Submitted by:

Kay Cunningham

HISTORICAL

INTRODUCTION

     EDUCATION IN TEXAS was dormant for over 350 years after the discovery of America in 1492. While early Spanish explorers and conquerers taught the Indians simple words and figures, they were more interested in progagating Catholic dogma than anything else. When Mexico revolted from Spain and set up its own government, the domination of the Catholic church continued. Even when Mexico fell under the dictatorship of Lopez de Santa Anna, there were practically no schools, although some institutions of learning were "laid out on paper" to satisfy popular demands. When Texans assembled to petition the Mexican government for many grievances, they pleaded for educational facilities but were ignored. When Independence became their only alternative, they set forth in the Texas Declaration of Independence that failure of the government to provide schools was one of the chief reasons for their action.

     Immediately after Independence, the Texas Republic was too occupied stabilizing their government and fighting savage Indians to give much consideration to education. Under the second President, Mirabeau B. Lamar, 1838-41, education began getting attention. President Lamar's messages to Congress have run down the years-"The cultivated mind is the guardian genius of democracy-the only dictator freemen acknowledge and the only security freemen desire."

     There are no records of schools at the "trading post" established at the falls of the Brazos River in 1819; nor at Viesca (name of which was later changed to Fort Milam) there, which was established in 1833 as the Capitol of Sterling C. Robertson's Nashville Colony. The Reverend Z. N. Morrell, who conducted the first religious services in the vicinity which became Falls County in 1850, did not mention schools in his "Flowers and Fruits," which depicted life in the vicinity in the 1830s.