SCHOOL DAYS AT NUECESTOWN, 1894
Maude Hardwicke Gerhardt, contributor
When Mrs. deGarmo, our Centennial historian, telephoned me that she had taken a picture of the historic, small, one-roomed schoolhouse at old Nuecestown, atop the hill, my heart thrilled with a fulfilled desire. She graciously requested a short story of my experiences there.
This shall be but a chapter of the volume I hope to write.
In 1893 the school at “The Motts†was the largest one in Nueces County. There were 32 pupils enrolled.
After four months term at Aberdeen, five miles south of this city, where I received $20 a month and paid $10 for board and room, I aspired to do something better, naturally, so I put in my application at Nuecestown.
Dr. J. B. Hardwicke, pastor of the First Baptist Church here, drove the 14 miles once a month to preach. He kindly helped me to make contact with the trustees. They asked for a written application. This was sent in my best Spencerian, but woe was me! They were impressed with my penmanship but when they saw that “slip of a girl†it was very nearly all over. They said that I would never do, as the teacher had to be able to “lick them boys.â€
“One of the boys broke a slate over the head of the last teacher,†one of the trustees said. Well, providentially two of them voted for me, much to my joy. Not a tremor had I as I faced the warm-hearted bunch of boys and girls in September, 1894.
Months of hard work and rapid advancement on the part of the pupils that term brought an increase of salary ($50, which seemed a fortune to me then) with the good will and endorsement of the three trustees and all of the parents in the school district.
Dearly I loved them, but marry I would, although I had vowed to be an old maid. What country schoolteacher could resist the wooing of a handsome and brilliant editor, the son of the illustrious Dr. Hardwicke?
I am tempted to narrate some very interesting events of those two happy years and bring to the minds of several prominent farmers and other citizens of this section that they “used to go to school to me†— but that shall be another story. ---- Ref. Times, apr. 13, 1936.
Source:
De Garmo, Mrs. Frank. Pathfinders of Texas, 1836-1846. Austin: Press of Von Boeckmann
Jones, Co., 1951.
Transcription by: Rosa G. Gonzales