Nichols School on the Austin to Burnet "Mountain Road"

1936 Defender (click to enlarge)

 

In 1936 Travis County celebrated the Texas Centennial by publishing The Defender 1936, a yearbook of Travis County rural public schools. One of those was Nichols School, one of the "Mountain Schools" like nearby Oak Grove (gone) and Pleasant Valley School (extant), sitting on east and west Bull Creek. The school was part of the "Nichols School District."¹ This short article documents some history and the location of that old school.

Defender pages for Nichols on the Portal: 

https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1283454/m1/316/ 

The history

From the 1936 Defender:

"In 1900 an acre of land was given for the Nichols School by Mr. Sam Nichols. The men of the community hauled cedar and traded it for lumber with which to construct a building. It was completed Christmas day. Prior to this time the children of this district attended the Oak Grove School. The first trustees of the new school were Mr. Dick Preece, and Mr. Sam Nichols. Miss Florence Harvey was the first teacher. In January 1929 this school building burned. Much of the furniture was saved and the building was re-built in September 1931. It was placed on Joe Gilman's land, as this was nearer the center of the community ... This building was destroyed by fire near the close of the 1932 term. None of the furnishings were saved. The district was without a school until the 1934-1935 term. The school was held on the "old Preece place" in a little log cabin. Old fashioned board benches and boxes were used for seats for the children as there were no funds available to buy desks. This building proved too small. This current term [1936] Mr. A.F. Maechel kindly consented to the use of his house on the old Mabry place. This building is fifty years old [1886] and unsuitable, but is the only one available. Several unsuccessful efforts have been made to re-build Nichols school on the original site, but so far funds are insufficient."

While the school had hard times, the building of Marshall Ford Dam (renamed Mansfield) 1937 - 1941 gave it a new lease on life. The Austin American-Statesman Aug 27, 1937 reported a population boom for the "Nichols school district" due to dam construction. Contractors for the dam provided funds to rebuild Nichols to serve children of the workmen at the dam. The "Old Nichols Schoolhouse" was standing for a good while, serving as a voting place as late as 1959 (Austin American, May 21, 1959).

Of note, Sam Nichols was a Confederate Soldier in the Civil War, buried in Oakwood Annex. Trustee Dick Preece was son of Texas Ranger Richard Lincoln Preece, early settler to what is now River Place & Steiner Ranch, who mounted guerrilla resistance in Travis County against the Confederacy during the Civil War. His papers are archived at UT's Briscoe Center for American History. The Preece Cemetery sits off 2222 south of the 3M campus. A later trustee was Tom B. Hughes, namesake of Tom Hughes Park on Lake Travis; his uncle was Texas Ranger John R. Hughes, said to be the inspiration for Zane Grey's novel The Lone Star Ranger. Buried in the Texas State Cemetery. 

Mother Selma Hughes, and brother Fritz Hughes, all have county parks named after them.

https://traviscountyhistory.org/online-exhibits/parkshistory/selma-hughes-park/ 

 

Where was the school?

As with many of the old 1936 Defender schools the location can be hard to pin down. Most are gone; some were moved so not in the original location (e.g. Cox Springs, Pleasant Valley); some are not on maps; and the Defender usually didn't give specifics on location. The Nichols School pretty much falls into all these categories! And with Nichols even the deed leaves some room for interpretation, the start of the survey being a bit uncertain.

As the Defender indicates, it started in 1900 (the deed says it was deeded 1901), but burned down many times, and moved from location to location. Given families like the Preece had many, many tracts of land and were early settlers to Travis County, references like the "old Preece place" really don't help. So let's focus on the original location as donated by Sam Nichols, but realizing that in the 1936 Defender this is apparently not where the school was located.

For this we need to turn to Nichols' deeding of an acre to Travis County for the school. That is documented here:

Travis County Deed Records: Deed Record 172 Page: 278

One might guess the school tract was part of the land he patented (Sam H. Nichols patent, Abstract 2471, grantee J.W. Preece) which was 160 acres. I have seen this cited as the location in some write-ups (Find a Grave). But the deed itself says it was from the adjacent William Bell survey (Abstract 112). This is further confirmed in the deed when Nichols says the school tract is not to include his homestead, the total acres being 240, the size of the Bell survey. Nichols patent was 160 acres.

Another interesting bit. The metes and bounds for the school tract starts where "the Austin and Burnet Mountain Road crosses the Wm Bell Survey". This is today's 2222. But given this is 1900-1901, the exact location where the old "Austin to Burnet mountain road" crossed the Wm. Bell survey is hard to say. Today's 2222 has been straightened and improved over the years as old 1937 aerials and older USGS surveys attest to. The road (segments of it) also shows up on old maps as Bull Creek Road. If you want to read more about this Old Burnet Road (parts of which are under Lake Travis now) look over these other articles:

https://traviscountyhistorical.blogspot.com/2019/09/old-burnet-road-mt-bonnell-to-comanche_18.html

https://traviscountyhistorical.blogspot.com/2020/07/comanche-peak-travis-county-texas.html

https://traviscountyhistorical.blogspot.com/2017/06/what-does-bull-creek-road-have-to-do_9.html 

The school tract metes and bounds were given in yards, each side being 70 yards, so about an acre. Given the caveat that we don't really know the precise starting location, and that even the survey boundary lines may wander, the GLO map below shows the general location in terms of today's 2222.

There is another spot I was told (second hand re-telling, lady couldn't remember the person's name, but said his father built the house that still sits on the property) was the school location. It's nearby but it's not on the Wm. Bell survey (per TCAD or GLO .. but darn close) and is on private property with restricted access so I won't repeat here. The location, besides being on the wrong survey, is a bit too far off 2222 even considering its modifications over the years. Still .. maybe ... surveying then isn't what it is today. I visited the location. The spot appears to be about an acre, close to being a square (it has been fenced but an older barbed wire and post oak fence sits outside the new fence; also boxed in by new construction), had a well, century oaks, sits on a slight hill with a good breeze. Ideal spot for a school? The 1937 and 1940 aerials show nothing there, i.e. wherever the Marshall Ford Dam school building was, that wasn't it either. But was it maybe the original school location? Notwithstanding the deed, I wouldn't bet against it. Back in the day they may well have put the school up in the wrong spot, just a tad over the GLO survey boundary recognized today.

To conclude, looking at aerial photos from 1937 (Tobin; dated November) and 1940, and reading articles about the new building being finished and furnished by August / September of 1937, it seems clear that the Nichols School built to support Marshall Ford Dam construction was not in the original location. Where that building was located is a mystery for another day.

 

Maps, Aerials

Estimated location of the original 1900-1901 Nichols School

Travis County Deed Records: Deed Record 172 Page: 278

GLO Wm. Bell survey info. 

General location according to the deed survey. The former 3M campus across the road

Footnotes 

1 1934 Map of Boundaries of Common, County Line and Independent School Districts. Topographic and Road Map of Travis County. Prepared 1932 by Travis County Engineering Department. Copy at Travis County Archives.