Grayson County TXGenWeb

Providence School was about six miles southeast of Sherman. There were at least three building sites and five buildings. Each building had only one room.

Site 1 was on the William Columbus Nelson farm.

Site 2 was across the road from Burleson Cemetery. There one building burned and a second one erected.

Site 3 was 1/4 mile north of second site. Again a building was lost by fire and another built in 1937.

When the school was consolidated with Tom Bean in the early 1940s, the Providence school building was sold to a Sherman couple who moved it to the corner of Gribble and Odneal near the St. Vincent Hospital and made it into a residence.

Some teachers were Merle Hancock, Ethredge Huckabee, Helen Huckabee, Geniveva Hampton, Frances Moore, Edna Martin Mercer, Fannie Moore, Margaret Fletcher, Robbie Mae Downing Smith and Verna Stockdale.

The school building was used for community gatherings such as pie or box suppers and cake walks when there was a need to raise money for a school or community project. Once when money was very 'tight', about $85 was collected one night from a pie supper. Mrs. Stockdale, who lived in Sherman, felt uneasy on her way home that night with such a large sum of money.

When the last building was erected, there was enough money from the bond to dig a well. Previously, water had been carried from a well near the Choctaw stream about 500 yards from the building. The "big boys" never hesitated about volunteering for that job because it gave them a break from the classroom.

Like most rural schools, muddy roads were hazardous to transportation of both student and teacher. One Christmas when Miss Downing was the teacher, the Nelsons took her into Sherman in a wagon pulled by four mules. The roads were that muddy!

In 1938, with aid from the government, a kitchen was partitioned off in one corner of the building. A lady was paid to prepare the noon meal by using government commodities and donated food from people of the community some of which had been canned by a pressure canner, supplies by the government also. Times weren't so good money-wise, but cooperation and friendship excelled.

Some families of this community were Brookshear, Burleson, Tribble, Echols, Coker, Wallace, Griffith, Groner, Morgan, Lindsteadt, Crowder, Boren, Stovall, Nelson, Flowers and Smith.

Weldon Nelson and E. T. Savage were trustees when the school consolidated. Mr. Nelson served on the Tom Bean school board for a number of years.