Knickerbocker Schools
Knickerbocker, Tom Green County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Education for children in southwestern Tom Green County was available at Knickerbocker Schools as early as 1877. The Baze Subscription School, built by A. P. Baze (1833-1880) on his farm two miles north of Knickerbocker, operated from 1877 to 1899.The one-room schoolhouse had adobe walls, a shingled roof, and a pine floor. Children came on horseback to attend a six-month school term. As the population grew, the county built a frame schoolhouse about 1889 to replace the Baze School. In 1926 a red brick school building with three classrooms, an auditorium, and a central hall replaced the 1889 frame structure. In 1895, at the insistence of Dr. Boyd Cornick (1856-1933), a county school was built primarily for children of Mexican descent. This school was substantially remodeled in the 1930s. The two schools operated separately until 1948 when they were combined. Following the consolidation of area rural schools in 1960, children from the Knickerbocker area traveled by bus to school in Christoval. The red brick Knickerbocker school building became a post office and community center in 1989. (1992)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Education came early to southwestern Tom Green County, where A. P. Baze built an adobe subscription school on his farm in 1877 for children who rode in on horseback for a six-month term. As Knickerbocker grew, a frame schoolhouse replaced it about 1889, and a red-brick building with an auditorium followed in 1926. In 1895, at the urging of Dr. Boyd Cornick, a separate county school was built for children of Mexican descent; the two schools ran apart until they combined in 1948, and area schools consolidated to Christoval in 1960.
Why it matters
Knickerbocker's schools trace the evolution of rural West Texas education, including the segregation of Mexican-descent children that shaped opportunity across the Southwest.
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Related people
- · A. P. Baze
- · Boyd Cornick
Themes & tags
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