R. E. CUMBIE RECOUNTS HIS RECOLLECTIONS OF SCHOOLS - Coke County, TX Contributed by Jo Collier 7 September 2003 Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/tx/txfiles.htm *********************************************************************** R. E. CUMBIE RECOUNTS HIS RECOLLECTIONS OF SCHOOLS By R. E. Cumbie Printed in the Bronte Enterprise Sept. 3, 1964 (Editor's note: Our thanks to R. E. Cumbie for writing the following story about his recollections of the early days of Bronte Schools.) When we arrived here in June, 1890, there was a small school house somewhere near where the Mack Eubanks live now. In August, they moved the building to the present school yard, one room, one teacher for several years. In 1899 we voted a small bond and built an addition to the old building, with the Masonic Lodge joining in and building the up stairs. We only had money enough each year for a seven month school, so in order that the children could help gather the cotton crop, school usually began in October. The new part of the building had just been finished, and there was a small amount of lumber stacked in the front part of the building. The Methodist congregation held services at eleven o'clock on Sunday morning. At three o'clock in the afternoon there was to be a community singing. My brothers and I were on our way to the school house on horseback. When we were about half way from our home to town we noticed a black smoke, so we soon had our horses at full speed, but when we arrived, the building was in flames. School was to open the next day, so women and children stood in tears as they saw their building in ashes. No building, no insurance. We could not vote any more bonds, so what were we to do? My father (R. M. Cumbie) called a meeting for everyone in the district to see what could be done and we decided to form a stock company of $25.00 per share and asked everyone to buy one or more shares and lease the building to the school. We sold enough shares to build a good four-room building. We used this building until 1908 - when we built an eight room rock building. In 1921, we wrecked these two building and erected the old two story part of our present building. Permission granted by the Observer/Enterprise for publication in the Coke County TXGenWeb Archives.