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A brief history of White Oak School (#17 on the driving map located at the Pioneer Museum at 307 W. Main St.): Built in the 1920's. Consolidated in 1950. Moved to Pioneer Museum in 1990. Admission fee for museum. Box suppers were held as one way to earn money for the school. The young girls would decorate a box with crepe paper, create a work of art according to their artistic abilities, and fill it with all sorts of good things to eat: sandwiches, cakes, fruit, etc. These boxes were then auctioned off to the men and sold to the highest bidder, who did not know by whom the box was created. After all the boxes were sold, they would share the contents of the box.
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White Oak School was located on 1.1 acres of land
approximately 15 miles southwest of Fredericksburg. The
White Oak community derived its name from the oak trees
abundant in that area, which produced a somewhat softer
and whiter textured wood than the common oak. Land for
the school was purchased from John Jordan in 1892 for
one dollar. Evidence still remains of a foundation from
a previous school directly across the road.
Built in the 1920s, the present schoolhouse is a
one-room wooden building with a tin roof. The first
furniture consisted of crude tables and benches made by
the school trustees. The school always had one teacher
with grades one through seven. Grade eight was
taught in later years.
The teacher was required to speak both English and
German. The first teacher was A.D. Fischer, who received
a monthly salary of $30. Families were required to pay
an $8 annual fee and 45 cents per month for each pupil,
which later increased to $1. This was the main source of
support for the school. If funds were short, a
collection was taken.
Until the second school was built and a cistern
installed, two students carried water in a bucket from a
neighboring farm. Every pupil drank out of the same tin
water cup. Lunch from home consisted mainly of homemade
bread, boiled eggs, butter and jelly bread, and sausage.
During recess, the pupils and teacher pulled broom weeds
and tidied the grounds. Pupils swept the school, cleaned
the blackboards, and dusted erasers every afternoon.
When time permitted, the students played games. In later
years baseball games were scheduled with the neighboring
schools of Tivydale, Wrede, and Morris Ranch.
On August 14, 1950, White Oak School consolidated with
Morris Ranch School, which later consolidated with
Fredericksburg Independent School District.
The schoolhouse
and its outbuildings were donated by the Charles Feller
family in 1990 and moved to the Gillespie County
Historical Society's Pioneer Museum Complex in
Fredericksburg.
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