MATAGORDA COUNTY SCHOOLS
 

DE MOSS SCHOOL

By Rosalie Nelson Ellis

The De Moss school was just south of Collegeport. It's told that the school was a one room building and the teacher, his wife and child lived in a tent by the building. The first winter it was so cold, the school board consented to let them set up their tent in one corner of the building to get out of the cold. The tent gave the wife and child privacy. De Moss took care of the children living on farms south of Collegeport. The high school students went to Collegeport or lived with a family in Bay City and went to school. In due time when a school bus could make the route, De Moss was consolidated with Collegeport.
 

[The De Moss school building was moved to the Collegeport School grounds.]
 

Palacios ISD 75th Anniversary 1906 - 1981, Palacios Beacon Supplement

PECAN CITY SCHOOL
 

By Rosalie Nelson Ellis
 

The Pecan City School District, located near the Colorado River east of Collegeport, was established as Matagorda County Common School District #16 on August 16, 1917. Children in the Pecan City area first attended school classes in a ranch house. In 1916 a one room school building was constructed. During most of the years the school was in operation, approximately 10 to 12 students were in attendance. Two of the first teachers were Mary Laslie and Ora Callahan and they boarded with the Will Corporon family.

Students in later years attended school in Collegeport and the Pecan City School District was annexed to the Palacios Independent School District on October 20, 1947.

Palacios ISD 75th Anniversary 1906 - 1981, Palacios Beacon Supplement

TURTLE BAY SCHOOL
 

By Mary Gillespie Stewart
 

The Turtle Bay School District was located west of Palacios. Its east boundary was the Turtle Bay Creek and north to the Deutschburg line along the old Williamson Road, extending southwest to the Jackson County line and then south to the bay.

Sometime before 1910, Mr. James Matthew Harbison donated the land for a one-room school. This location was almost one mile south of the Turtle Bay Bridge on Highway 35. Only one former pupil is still in the Palacios locality, namely Mr. Lawrence Kelly. The teacher was Jeanette Lewis (Yeamans). Bernard Jensen, a grandson of Mr. Harbison, has a home near the site of the first school.

In 1914 a two-room school building was located on land donated by Mr. Henry Clinton Mozeley. In September of that year, school opened with Mr. Pepper and Miss Hazel Hall teaching. Pupils that first year still living here are Lawrence and Monica Kelley, Minnie (Linville) Brooking, Alice Gillespie Beard and Mary Gillespie Stewart.

The following teachers held classes from 1915 until March 22, 1947, the year the Turtle Bay District was annexed with Palacios ISD: Mr. Laslie, Maude Marshall, Eleanor Louderback, Lorene Ifland, Helen Ward, Mrs. Herman and Clara Schley. Also Mrs. Florence Best, Florence Stark, Weldon Sullivan, Trude Ann Duffy Brandon, Mrs. Mary Wolf, Annie Eversole, Mrs. Cleveland Peterson, Miss Vernon Cleveland and Esther Anderson Schilling.

The original one room building was moved to a lot close to the new building for living quarters for teachers who had no transportation.

The people of the community met on Sunday afternoons for Sunday School, first in the one-room building, then later in the new two-room school. As automobiles replaced the horse and buggy days, the Union Sunday School gave way to the call of the denominations, thus ending this era.

An interesting event occurred during a severe hurricane. Several of the families went to the school building for shelter. While there, Mrs. Ellis Jensen gave birth to a baby girl, Lydia, sister of Bernard Jensen.

The Turtle Bay School building was moved into Palacios in 1948 and located on the ground of the present East Side Elementary School and served as the High School Band Hall.

In 1980, the old Turtle Bay building had been remodeled into a church located on 9th Street in Palacios.

I am indebted to many for the recall of the history of the Turtle Bay School--Bernard Jensen, Lawrence Kelly, Minnie Brooking, Lillian Richmond, Edna Beard, Dorothy Hamlin, Alice Beard and Frank and Bob Stewart.

Palacios ISD 75th Anniversary 1906 - 1981, Palacios Beacon Supplement

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