Oak Valley School
Corsicana, Navarro County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Oak Valley was one of thirty school districts created in Navarro County in 1867 by County Judge John L. Miller and a committee composed of E. G. Melton, John M. Bright, L. H. Dunham, J. C. Wells, J. M. Quinlan, and G. W. Foster. Classes were not held, however, until the 1870s after a new constitutional provision allowed for the levying of taxes for public education. During the late 1870s a one-room schoolhouse was constructed to serve the surrounding rural area. In 1894 an acre of land formally was deeded for free public school purposes by the Garner family. The Garners sold an additional acre of land to the school in 1905. By 1919 enrollment had reached nearly 100 students, and a new, two-room schoolhouse was built to accommodate the growth. Thirty years later, the school was annexed by the Corsicana Independent School District. For more than seventy years, Oak Valley School provided free public education for the children of this area. Many of the students went on to Corsicana for further schooling. Oak Valley produced a number of schoolteachers and military servicemen. The history of Oak Valley School provides a significant link to the beginnings of a public school system in Texas.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Oak Valley was one of thirty school districts laid out in Navarro County in 1867, though classes waited until the 1870s, when a new state constitutional provision finally allowed taxes to fund public education. A one-room schoolhouse rose late that decade on land later deeded by the Garner family, and by 1919 nearly a hundred students filled a new two-room building. The school served the rural area for more than seventy years before the Corsicana district absorbed it in 1949.
Why it matters
Oak Valley traces the birth of tax-supported public schooling in Texas, one small district in the long American effort to guarantee free education to every child.
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Themes & tags
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