"Nile School Had 20 Students During First Year" by Joy Graham

Nile School Had 20 Students During First Year

Milam History by Joy Graham

Rockdale Reporter - March 7, 2013

When pioneers began settling Milam County, the children needed a school. These families

usually settled close to neighbors to defend their homestead.

Nile School was named for the area about four miles east of Thorndale. The area was

covered in mesquite trees and cactus.

The land was a mix of sandy loam to a clay black land. Most of the families farmed that

land. On the north side of the I&GN tracks, families in Nile built a school house.

It sat east of Nile General two-story building that housed a store/post office on the

first floor and the owner’s living quarters on the second story.

Several teachers taught at Nile School until it consolidated with Thorndale.

Iva Lee Clark taught there from 1929 to 1931. She received her certificate in

elementary education at San Marcos Academy. Her salary was $75 a month. During her

first year the school was provided with desks and brooms. Kathryn Robbins was county

School Superintendent at that time.

At the end of her first year of teaching, Clark’s daily register listed her

recommendations for improvements as a hectograph, maps, a teacher’s desk and chair and

books for a library.

Enrollment included 11 girls, Mary Sue Burkhart, Ada Calaway, Eleanor, Mabel Hirt,

Hettie and Pearl Kaspar, Lorene Limmer, Maudine Tucker, Roxie Worley and Delta Turner.

The nine boys were: Akard and Weldon Beall, B. D. Calaway, Billy K. and Reginald

Galbreath, Durwood Graham, Alfred Limmer, Ervin Kaspar and Emze Weise.

These 20 students were taught reading, writing, arithmetic, English, spelling and

drawing.

A teacher’s daily register was a 20-page guidebook that included everything a teacher

needed, record keeping to provide student enrollment, attendance, subjects taught,

progress, and teacher’s educational background.

Isn’t it amazing how we have come so far the past 84 years and learned so much.

The progress we made has brought us to the day of cyberspace, and technology to put man

on the moon, communicate by telephone worldwide, reaching out across earth to deal with

all nations and all peoples.

maryjoygraham@yahoocom

All credit for this article goes to
Joy Graham
and the
Rockdale Reporter