Richland School
Pflugerville, Travis County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The Richland School was created as a means to educate the children of the Richland community in northern Travis County. During the 1860s, many Germans settled the area and began farming. An early immigrant, Franz Schmidt, took an interest in providing community-wide education. He offered up his home, known as “Brushy Knob,” as a place for children to learn. As the need for education grew, Schmidt donated one acre of his property for a school. In the late 1870s, a local committee was formed which submitted that the school be named “Richland,” in reference to the area’s rich Blackland soil. In 1878, a one-room schoolhouse was built. The first teacher was Catharine Schlittler, who was followed by several German-speaking minister/teachers. Unhappy with part-time instructors lecturing in German, the community applied to the state to supply funds for a full-time, English-speaking teacher. This request was granted around the same time the school was expanded. In 1883, a larger schoolhouse was built over the site of the original building. In 1905, the community voted to expand the schoolhouse and bring in another teacher. A separate room was built in 1920 to house primary grades. In 1927, the community voted to once again improve the school grounds by constructing a modern, three-room schoolhouse. The original 1883 building was moved off site, the 1905 addition demolished, and the 1920 structure converted into a club house. In 1936, Travis County officials decided that smaller, community schools should be consolidated at Pflugerville; however, Richland School avoided consolidation until 1945, when it was absorbed by Pflugerville ISD. At the time of its closing, the school had nine grades, three classrooms, and three teachers. The school buildings were all moved off-site and repurposed. (2016)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In the 1870s, German farming families in northern Travis County set out to school their children, and settler Franz Schmidt gave first his home and then an acre of his rich Blackland soil for the purpose—soil that gave the Richland School its name. A one-room schoolhouse rose in 1878, taught at first by German-speaking minister-teachers until the community pressed the state for a full-time, English-speaking instructor. The school grew across the decades, weathered a 1936 consolidation push, and finally merged into Pflugerville ISD in 1945.
Why it matters
Small rural schools like Richland were the civic heart of immigrant farming communities, and their long resistance to consolidation traces the slow modernization of American country life.
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Related people
- · Franz Schmidt
- · Catharine Schlittler
Themes & tags
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