Hill Country students of the late 19th and early 20th centuries learned the basics of ABCs and arithmetic in their one-room schoolhouses. Today, students use a variety of high-tech in air-conditioned buildings, but the old schoolhouses are preserved to show students how education evolved. The old school buildings predate the local school districts but still hold a special place in local history. Volunteers and former students help keep up these grounds and the public can revisit “the way things were” with a trip on the Gillespie County Country Schools Trail.
SCHOOLS TRAIL
The “schools trail” gives visitors and residents, alike, a chance to venture into the early days of Texas, when German settlers came to the Texas Hill Country and established country schools to educate their children. The driving trail includes schoolhouses such as Cave Creek, Cherry Mountain, Cherry Spring, Crabapple, Grapetown, Junction, Lower South Grape Creek, Luckenbach, Meusebach Creek, Nebgen, Pecan Creek, Rheingold, Williams Creek (Albert), White Oak, Willow City and Wrede.
After the Gilmer-Aiken Laws of the 1950s and 1960s were passed, the schools were consolidated into the Fredericksburg Independent School District. On Jan. 23, 2006, the Gillespie County Commissioners Court established the Gillespie County Country Schools Trail. This trail links the 16 historic former rural schools with the Vereins Kirche, a replica of the first school in the county.
FRIENDS GROUP
The Friends of Gillespie County Country Schools, along with several organizations, sponsors the trail and various activities throughout the year so that people can learn more about the county’s educational history. The Friends consists of former students as well as community residents. The properties are listed in the Register of National Historic Places and are on the Country School Association of America National Schoolhouse Registry.
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