Site of Leatherwood School
Crosbyton, Crosby County, Texas
Marker Inscription
This area of Crosby County was settled in 1898 by the family and relatives of M. G. Leatherwood. As other families began to arrive, the need for a nearby school became apparent. As a result, the Leatherwood Common School District was created in 1912. The first classes, held in the spring of 1913 in a one-room schoolhouse on land donated by M. G. Leatherwood, were taught by Ellsworth Ham. The location of the school was changed twice before it was moved to this site at the eastern edge of the county. At the height of its growth, Leatherwood School employed three teachers who taught 36 students in a three-room schoolhouse. In 1935 the Zumalt School District consolidated with Leatherwood, but by 1945 only elementary students were being taught here. The final classes at Leatherwood were held in 1949, when the area was made part of the Crosbyton School District. Leatherwood was typical of many early Texas rural schools in that its longevity was influenced by the migration from farms to the city. Although rural schools were closed as farm populations decreased and improved roads and transportation made the cities more accessible, their histories play an important part in the heritage of public education in Texas. (1983)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
This corner of Crosby County was settled in 1898 by the family and relatives of M. G. Leatherwood, and as more families arrived they created the Leatherwood Common School District in 1912. The first classes met in a one-room schoolhouse in 1913, and at its peak the school grew to three teachers and thirty-six students. It consolidated with a neighboring district in 1935 and held its final classes in 1949, closing as farm families moved to the cities.
Why it matters
Leatherwood's rise and fall is the story of countless rural Texas schools, whose fortunes tracked the great twentieth-century migration from the farm to the city.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
When the Leatherwood family settled this corner of Crosby County in 1898, the South Plains of West Texas were still thinly peopled ranch country. For most of the nineteenth century this high, open grassland had been Comanche territory and buffalo range. After those worlds were destroyed in the 1870s, large cattle ranches moved in. Farming families came later, drawn by cheap land and the hope that wells and plows could make the plains bloom.
The early twentieth century brought them in greater numbers. Railroads pushed into the region, towns were laid out, and land companies broke up big ranch holdings into farms. Crosby County's own county seat, Crosbyton, dates from this period of settlement.
Texas met the needs of these scattered families through the common school district, a small local unit that could be formed wherever enough children lived to justify a teacher. Thousands of these little districts dotted rural Texas. Most were organized, as Leatherwood's was, by neighbors who wanted their children educated close to home.
People & events
The story begins with M. G. Leatherwood and his extended family, who settled here in 1898. Because relatives came together, the area quickly took on the family's name. As other households arrived, the need for a school became obvious. In 1912 the Leatherwood Common School District was created.
The first classes met in the spring of 1913 in a one-room schoolhouse on land Leatherwood donated. The teacher was Ellsworth Ham, and one teacher handling every age and grade in one room was the ordinary reality of rural education in that era. The school moved twice before settling here at the eastern edge of the county. That kind of movement was common as communities followed population or found better ground.
At its peak, Leatherwood had three teachers, thirty-six students, and a three-room schoolhouse. In 1935 the Zumalt district joined it, a sign that neighboring communities were already too small to run schools alone. By 1945 only elementary pupils were taught here. In 1949 the last classes met, and the area became part of the Crosbyton School District.
Its place in the American story
The marker itself makes the point: Leatherwood was typical. Across the country, from the Great Plains to the Appalachians, small country schools flourished in the early twentieth century and then disappeared within a generation or two. Their rise came from farm settlement. Their decline came from mechanization, the pull of city jobs, and the drift of young families away from the land.
Better roads and the school bus sealed the change. Once children could ride several miles to a larger school with more teachers and grades, consolidation became the standard answer. It brought broader opportunities, and it also took away something communities had built with their own hands.
That is why sites like this matter to the history of public education. The one-room and three-room schools of rural America were where millions of Americans learned to read. They were also often the center of community life, used for meetings, socials, and church services. Leatherwood's thirty-six years tell that larger story in miniature.
If you visit
Expect open country. This is a site marker, so you are coming to see a place where a school once stood, not a restored building. That openness is the point. Standing here, you can picture how far apart the farms were and why a school close to home mattered so much.
Notice the land around you: the wide fields, the big sky, and the sense of distance that shaped life on the South Plains. Try imagining the trip to school before paved roads, and the reasons families eventually chose the larger school in town.
The marker fits naturally into a drive through Crosby County and the surrounding South Plains, where small-town museums, cemeteries, and other markers tell the region's settlement story. Bring water, watch the weather, and give yourself time. This is country best appreciated slowly.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · M. G. Leatherwood
- · Ellsworth Ham
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Marshall Clinton Formby, Jr.
McAdoo, TX
Raised in the tiny community of McAdoo, Marshall Clinton Formby, Jr. devoted his life to the betterment of West Texas. He served as Dickens County judge, won a Texas Senate seat interrupted by his service as an Army captain in the European theater of World War II, and built businesses in farming, oil, radio, newspapers, and cable television. As a member and chair of the Texas Highway Commission in the 1950s, he championed farm-to-market roads and the state's interstate highway system, and he served for years on the boards guiding Texas Tech and higher education.
Big Four School
Crosbyton, TX
The tiny community of Big Four, named for four houses clustered around a single windmill north of Crosbyton, took shape as settler families arrived in the early 1900s. A one-room schoolhouse went up in 1909, replaced by a two-room building in 1916 and joined by a community auditorium in 1936. As one of the last rural schools in Crosby County, it struggled with scarce funds and teachers before closing, after which its building was moved to serve the district's African American students.
Farmer Community
Cone vicinity, TX
Settlement of the Farmer community began in 1887 on the West Texas plains, and by 1893 residents had organized a school district, funding an early building with gifts from as far away as Amarillo and Colorado City. Churches of many faiths took root here, and the community produced Ima Smith, who grew up in Farmer and became First Lady of Texas as the wife of Governor Preston Smith.
Whiteflat
Whiteflat, TX
Named for the tall white needlegrass that covered its prairie, Whiteflat grew up around a post office established in 1890 for the scattered farms of Motley County. At its height it supported grocery stores, garages, cafes, cotton gins, churches, and a school that grew from a one-room building to a two-story brick structure. Tied to small family farming, the town withered through the Depression and Dust Bowl, its school consolidated away in 1946 and its last store shuttered in 1968.