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BY AGNES G. GRIMMTwo very Important “firsts”happened in the Llanos Meste-nas region in regard to education.The first Protestant Mission School to be opened for Spanish-speaking children of Mexican background was started in Brownsville by Miss Melinda Rankin in the spring of 1852. This was the Presbyterian Mission School for Girls. Eventually, Miss Rankin carried her missionary work on into Monterrey, Mexico — opening the first Protestant school in Mexico,Strangely, the first Roman Catholic school to be opened was also for girls. The very first branch of the Order of the Incarnate Word (whose avowed objective is the education of youth' to be established in the Western Hemisphere was started in Brownsville in 1853.Both the above schools had very humble beginnings and were faced with inadequate financial resources However, the nuns had much more local help than Miss Hardin, so had an adequate school built by the end of the year. But the yellow fever epidemic of 1858 and the Cortina raids of 1859 proved to be no respector of schools, so both were forced to close during the height of each event The Cath-lic School barely continued to function during the Civil Waryears, but the Presbyterian School was forced to close. However, by 1865. the Presbyterian Mission School opened in a nice new building By this time, the Catholic School had grown and enlarged both the Convent and the school building, but the hurricane of 1867 utterly demolished the school's new addition and ruined the entire building However. the astute Nuns rebuilt their school, with help from the Oblate Fathers and local citizens, and were granted a state charger in 1885 Among those enrolled were Protestant and Jewish girls as well as Cath olic.Wealthy ranchers had, years, sent their children boarding schools after two o r three years of private tutoring. Area “colleges , actually of high school and. in some cases, junior college level, were opened in San Patricio. Laredo. Brownsville, Lag art o, and Corpus Chris-ti before and immediately following the Civil War. Oommunl-ce-ff to the north bank of the Pueblo of Mexico taught Eng- ma Alta and La Bandera later time, the Pali to Blanco and the Rio Grande. He left the Nueces- lish to the community children, consolidated wtih the Pall to Ben Bolt schools are cotwoli town school to teach at the new The nearby early schools of Lo- Blanco school. At the present dated.school at (Old) Amargosa in 1877. In 1890, he was teaching at the school in Oollins, which had diminished considerably that year because a school was started In Alice. The first school at Collins had been taught by Mr. Oscar Staples,According to some sources, the first school in Alice (whileit was still called Kleberg) wastaught in 1888 in the second story of the Bee ham Place. Thishad been moved over from Collins and was used as a boarding house for men working on the S. A A P Railway and a stagestop The proprietor was Mr.Recham’s widowed daughter,Mrs. Walker, who later married Mr. Sedwick — so the place issometimes referred to as “theold Sedwick house. This first school wasa private school, with only eight or nine pupils, and was taught by Miss Mary Woods.In 1890, a school board of trustees w as elected In the growing town of Alice who, with the backing of the townspeople,built a two-story four room frame building where the Hobbs Building now stands. Miss Mary Woods became the first teacher of theElementary grades here. The first principal was a Professor Baxter.Alice's first brick school building was the recently - razed Strickland Building at the corner of Third and Reynolds Streets, which w*as built in 1905.fortoIn the Orange Grove area, George Reynolds built a house and school of hand-cut caliche blocks on his Ventena Ranch. They are both still standing renovated and well cared for by the present Mrs. Randolf R.Reynolds, occupant Mr, Reynolds had six sons and two daughters for whom he hired a governess.The first school in the present Alfred area was about a mile from the little town (calledattended by the Almonds, Wrights, and Adams children as early as 1874. Professor Sutherland was a teacher at this school for several years. After finishing at their respective community schools, the majority of the pupils in thetv schools had been established present North Jim Wells County*by this time in Son Diego. Nu cestown. Dinero, The Motts, and perhaps a few other places Wumifred Gordan Sutherland, known as “The Soge of Bluntz-er”, began teaching about 1872. His first school was at Concepcion in Duval County. He taught In various schools throughout the Mustang Prairies — from along the south bank of the Nue-area attended Goliad College.In the Palito Blanco area, the first school was a Nueces County School taught by a Louis Clark about 1880 The first community school was built in 1889, likewise by the county.It was approximately six hundred feet west of the present Palito Blanco School A LuisT.Collins School, 1888 - 89LAYAWAYBACK-TO-SCHOOLVAiOYS' CUSHION FOOT COTTlt;LEVINE S VALUE PRICEDATHLETICCREW SOCKS• WHITE OR RING TOPS• REG 59c FAMOUS BRAND IRREGULARSFIRST QUALITY LACE TRIMHIGH OR LOWPANTIESTOPS!• RAYON TRICOT KNIT WEAVES• WHITE AND PASTELS • SIZES 4 TO 14IGIRLS' SHORT SLEEVE KNITPOOR BOYS• COTTON RIB-KNIT TOPSPOPULAR SCHOOL COLORSGIRLS' WHITE COTTON LACE Tl♦ %■9K,• STURDY COTTON CANVAS UPPERS • NON-SKID RUBBER SOLES AND HEELS• BUILT-UP SHOULDER STRAP• SANFORIZED • SIZES 4-14TREMENDOUS VALUil WIDE CHCMIN _5IZIS 6 Va TO 1 2 BOYS' SIZES 11 TO 2,ay* TO 6N***«*,• CUSHION INNER SOUS, • VENTED ARCHESRECORDS• MADE TO SELL FOR 59c EACHI• FAMOUS ARTISTS' SELECTIONSGIRLS HEAVY WHITE COTTOPsSOCKSGIRLS’ WHITE• GIRLS SIZES • lt;* TO II• REINFORCED Hill AND TOE
Newspaper Details
Alice Daily Echo
Alice, Texas, US
Sun, Aug 21, 1966
Page 8
Full Page
Clipped by
Grandmere E.
OR, USA 08 May 2023
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