Devotion, a 19th Century School, Southeast Metro Park

Devotion School shown in 1898-1902 County Road Books

Note: this is an on-going project with County Parks and as is updated as we learn more.

Travis County Historical Commission recently teamed up with Travis County Parks (TCP) staff to review ways to preserve several 19th century cemeteries near S.E. Metro Park (the cemeteries are located in remote areas and not part of the parks' public offerings but never the less receive some loving attention from TCP): the Jones-Norwood Cemetery I and II.

As with other projects with TCP, we are also looking at the history of the land upon which the park resides. While archeological evaluations are done as preparation for a park opening, archeologists' focus on artifacts may overlook history that left little or no physical remains.

 

The search for history involves genealogical records, old aerial photos and maps, county records, and old newspaper articles. This trip with TCP, once again, did not disappoint.

 

Armed with deed research by TCHC associate member Lanny Ottosen previously done on another project, we were led to the realization that a late 19th through early 20th century school -- Devotion School -- had likely existed near, and quite possibly on, today's S.E. Metro Park. The school was called out in one of the cemetery deeds in 1889 [Travis County Deed Records: Deed Record 87 Page: 242] and when the school was deeded to Travis County in 1892. 

 

The school was deeded to the Travis County by Mrs. Elizabeth Tate (Harris) Washington [Travis County Deed Records: Deed Record 104 Page: 201]. Mrs. Washington was the wife of Thomas Pratt Washington. Per the Handbook of Texas:

"Thomas Pratt Washington, son of Henry Augustine and Mildred (Pratt) Washington, was born on July 7, 1806, in Prince William County, Virginia. The family moved to Kentucky and later to Limestone County, Alabama, where Washington married Elizabeth Tate Harris on September 29, 1836; the couple had ten children. In the fall of 1845 Washington brought his family and slaves to Texas and improved a 2,000-acre farm at the mouth of Onion Creek on the Colorado River. The plantation house was completed in 1848; the plantation had a gin and a press. Mrs. Washington taught the neighbor children as well as her own. The Washington property, much of it represented in 106 slaves, was lost as a result of the Civil War. Reconstruction difficulties caused further losses. After a Colorado River flood in the summer of 1869, Washington moved to Austin, where he died on March 18, 1873. He and his wife are buried in Oakwood Cemetery."

 

That Mrs. Washington "taught the neighbor children as well as her own", then later deeded Devotion School to Travis County, suggests the school began as a private school, started and owned by the Washingtons. 

 

Timeline of School; Private and Public Operation

One source says the school was receiving public funds by ca. 1878 (Bearden). But the Washington plantation was established 1845-1848, and per the census the Washingtons had six (of ten total) children in 1850, five of which were school age. If Mrs. Washington was indeed "teaching neighbor children as well as her own" perhaps Devotion school began sooner. As Bearden notes (p.22) "In Austin and Travis County, there were private schools established as soon as population created the need and an individual stepped forward to lead the effort." The Washington's early Devotion School may well have fit in this category of private school.

 

We know the school was deeded to the county in 1892 by Mrs. Washington; this likely marks the transition from private to a fully public school.

 

When did the school close? The Handbook of Texas offers this: "The school at Haynie Chapel, which began about 1860, was combined with the Devotion and Garfield common school districts in 1904." An article from a newspaper announced the closure a bit later, in 1908: "Old Devotion School. Building and Grounds to Be Sold. School Consolidated. .. [to be consolidated] with the Haines (sic) Chapel school ... The money, derived from the sale will, it is understood, be used for school improvements in the district" [The Austin Statesman, May 14, 1908, p.8]. "Haines Chapel" is Haynie Chapel.

An Early African-American School?

When we initially started research on Devotion School we thought it was an African American School. An article on the internet -- "History of Garfield Negro School in Del Valle, Texas revisited" (see Mixerr Reviews) -- states the "Garfield Negro School had first went under the name of Devotion School".

We then found the school referenced in Bearden's booklet about Clayton Vocational Institute, an African American vocational school. But a closer read of Bearden (p.23) says "Fund accounts of school communities as logged by the County Superintendent's office in 1879-1880 were logged in by school number without reference to race. This log gives us the first list of existing schools in the county". Devotion School appears in the lists for both 1879-80 and 1882-83, but as Bearden noted, the list is made "without reference to race".

The TCHC booklet African American Rural Schools of Travis County discusses Garfield School District 35 (p.21) but makes no reference to it having once been Devotion.

The more we learned about Devotion (starting as a private school owned by the Washingtons; Mrs. Washington "teaching neighbor children as well as her own"; later deeded to the county; eventually being sold with and replaced / merged with Haynie Chapel and the Garfield common school districts ca. 1904-1908) the more we questioned the claims raised in the Mixerr article.

 

Contemporary sources thus far provide no indication Devotion was, in the period prior to it's closure, an African American only school.These contemporary sources include county road maps prior to the sale; Commissioners Court Minutes; and the many references to the school that appear in the newspapers of that time.

 

It may well be Devotion truly served the community at large: African Americans, Mexican Americans, Mexicans, and Whites. It may be its role in the community changed over time. We simply do not know at this point. The Handbook of Texas article on the Washingtons is based on materials at the Briscoe and are worth a review for additional information. But at this writing we are in a pandemic and that will have to wait. (Vertical Files, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin).

 

Location

Sources for locating the school include the 1898-1902 County Road Books, Commissioners Court Minutes, the Jones-Norwood Cemetery deed, and last but not least the survey done as part of the deeding of the school to the county. These sources all point towards a location in the south-east part of today's SE Metro Park. Part of the school deed called for a ROW from the main road (approximately today's TX 71), running past the west boundary of the school property, all the way to the "Devotion Cemetery" which today is referred to as the Jones-Norwood Cemetery, and on some old county maps simply as the Jones Cemetery.

 

Red polygon shows possible location of school. Shape and size based on calls from school deed.

References, Notes

Jones-Norwood Cemeteries I and II on Find A Grave

https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/2531787/jones-norwood-cemetery

https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/2532467/jones-norwood-cemetery-ii

 

Handbook of Texas, Washington, Thomas Pratt (1806–1873)

https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/washington-thomas-pratt 

 

Handbook of Texas, Haynie Chapel, TX.

https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/haynie-chapel-tx

Haynie Chapel Methodist Church, historical marker application

https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth491581/

Bearden, David L. CLAYTON VOCATIONAL INSTITUTE, A SUPERIOR SCHOOL, for Texas Committee for the Humanities Exhibit, 1983, Manor, Texas

Travis County Clerk Records: 1898-1902 Road Book Precinct 4, p. 616, see Devotion school. 

 

Travis County Clerk Records: Commissioners Court Minutes O, p. 378, see Devotion school.

Ancestry.com. "Thos P Washington" in 1850 United States Federal Census. Retrieved 11/27/2020 from https://www.ancestry.com/sharing/22160486?h=28fa98

 

African American Rural Schools of Travis County, a publication of the Travis County Historical Commission, 2014. Available here https://www.traviscountytx.gov/historical-commission/reports

Mixerr Reviews. "History of Garfield Negro School in Del Valle, Texas Revisited." Retrieved 11/27/2020 from https://mixerrreviews.blogspot.com/2018/08/history-of-garfield-negro-school-in-del.html