Site of the Jones School House
Latexo, Houston County, Texas
Marker Inscription
(100 yards west) On land given by John Jesse Jones (1820-1872), who with his wife Margaret Kyle (1830-1896) moved from Alabama to Texas in the 1850s. The 1860s one-room log cabin school house was used also for church and community meetings. It was furnished with teacher's platform and hand-hewn, peg-leg log benches. Two generations of children learned to read, write and figure here, before school was moved after 1900 into the woods about 1.5 miles northeast, and enlarged. It was consolidated with Latexo in 1933. A 63-foot well with rock bottom remains to mark site of Jones School. (1973)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
On land given by settler John Jesse Jones, a one-room log cabin school rose in the 1860s, furnished with a teacher's platform and hand-hewn peg-leg benches. It served as church and community meeting hall as well as schoolhouse, and two generations of East Texas children learned their letters and figures within its walls before the school moved and grew after 1900. A deep rock-bottomed well is nearly all that now marks the spot.
Why it matters
It recalls how the humble log schoolhouse doubled as the civic and spiritual heart of scattered rural settlements across nineteenth-century Texas.
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Related people
- · John Jesse Jones
- · Margaret Kyle Jones
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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