Hempstead High School
Hempstead, Waller County, Texas
Marker Inscription
When the town of Hempstead was founded in 1856, a centrally located school site was platted; however, no school building was erected until after the Civil War (1861-65) and ensuing era of economic stress. There were several private schools conducted, and early public school sessions were held in rented quarters, the old Waller County Jail being used at $250 a year rental from 1881 to 1887. In 1885 the town passed a bond issue for a school building to be erected here. To the cheers of townsmen lining the streets, the principal, his faculty, and the students paraded in 1887 from the jail to the new school building, which had cost $10,000 and was fenced to keep out stock allowed to run at large in the town. The Hempstead "graded" school became "Hempstead High School" that year. First graduation exercises (for six students) were held in 1888. Accreditation has been maintained since affiliation with the University of Texas in 1893, except for a 1907-14 lapse. From ten grades in 1887-88, the course of study increased to eleven in 1913-14, and twelve in 1941-42. The school plant was enlarged in 1914, 1923, 1936, 1955, and 1963. Original 11.5-square-mile district has expanded through consolidations to about 200 square miles. (1972)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Hempstead platted a school site when the town was founded in 1856, but war and hard times delayed a real building for years, and classes met in rented rooms — even the old county jail, leased at $250 a year. A bond issue finally funded this $10,000 schoolhouse, and in 1887 the principal, faculty, and students paraded from the jail to their new home as townspeople cheered. Renamed Hempstead High School that year, it graduated its first class of six in 1888 and grew steadily alongside the town.
Why it matters
The school's long road from jailhouse classrooms to an accredited high school captures the determination of Reconstruction-era Texas towns to build public education from almost nothing.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Waller County
Hempstead, TX
Carved from Austin and Grimes counties in 1873, Waller County was named for Edwin Waller, a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence and first mayor of Austin. Its soil holds a dense history: the rich Groce plantations of 1831–1874, the later home of celebrated sculptor Elisabet Ney, and the railroad town of Hempstead that became the county seat. Since 1876 it has been home to Prairie View A&M, one of Texas's foundational institutions for Black higher education.
Old Salem Cemetery
Waller County, TX
This burial ground began as the family plot of T. B. White, whose wife Elizabeth and father-in-law Henry Kirby were laid to rest here in the 1850s. In 1853 White sold ten adjoining acres to the Salem Association for a Masonic lodge hall and academy, and the grounds soon became a public cemetery. Among those buried here are Jane McCullen, born in 1788, and Francis J. Cooke, a veteran of the Battle of San Jacinto.
Prairie View A&M University
Prairie View, TX
Authorized by the Texas legislature in 1876 as the "Agricultural and Mechanical College for Colored Youth," this land-grant school opened in 1878 on a 1,434-acre former slave plantation, making it Texas's second state college. After an early closure it reorganized as a normal institute to train Black teachers, then grew steadily into a full college by the 1930s. Integrated in the 1960s, it took its present name, Prairie View A&M University, in 1973.
Wyatt Chapel Community Cemetery
Prairie View, TX
This burial ground began on Jared E. Kirby's Alta Vista Plantation, where, by oral tradition, the Kirby family set aside land for the graves of enslaved people from Alta Vista and from cousin Leonard Waller Croce's nearby Liendo Plantation. Its many unmarked graves are believed to date to the antebellum years, when the enslaved rarely had means for lasting headstones. After emancipation the community kept using the site — Kirby's widow deeded the plantation in 1876 for what became Prairie View A&M University — and it took the name of the nearby Wyatt Chapel, holding the graves of former slaves, their descendants, and veterans of both World Wars.