Site of Reservation School

The Reservation district joined the schools of Harper, just across the line in Gillespie County. Harper was first settled by the Matthew Taylor and Eli McDonald families in 1863, and George Franklin Harper opened its post office in 1883, giving it his name. More than 15,000 visitors came to its centennial in 1963. In 1985 it served a large ranching area with six churches, a fire department and ambulance service, a public school and new subdivisions, and in 1982 it had the oldest bank still operating in the county. Its 383 people of 1990 grew to 1,006 by 2000.

What the plaque says

Site of Reservation School As settlement in Kerr County began to spread to outlying areas at the end of the 19th century, neighbors gradually formed schools in which to educate their children. The Reservation School began in 1907 as a one-room school and also housed a Baptist church congregation. It was relocated to this site in 1919 after Anton and Emma Esquell deeded a portion of their land for a school. A larger two-room building and outbuildings including horse stalls and a teacherage were erected to accommodate an increasing student population. In 1935 the Baptist congregation changed its name and moved to new facilities. The school continued in operation until 1939, when students were bussed to other area schools. Voters officially approved consolidation with Harper schools in neighboring Gillespie County in 1941. (2000)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Schreiner Mansion — 18 mi
  The 1879 downtown home of Charles Schreiner, the Alsatian-born merchant, banker and rancher whose store and mohair trade built Kerrville.
• Eckert James River Bat Cave Preserve — 22 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.
• Kimble County Historical Museum — 31 mi
  A free county museum in Junction, the town at the meeting of the North and South Llano, with the papers, photographs and tools of a ranching county.
• Treue der Union Monument — 32 mi
  An 1866 German-language monument in Comfort over the graves of Hill Country Unionists killed at the Nueces in 1862, its flag of thirty-six stars kept at half-staff.

More markers nearby

• Sunset Cemetery — 6.0 mi
• The Dowdy Tragedy of 1878 — 6.1 mi
• St. James Lutheran Church — 6.5 mi
• St. Anthony Catholic Parish — 6.7 mi