By Margaret Hill Lawson and McElrath Linn
www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~txmatago/
During the year 1912, Common School District No. 12 was established between the Tres Palacios River and Cash’s Creek.
The two-room schoolhouse was first situated in the Dunbar community by the river and near the church and store.
It was called “The School House.”
A.L. Dyer, Lela Driskell, and Harley Lewis were the teachers.
In 1914 the building was moved to the middle of the district (about three miles west) on the prairie, hence “Prairie Center.”
Emma Shadel and Clara Schley were the faculty.
In 1917, the new three-room school was completed.
These small schools throughout the state of Texas were known as “Jim Ferguson schools.”
Outdoor plumbing consisted of two nice little white buildings with half-moon blinds covering the entrances.
The Sears-Roebuck Catalog had a secondary value then.
The boys’ outhouse was to the northeast, while the girls’ was to the southeast.
There were no paved walks, so during the wet season, rubber boots were a much-needed item.
Of course, if you did not possess these, you went barefoot and put your shoes back on when returning to the classroom. The entire campus was a low area.
Drinking water was furnished with a hand pump until sometime in the 1930s when a pretty white fountain with six outlets was installed.
From the time of the new building, teachers included: James Luther, Stella Dyer, Bessie Belnap, Robert Margarum, J.R. Laslie, Jane Ross, Helen Ward, Julie Lee Stapp, Christine Evans, Wilma Thomas, Mae Walker, Mary Aileen Elliott, and Margaret Hill.
Margaret Hill Lawson attended the first grade at Prairie Center and 10 years later taught her first year there, riding horseback during both times.
Other teachers included Tina Dickerson, Helen Sanders, Monte Sweeny, Cherry Price, Ann Lane, and Ruth Miller.
Sometime in the 1930s, a horse shed with 10 stalls and a saddle rest was built on the south side of the campus.
After this, the book and storage rooms were converted to accommodate indoor plumbing.
During Helen Sanders’ tenure, a piano was acquired. Box suppers were held as fundraisers.
The holiday programs were a joy to the community. The building was also used as a voting precinct.
“So goes Prairie Center, so goes the nation” was the prediction.
During this time the high-school-age children attended Collegeport and Palacios schools.
A Model-T Ford transported five girls in 1931-32 to Palacios.
Later a school bus was used to transport the children to the Center school.
During the spring of 1943, one of the teachers, Helen Sanders Murphy, left to join her soldier husband.
The remaining teacher, Margaret Hill Lawson, taught seven grades, did the janitor work, drove the school bus, prepared hot stew on Friday from whatever the children brought, and helped deliver a baby for a nearby neighbor.
Prairie Center did not have the playground equipment like schools have today, but the pupils still enjoyed recess and noon time.
Some of the games played were blind man bluff, froggie in the middle, wolf over the river, horseshoe, mumble peg, and marbles.
The boys always kept a supply of horned toads to hitch up to matchboxes, and the girls were allowed to bring their dolls. Baseball had a season, too.
Many men served as trustees. Some of the first were Elmer Johnson, Charles Viets, T. A. McFarland, S. J. Hill, Frank Stallard, Stadig, Brown, Anderson, Lee, Harrison, Powers, Luther Hill, Ramsey Hunt, Laslie, and others.