Second Lives of Surviving Rural Schools in Fayette County
Early Anglo settlers in Fayette County were aware that education was important for their children, but at the time, there were no means to provide them with anything more than a very basic form of home schooling. David Breeding, who lived north of present-day Fayetteville, established the first log school in Fayette County in 1834. In a few short years, an increasing number of schools were being established in the county. There were several private academies in La Grange and Fayetteville, as well as Rutersville Col- lege, the first Protestant col - lege in Texas, that was char tered in 1840.
After the Civil War when the demographics of the county changed with most of the Anglos moving elsewhere, and Germans and Czechs moving in, more rural schools were being built, mostly within four to five miles of each other to accommodate students walking or riding horses or mules. There were public schools for whites and blacks, as well as parochial schools. At the time, even though not considered appropriate today, schools for black students were called Colored or Negro Schools.
