Site of Komensky School
Moulton, Lavaca County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Citizens of the Czech/German Woods Prairie settlement created a fund and hired a carpenter in 1895 to build a community school. By fall 1895 a one-room schoolhouse, named for 17th century Czech (Moravian) educator and religious leader Jan Amos Komensky, was built here on land owned by Emanuel Breitschoff. Student enrollment reached 107 in 1900 and in 1901 the school was enlarged. A teacherage was erected in 1903 and in 1910 a special tax was established for the Komensky School District. Two sixth grade graduates were recognized in 1913 in the school's first public graduation ceremony. The community proudly dedicated the opening of an impressive new school here in 1914. A Parents-Teachers Association was organized in 1928. Higher grades were added over the years and by 1940 Komensky School offered 12 grades of instruction and competitive athletic programs. Eight former Komensky school students lost their lives while on active duty in World War I and II. Although the school had dropped grades 10-12 by 1955 a new school building was erected. By 1958 Komensky School offered only eight grades and in 1966, after 71 years of providing educational opportunities for the area's rural community, Komensky School closed. Sesquicentennial of Texas Statehood 1845-1995
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In 1895 the Czech and German families of the Woods Prairie settlement pooled their money and raised a one-room schoolhouse, naming it for the great Moravian educator Jan Amos Komensky. Over seven decades it grew from a single room to a full twelve-grade school with its own tax district, graduations, and athletic teams before closing in 1966. Its story traces the arc of a proud immigrant farming community determined to educate its children.
Why it matters
It captures how immigrant settlers on the Texas prairie built lasting institutions of their own, carrying the language and heroes of the old country into American community life.
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Related people
- · Jan Amos Komensky
- · Emanuel Breitschoff
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Novohrad School
Moulton, TX
Novohrad, a Bohemian farming settlement named for a town back in Bohemia, opened its own school in 1882 to serve the children of Czech families. A one-room building gave way in 1900 to a two-room structure with a stage that hosted Czech-language plays performed by adults; enrollment peaked at 81, and some pupils learned to read and write Czech in after-hours tutoring. Two former students died in World War II service before the school closed in 1953 and its pupils moved to Moulton.
Site of Baursville School
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Around 1881 the German-born settlers August and Emilie Baur donated five acres for a school in this Lavaca County community, and a one-room building soon followed. Because so many pupils came from German and Czech immigrant families, early lessons were taught in both German and English. Rebuilt after an 1892 storm and again renovated in 1927, the school taught up to ten grades and about 95 students before consolidating into the Moulton district in 1951.
Site of Moravia School
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Czech and German families settling South Texas in the 1870s built the farming community of Moravia, complete with church, businesses, and a schoolhouse. Classes were taught largely in Czech until 1895, and the two-story school raised in 1887 was rebuilt and enlarged over the decades as neighboring rural schools faded. Moravia's school outlasted many of them, finally closing in 1972 when it consolidated with Hallettsville.
Witting School
Moulton, TX
When German-speaking immigrants poured into northwestern Lavaca County in the 1870s and 1880s, wealthy commission merchant George Witting became a major landowner and, in 1880, donated an acre for a non-sectarian German-English school. A small frame building went up that year and was replaced by a larger three-room schoolhouse by 1890 as enrollment swelled. Sustained partly by tuition and used for decades as a temporary Lutheran church, the Witting School served as a community hub until it consolidated with other schools in 1969, one of the county's oldest and last to close.