Easter Wade Whitt remembers ..... I, Easter Wade Whitt, taught four years at the one-teacher Round Mountain school from 1937 to 1941. I began when I was 18. I had attended college one full year and two summers. At that time a degree was not required by all school systems. In all systems, however, a certificate was required. The first year that I taught at Round Mountain, 1937-38, the school term lasted six months - from October to April. My salary was $65 a month. The schoolhouse was a white rectangular, one-room building. There was a wood heating stove - a long iron one - in the right hand front comer of the room. The one door opened on a small porch on the west side of the house - facing away from the road, a graveled country road that went all the way from Leander to Liberty Hill. On the long side of the building, that faced the road, there were six tall windows and one high, small one in the cloak room. These gave all the light that we had or needed. At the back of the building there were two small rooms with a separate door for each one opening into the main building. The one on the left was a book room. The one on the right was a cloak room. There were hooks for hanging coats and a big mirror to use for personal inspection. There was a small window high up in each of these little rooms. In these rooms, we also kept our brooms and ball and bat.

The class of 1939 with teacher, Easter Wade

The school house still sits January 1997 [as of this writing], in a clearing surrounded by trees - oak and cedar. During my first year there, we got our drinking water from a well about 100 feet northwest of the building. The well was equipped with a hand pump. Mostly, the children drank from the pipe as one of the older boys worked the pump. During this first year there was only one outside toilet. It was an unpainted wooden structure with two holes. I managed by sending the boys at one time. Then, I would send the girls at another time. It was infested with granddaddy longlegs. There was plenty of room in the clearing around the building for a baseball field. Except in inclement weather, we all played ball at the two recesses and after we had eaten lunch at noon. During pretty weather we ate lunch under a big oak tree near the house. When the weather was bad, we ate inside the house and played such games as "I Spy" after we had eaten. Across the road to the east of the building was a fence enclosing Mr. Bob Faubion's pasture. A little north and east of the school in this pasture was a grave yard. The soil where it was located was very rocky, but quite a few graves were there. Some of the names could not be read on the old tombstones or first slabs of rock. Two that had tombstones that could be read were Thomas Whitt and Nancy Whitt. They were the parents of Thomas Conrad Whitt, one of the trustees who lived between three and four miles northwest of the school. There were three trustees for the school while I taught there. The same ones were there all four years. They were: Thomas Conrad Whitt, Bob Faubion, and Edd Fulkes. The first year that I taught at Round Mountain, 1937-38 I had fifteen students. There were three first graders: George Lunsford, Edward Pearson, ad Charles Smart. Freddy Lohmann was the only second grader. Rudolph Lohmann and Opal Pearson were in third grade. Luther Burdell and Ferrell Smart were in fourth grade. August Lohmann and Terrell Smart were fifth graders. Letha Burdell and Charles, Billy Bay, Lohman were in sixth grade. There were no seventh graders. Margaret Lohmann, Ruth Smart, and Bessie Whitt were in the eight grade. This information is taken from a daily grade book that I kept and still have. During the next three school years, 1938-39, 1939-40, and 1940-41 there were other students who came and went. I do not have a record of the students that I taught in 1938-39 or 1940-41. I still have the daily register for 1939-40. During this year the first graders were: Feliberta Moncada, Elsie Pearson, and Ina Ray Maynard. The Second Graders were: Louis Lohmann, Edward Pearson, Frankie May Maynard and Elbira Moncada. Charles Smart, George Lunsford, Jose Valasquiz, Ruthey Fay Maynard, and Dorothy Champion were third graders. Freddy Lohman was the only forth grader. Rudolph Lohmann, Ferrell Smart, and Opal Pearson were fifth graders. August Lohmann and Terrell Smart were sixth graders. There were eighteen students in all during the year of 1939-40.

The back of the schoolhouse (toward the road) - also from 1939

The school house was used for community gatherings of different kinds. A community Easter egg hunt entertained the children on Easter Sunday. Before Christmas vacation the students got up a program of recitations, singing, and skits to entertain their parents and others of the community who came. At the end of school the older students and some people from the community put on a play. On Saturday after the last day of school there was a barbecue and picnic on the school grounds. One or two ranchers in the community donated goats which were pit-barbecued on the school grounds. Somebody volunteered to watch the barbecuing all night long.

Community members making mattresses on a government project in early 1941. The school served as a community center then as well.

In 1940, Round Mountain community members pieced and quilted this quilt, which was then raffled off.