Witting School
Moulton, Lavaca County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In the 1870s to 1880s a considerable number of German-speaking immigrants migrated to northwestern Lavaca county. One of them was George Witting, who was a wealthy commission merchant originally from Columbus, Texas. Witting became a large landowner in the area and in September 1880 he donated an acre of land to Peter Pundt, Gerhard Boening and Fritz Gehrels as trustees of the German-English non-sectarian school association for the purpose of building a school. That year a single-room wood frame building measuring 20 x 40 feet with a small storeroom in the back was constructed at a cost of $540 and named after witting. By 1890, enrollment had ballooned and forced the district to drill a water well and to erect a new three-room schoolhouse with a long porch, a windmill and a cistern house. Before 1919, the witting school was maintained entirely upon tuition which was $2.00 per student per term. The Witting Schoolhouse served the little community as a place for public meetings, gatherings and some social events. The local Evangelical Lutheran Congregation also used it for more than 40 years as its temporary church for Sunday services and bible study groups. The Lavaca County School Board closed the Witting School and consolidated it with two other schools in 1969. Witting School was one of the oldest rural schools in Lavaca County and one of the last to close. With its sale, the long, proud history of the Witting School came to a close and ended 89 years of service as a focal point of rural education in northwestern Lavaca County.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
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.
Why it matters
Witting School captures how German immigrant communities pooled land and money to educate their children in both English and their mother tongue on the Texas prairie.
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Related people
- · George Witting
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Stacy School
Hallettsville, TX
As waves of German and Czech immigrants settled Lavaca County near the turn of the 20th century, the county carved out rural school districts to teach their children. The Stacy School — named for landowner J.B. Stacy, who set aside the original site — grew from an 1880s private school into a two-room frame schoolhouse with a stage for plays, a windmill for water, and games of marbles and "mumbly peg" at recess. For most of its 58 years a single teacher handled six grades and about forty students; enrollment peaked at 54 during World War II before rural consolidation closed it in 1954.
Site of Breslau School
Halletsville, TX
German and Czech immigrants settling here in the 1860s and 1870s grew cotton and named their community Breslau for the Prussian city, building a school on land Fritz Ladewig donated in 1872. Henry Weller later gave an acre for a separate school for the area's African American residents, and by 1900 Breslau boasted stores, churches, a blacksmith, and a dance hall. Both schools eventually closed with consolidation, the African American school in 1955 and the main Breslau School in 1963.
Site of Komensky School
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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.
Wied School
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Opened in 1895, Wied School served a rural community settled by German and Czech immigrants, including the Wied brothers who gave it its name. Classes ran from a modest three-room schoolhouse, teaching grades that later reached the tenth, with a curriculum that reflected local life—Czech-language instruction and agriculture—since cotton farming set the school calendar. Declining population led to consolidation in 1966.