Concrete College
Cuero, DeWitt County, Texas
Marker Inscription
(1865 - 1881) One of most respected schools in Texas in its day. Founded by the Rev. John Van Epps Covey (1821-1898), noted educator and minister. Embraced primary through collegiate levels, accepting only students over 12 years old for college work. Broad course offerings included classical and modern languages, penmanship, music (piano, guitar, violin, flute), plus homemaking and etiquette for girls. A well-attended business school taught bookkeeping, banking, commercial law, and letter-writing. Enrollment, including boarding and day students, averaged 100; peaked at 250 in 1873. On weekdays pupils rose at 5 a.m., took a brisk walk before breakfast, heard devotional services, and went to classes. Nights were reserved for study and discussion, with "lights out" at 9 p.m. Gambling, liquor, smoking, and profanity were strictly forbidden. Students wrote their lessons on slates, as paper was expensive, then recited them to the instructor. June graduation was the ceremonious occasion of public speeches and oral examinations. In 1881 the college closed after epidemics broke out and the railroad bypassed town of Concrete. Years later rock walls of main building were crushed and used to surface roads. Only rubble marks site today.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
For sixteen years Concrete College was among the most respected schools in Texas, founded in 1865 by educator-minister John Van Epps Covey to teach everything from Latin and music to bookkeeping and etiquette. Students rose at five, studied by slate, and lived under strict rules barring liquor, gambling, and profanity; enrollment once swelled to 250. Epidemics and a railroad that bypassed the town of Concrete closed the college in 1881, and its stone walls were later crushed to surface roads, leaving only rubble behind.
Why it matters
Concrete College embodies the ambitious, short-lived academies that carried classical education into frontier Texas before railroads redrew the map.
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Related people
- · John Van Epps Covey
Themes & tags
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