Peter's Prairie School

Peter's Prairie was one of many rural schools that Mason County closed in a single year. In 1946 all of them were consolidated with the Mason schools. With that change and better farm roads, rural people moved into the county seat, and ranchers could live in town and drive out each day; community life in the countryside dwindled. The county's schooling improved after consolidation: 18 percent of adults had finished high school in 1950, 33 percent by 1960 and half by 1980. The county's earliest schools had been taught in homes.

What the plaque says

Peter's Prairie School DURING THE 1850s AND 1860s, MASON COUNTY LANDOWNER, "MAJOR" JOSHUA PETERS, SUPPLIED CUT PRAIRIE GRASSES FROM HERE TO FORT MASON FOR THEIR HORSES. THE COMMUNITY WHICH DEVELOPED TOOK THE NAME PETER'S PRAIRIE. IN 1877, JOHN RHOADS AND W. H. MORRIS PETITIONED COUNTY COMMISSIONERS TO OPEN A COMMUNITY SCHOOL ON LAND DEEDED BY LARKIN MORRIS SOUTH OF THE PRESENT SITE. RHOADS, W. H. MORRIS, AND C. COALSON WERE NAMED TRUSTEES, AND $149.60 WAS RAISED LOCALLY TO FUND THE NEW PICKET SCHOOLHOUSE, WHICH OPENED WITH 59 STUDENTS. MISS JANE HURLEY WAS ONE OF THE EARLIEST TEACHERS. IN 1894, J. W. HENRY BOUGHT FOUR ACRES FROM J. H. TABOR TO BUILD A FRAME SCHOOL AT THE CURRENT SITE. CITIZENS SHOWED THEIR COMMITMENT TO EDUCATION BY RAISING THEIR AD VALOREM TAX RATE FROM 20 TO 50 CENTS PER 100 DOLLARS VALUATION IN 1913. AFTER PETER'S PRAIRIE AND FIKES SCHOOLS CONSOLIDATED IN 1921, A NEW THREE-ROOM SCHOOL WAS BUILT FROM MASONRY BLOCKS POURED AND FORMED ON MS. ANNA MARTIN'S PROPERTY ON THE LLANO RIVER AND HAULED HERE BY WAGON. THE GROUNDS INCLUDED A WATER WELL, PLAYGROUND, AND COURTS FOR BASKETBALL, VOLLEYBALL AND TENNIS. MASON COUNTY'S CHAMPIONSHIP TENNIS TRADITION STARTED HERE, INTRODUCED BY WALTER ADKINS. HELEN SELL TALLENT, WHO PLAYED HERE, WAS AN INAUGURAL INDUCTEE OF THE TEXAS TENNIS COACHES ASSOCIATION HALL OF FAME. PETER'S PRAIRIE TAUGHT GRADES ONE THROUGH TEN, AND THE HIGH QUALITY OF EDUCATION WAS CONFIRMED BY NUMEROUS ACADEMIC AND ATHLETIC AWARDS WON BY STUDENTS IN RURAL SCHOOL COMPETITIONS. ALTHOUGH PETER'S PRAIRIE SCHOOL CONSOLIDATED WITH MASON SCHOOLS IN 1946, THE SCHOOLHOUSE CONTINUES TO SERVE AS A CENTER OF LOCAL ACTIVITY AND AS THE HEART OF THE COMMUNITY. THE SCHOOL HAS HOSTED SUCH COMMUNITY FUNCTIONS AS DANCES, LUNCHES, SHOWERS, MUSICAL PERFORMANCES, CHRISTMAS PARTIES, AND A QUILTING CLUB. (2013)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fort Mason — 11 mi
  A reconstructed officers' quarters on Post Oak Hill above Mason, standing where the army's stone fort was taken apart by the town that grew up below it.
• Eckert James River Bat Cave Preserve — 23 mi
  A limestone cave on the James River where about four million Mexican free-tailed bats raise their young each summer, kept open to visitors by a family's gift.

More markers nearby

• Site of Old Park Named for Comanche Chief Katemcy — 2.0 mi
• Site of Camp San Saba — 7.2 mi
• John Bate Berry — 8.1 mi
• Wagram Cemetery — 9.0 mi