St. Paul School

Neylandville began as a Black settlement after James Brigham bought his own and his family's freedom from planter Robert Neyland, the Handbook of Texas says. In the 1880s residents formed a farmers' cooperative that built a general store and a cotton gin and bought a wheat drill and a harvester. The school at St. Paul became the educational center for Black children in the area and, before 1940, was one of few Black schools there offering vocational courses. Its trustees and superintendent were all African American. A Rosenwald Fund card file lists it as a county training school.

What the plaque says

St. Paul School The community of Neylandville traces its history to the 1850s. James Brigham, a former slave, bought farmland in the area after purchasing his family's freedom. Following the Civil War and the emancipation of slaves, other black families began to settle near Brigham's farm. The community, named Neylandville for Robert Neyland, from whom Brigham had purchased his freedom, established Baptist and Methodist Episcopal churches. A school begun at St. Paul Baptist Church evolved into the major educational center for black children living in nearby towns and settlements. The Hunt County Commissioners Court established the St. Paul Common School District by 1885. A new building was erected at this site in 1918 after the original structure burned. Additional facilities built in later years included classroom buildings, a gymnasium, and a teacherage. Bus service was initiated in 1938 to transport students from surrounding areas. St. Paul School became a part of the Commerce School District in 1965. All but one of the school buildings were sold and moved off the site. The home economics building remained as a community center until it was replaced by a new structure. (1989)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Audie Murphy / American Cotton Museum — 7.1 mi
  A Greenville museum of Hunt County's military heroes, including Audie Murphy, and of cotton, which keeps the engine of what it says was the world's largest inland cotton compress.
• Cooper Lake State Park — 22 mi
  Two units on Jim Chapman Lake, a Corps reservoir proposed in the late 1930s, stalled by a lawsuit until 1984 and dedicated in 1991, with a 10.5-mile equestrian trail and wildlife land around it.
• Rockwall County Historical Foundation & Museum — 32 mi
  A small museum in Harry Myers Park that keeps the evidence on Rockwall's rock wall, sandstone dikes that geologists call natural and folk tales call built.

More markers nearby

• Scatter Branch Church — 3.1 mi
• Site of Henry and Emerson Colleges — 4.8 mi
• East Texas State University — 6.2 mi
• Birthplace of Maj. Gen. Claire L. Chennault — 6.7 mi