Union Grove Schools

Oil built this school. G. H. Baird's 1946 county history says wells were drilled on the school property after the discovery, which paid for a brick building, high school status in 1933, university affiliation in 1935-36 and Southern Association membership in 1937-38. By then the school had 18 teachers and 36 units of affiliation, with buses bringing pupils in. Baird notes Union Grove never had a church building. Texas Escapes adds that even in the Depression the district owned three producing wells, and oil money paid for band trips.

What the plaque says

Union Grove Schools The earliest recorded school in this area was held at the home of pioneer settler John O'Byrne. In 1888, a public school opened with J.H. Sheppard as the teacher. The first half of the 20th Century say much growth for Union Grove schools, with the creation of Union Grove Common School District No. 42 in 1907; the construction of new buildings in 1909, 1920 and 1933; and the 1930s oil boom, which greatly increased the tax base and population of the district. Over the years, the Union Grove school campus expanded to include elementary, junior and senior high schools, an auditorium, cafeteria, library, shop buildings and a football stadium. In 1965, Union Grove became an independent school district. (2002)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• East Texas Oil Museum — 14 mi
  A Kilgore College museum that rebuilds the 1930s oil boom in a full-scale Boomtown with a general store, drugstore and newspaper office, plus dioramas, films and antiques given by East Texans.
• Tyler State Park — 22 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.
• New London Museum and Cenotaph — 23 mi
  A volunteer-run museum beside the pink granite cenotaph for the March 1937 school gas explosion, holding a model of the school, a blackboard from that day and an odorizer device.
• Camp Ford Historic Park — 24 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

• Rosedale Cemetery — 2.6 mi
• Gladewater Lodge No. 852, A.F. & A.M. — 2.7 mi
• John Ben Shepperd — 2.7 mi
• First United Methodist Church of Gladewater — 2.7 mi