Second Site of the Old Wayside School
Fort Worth, Tarrant County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Founded 1883 on site in Dozier community, given by W.E. Boswell. Situated 1898-1948 in 2 successive buildings on land given by A.W. Moore. Now in Eagle Mountain-Saginaw District, which includes W.E. Boswell High School, named in honor of donor of first site.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
The Wayside School began in 1883 on land donated by W. E. Boswell in the Dozier community, one of the small rural schoolhouses that once dotted Tarrant County. From 1898 to 1948 it stood on this second site through two successive buildings, on ground given by A. W. Moore. Its lineage lives on in the Eagle Mountain-Saginaw district, whose W. E. Boswell High School honors the man who gave the school its first home.
Why it matters
Rural common schools like Wayside were the seedbed of public education across frontier Texas, their names surviving in today's consolidated districts.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · W. E. Boswell
- · A. W. Moore
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Saginaw School
Saginaw, TX
Jarvis J. Green settled this railroad crossroads in 1882 and named it for Saginaw, Michigan, and by 1892 the community had its first school. A 1910 teachers' strike against child labor sparked one of the area's early parent-teacher associations, and in the 1930s the Works Progress Administration funded a new Preston Geren–designed schoolhouse. Through consolidation and expansion, the campus has taught local children for well over a century.
Saginaw United Methodist Church
Saginaw, TX
In July 1914, eight women and two men organized a Methodist church in Saginaw, then a farming town of about a hundred people. They worshipped at first in the new brick school on Bluebonnet Street before erecting their own frame building in 1923. As the community grew, so did the church, adding a parsonage, education buildings, and sanctuaries over the decades and taking its present name in 1968.
Castleberry School District
River Oaks, TX
Certified as a Texas common school district in 1898, this rural school began in a small frame building on donated land and passed through several names before being renamed for Zack and Fanny Castleberry, who supplied it with well water. Through parent-teacher partnership, WPA projects, and federal aid, it steadily expanded — swelling further during World War II as families arrived at nearby Carswell Air Force Base. When Fort Worth moved to charge tuition in 1956, Castleberry became an independent district and by the late 1990s served nearly 3,000 students across seven schools.
Dido School
Avondale, TX
Dido was among the first communities in Tarrant County, homesteaded in 1848 within the Peters Colony along the stage road from Fort Worth to Decatur. Its school opened in 1854 under a Missouri-born teacher, and when he left to serve in the Confederate Army his wife carried on the classes. Railroads, a new lake, and a wartime Marine base later reshaped the area, drawing families away until the school closed in 1947.