Early educational efforts in Duval county

Excerpted from my Master’s Thesis

POSTED BY: CARDENAS.AE@GMAIL.COM FEBRUARY 14, 2019

Students and teachers at Ignacia Alvarez's private school in San Diego, Texas, circa 1914. UTSA General Photograph Collection

Education was an early priority of citizens of Duval County. The first school in Duval County opened at the end of the Civil War. In 1873, the San Diego school had one teacher “and as many assistants as may be needed.” Mexican Americans, such as Juan Saenz at Piedras Pintas had a keen interest in education. Saenz donated land to Duval County for use as a public school on his ranch.

The Second Biannual Report of the State Board of Education, 1879-1880 indicated that 653 school children between the age of eight and fourteen attended Duval County schools. The state, however, did not count Mexican Americans separately but were included in the “white” count. Using percentages derived from census data on the children who indicated they were in school in 1880-1910 an estimated seventy-four Anglo Americans and 579 Mexican American students were in attendance. All the Anglo American students were in school at San Diego. Rural schools were 100 percent Mexican American.

While there were no schools segregated by ethnicity, there were boys’ and girls’ schools.

According to the census, six of the eight teachers in Duval County were Mexican American, with only two Anglo American teachers, both in San Diego. The state reported only six teachers employed in Duval County in 1880, four males and two females. Assessors gathered the student data used above reported by the state. The state’s report also includes data reported by “communities,” which numbered only 308 children enrolled in school, a difference of more than 300 students. The report also indicated that 498 children were not attending school. Finally, the state reported that six communities had schools.

In 1888, the community built a school for girls in San Diego, and a boys’ school was also under construction. The girls’ school in San Diego had 60 students in the 1888-1889 school year. Over in Benavides, the school had 65 students attending daily. There were also schools at Motta de Olmos and Piedras Pintas.

But not all communities had schools. In 1884, a couple of Anglo American families from Sweden, south of Benavides, came to San Diego to express their desire to have a school in Sweden for their children. The following year a school was built for them. In 1886, the teacher at Concepción reported thirty-three students enrolled. In 1887, the public school in Realitos closed for lack of funds. That year it appeared that San Diego had three schools; Professor Pollard started a school for boys; Luis Pueblo ran a private academy, and Miss Feuille and Pollard oversaw the public schools. The public school, under teacher Laura Modd, had 30 pupils.

Teachers Adelaide Feuille and Práxedes Garza offered classes in reading, grammar, spelling, history, geography, universal history, and writing.

Interest in education extended beyond the local public schools. In 1884, a group of men, including Calixto Tovar, Félix B. Del Barrio, E. G. Pérez, and others, called a meeting to discuss the practicality of opening an upper-level school in San Diego. Sixty children from the county were already attending school outside of the county, fourteen in Rolla, Missouri alone. Every year they were sending $10,000 out of county to educate children. The idea was to try to organize a college and hire teachers from Rolla to keep money at home. They believed they could recruit students from surrounding towns, the Rio Grande Valley, and Mexico. The proposed school could also give poor children the opportunity to attend high school. Within a day $8,000 was raised in the county, San Diego contributed $5,000. The goal was to raise $15,000 to build a brick structure by the start of the following school year. Nothing came from this effort.

There is no census information available for 1890, but the state report for that period indicates that there were 1,959 school children enrolled in Duval County, 1,032 boys, and 927 girls, including five African Americans. The estimated number of Mexican American students is 1,737 and the number of Anglo Americans at 217. There were thirteen teachers, nine male teachers, and four females. None of the teachers had a college degree and only one, a female teacher, had a degree from a Texas Normal School.

According to Census numbers, the school population in Duval County grew by 300 percent from 1880 to 1900. By 1908-1909, according to the State Superintendent’s report, San Diego appears to have a school district. The county’ school population totaled 2,174 students, 451 in the independent school district and 1,673 in the rest of the county, including 1,144 boys and 1,030 girls. The estimated number of Mexican American students are 1,927 with Anglo American students at 247. According to the census, there were only five Mexican American teachers.

Anna and Norman Collins Public School in San Diego, circa 1920 – 1929.

General Photograph Collection

2 COMMENTSON "EARLY EDUCATIONAL EFFORTS IN DUVAL COUNTY"

1. Maria E. Garcia (Vengie) | February 16, 2019 at 12:55 am | Reply
   Loved the story about schools in Duval Co. My great grandfather, Eusebio Garcia married to Virginia Salinas lived at his Cibolo Ranch in Duval Co. He had a school by his home, where my father Carlos G. Garcia his siblings and several kids from ranches around went to school. The teacher was one of the daughters of my great grandparents, Elia Garcia Salinas. My great grandparents had 6 girls and 6 boys. My father was the first grandson
   born to Manuel & Josefa Garcia Salinas. So my father started going to school on 1906 or 07.

cardenas.ae@gmail.com | February 18, 2019 at 9:51 am | Reply
Thanks for sharing. There are so many great stories about rural schools in Duval County.