.

What the plaque says

Live Oak Female Seminary Founded in 1853 by Presbyterian minister James W. Miller (1815-1888), Live Oak Female Seminary provided educational opportunities to female boarding students and male and female day students until 1888. Miller's sister-in-law, Rebecca Stuart Red, was principal until 1875, when she opened Stuart Female Seminary in Austin. Live Oak campus included the Miller home, "Oak Lodge," which housed classes on the second floor; dormitories; an auditorium; and a music conservatory. The Miller home was moved off the site and the last of the school buildings were razed in the 1970s. (1994)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Independence and Old Baylor Park — 5.6 mi
  A crossroads north of Brenham that was the richest town in Texas when it won Baylor University in 1845, refused the railroad, and lost the college to Waco and Belton in 1886.
• Lake Somerville State Park and Trailway — 16 mi
  Two park units on an 11,000-acre lake between Austin and College Station, joined by a thirteen-mile trailway for hikers, cyclists and riders with primitive camps along the way.
• Washington-on-the-Brazos State Historic Site — 17 mi
  The townsite on the Brazos where delegates met in a cold, unfinished hall in March 1836 to declare Texas independent, with Independence Hall rebuilt and Anson Jones's Barrington farm worked as in 1850.
• Star of the Republic Museum — 17 mi
  A star-shaped museum of the Republic of Texas years, 1836 to 1846, built at Washington-on-the-Brazos after a Brenham campaign and opened on March 1, 1970.

More markers nearby

• Oak Rest Cemetery and Site of Prospect Presbyterian Church — 0.4 mi
• Holly Oaks — 0.4 mi
• La Bahia Road — 2.3 mi
• Birthplace of Hedwig T. Kniker — 2.7 mi