Newsome Dougherty Memorial High School
Gainesville, Cooke County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In the early 20th century, the growing city of Gainesville needed a new high school but lacked funds. In 1920, W.H. and Ella Dougherty donated their mansion, which once belonged to U.S. Senator Joseph W. Bailey, and surrounding land to the city for this purpose. The couple stipulated the school be named for their son, Isaac Newsome Dougherty, who died at age 26 in the worldwide influenza epidemic that began in 1918. Facilities opened in 1922 and served students until 1959. In 1924, the campus began housing Gainesville Junior College, later North Central Texas College. The Doughertys' donation thus proved vital to the city's transition to a modern education system. (2006)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
When growing Gainesville needed a high school but lacked the money, W.H. and Ella Dougherty donated their mansion—once the home of U.S. Senator Joseph W. Bailey—along with surrounding land in 1920. They asked only that the school bear the name of their son Isaac Newsome Dougherty, dead at 26 in the great influenza pandemic that began in 1918. The school opened in 1922 and, from 1924, also housed the college that became North Central Texas College.
Why it matters
The gift shows how private generosity and personal grief built the public institutions of a modernizing town, and it carries the memory of the 1918 flu pandemic that touched nearly every American family.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · W.H. Dougherty
- · Ella Dougherty
- · Isaac Newsome Dougherty
- · Joseph W. Bailey
Related events
- · 1918 influenza pandemic
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Hubert H. Moss
Gainesville, TX
Born in Woodbine in 1892, Hubert H. Moss trained as a teacher, served in World War I, and returned to become a chemistry professor at the new Gainesville Junior College and a trusted student advisor. From 1946 until his death in 1952 he was Cooke County school superintendent, and as chamber of commerce president he campaigned for a reservoir to secure the city's water. Gainesville completed Hubert H. Moss Lake in 1966 on the very site he had recommended.
G. H. Ragsdale
Gainesville, TX
George Henry Ragsdale came from Tennessee to Cooke County in 1867 and served three terms as county surveyor, but his lasting fame came from a self-taught mastery of natural history. An expert in birds, small mammals, fossils, and geology, he gathered hundreds of specimens and eggs, sold and donated many to the Smithsonian Institution, and published dozens of articles, even writing a natural-history column for the Gainesville Hesperian. Contemporaries honored him by naming a fossil oyster and a snail in his name.
Oak Grove Community
Gainesville, TX
In the 1860s George Sanford Norrid brought his wife Tabitha and family from Missouri to this part of Cooke County, opening their home for church services. In 1875 Norrid and F.M. Dougherty deeded land for a Methodist Episcopal church and cemetery, and when Tabitha died in January 1876 she became the first burial in what grew into Oak Grove Cemetery. The congregation used the building for both worship and school until 1884, when they moved it to nearby Woodbine, leaving the cemetery as the community's lasting memorial.
Nelson Grove Cemetery
Gainesville, TX
When 14-year-old Mollie Nelson died of pneumonia and measles in 1875, her family buried her on their Cooke County land. Two years later her father deeded the ground to the county for use as a school, church, and burying place, and the Nelson Grove School educated neighboring children until 1924, often doubling as a funeral chapel. A cemetery association has tended the grounds since 1964, and by 2000 more than 800 people rested there.