Wortham Schools
Wortham, Freestone County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The first recorded school in the town of Wortham was a two-story frame structure built in the 1870s by the Masonic Lodge and local Methodist church. The Masons provided supplies and textbooks; ministers served as teachers. The first public school opened in 1883 in a one-room building; Professor Miller and Mrs. Thyrsia Garrison served as the first teachers. A two-story frame building was built in 1890, and in 1891 Wortham became the first independent school district in Freestone County. In 1902 the school building was destroyed and replaced by a brick structure with a bell tower. New facilities were built in 1922 to accommodate increased enrollment. The discovery of oil around Wortham in 1924 caused the town of 1,000 to swell to 20,000 almost overnight. The impact on the school was immediate; one classroom of 18 pupils increased to 84 in a four-day period. Through the years several rural community schools were annexed to and consolidated with the Wortham school system. In 1966 the F. W. Wheeler School for African American students merged with the main Wortham schools. Buildings were renovated and new structures were added to serve the district. (1997)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Education in Wortham began in the 1870s as a cooperative effort of the Masonic Lodge and the Methodist church, with ministers teaching from donated books, before the first public school opened in 1883. In 1891 Wortham became the first independent school district in Freestone County, and the discovery of oil in 1924 transformed a town of 1,000 into a boomtown of 20,000 nearly overnight — swelling one classroom from 18 pupils to 84 in just four days. The system grew by absorbing rural schools and, in 1966, merged the F. W. Wheeler School for Black students into a single district.
Why it matters
Wortham's schools trace the arc of small-town Texas from frontier church-supported learning through an oil boom to desegregation, showing how a single institution mirrors the forces that reshaped rural America.
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Related people
- · Thyrsia Garrison
- · F. W. Wheeler
Related events
- · 1924 Wortham oil boom
Themes & tags
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