Our Awesome Educators

Beloved Georgetown educator Annie Purl’s first grade Georgetown Grammar School class in 1912

Can you think of anything more fundamental than education that’s needed to grow the wellbeing of every community and every person? Very few things prosper if not for education—everything from informal tutoring to all the K-12 schools to the community colleges and universities. Almost exclusively, it was (and mostly is) Georgetown’s women who provided education to generation after generation of children.

We also need to thank the thousands of women in the many school Parent Teacher organizations, Mother’s Clubs, School Improvement Clubs, and women’s clubs who advocated for better schools and more funding. These women provided countless hours of student assistance, fundraisers, and a panoply of school improvements over the years, and all that continues on now.

How did our first Georgetown kids get educated? The earliest schools in Georgetown were typically small schools sponsored by a church; sometimes the pastor would also be the teacher. Other schools were typically started by a female teacher, who sometimes held school in her home. Younger children might even be gathered and schooled by an older girl, writes Marsha Lane Farney in her excellent and comprehensive Phd dissertation on the history of Georgetown schools. We’ll learn about such a teen teacher in a bit.

Students in Beaukiss, east of Coupland, with teacher Birdie B. Briggs Abbott

Texas passed a public-school funding measure in 1854, but public schools were poorly funded and usually bypassed by those with some money for private schools. In rural Williamson County, settlements would come up with their own schools and use what public funding they could get. During the Civil War, state education funds were largely diverted by the Confederates toward the war effort. For many years after the Civil War, low state funding and reconstruction attempts to improve education for Black children kept public school efforts struggling.

Eventually, Georgetown’s public school system flourished, and private schools continued as well. Our first public elementary school opened in 1895, and in 1948 it was named for one of Georgetown’s best known educators, Annie Purl.

Georgetown Grammar School; it will be called Annie Purl Elementary

Georgetown Grammar School, built in the block fronting University Avenue and bordered by Main Street and Austin Avenue, was Georgetown’s main public school for decades. For many years, it was only available for white children; Latino children who went to the “Mexican School” joined in the 1940s. Black students who had attended all-Black schools in Georgetown came to the previously white public schools in the 1960s after an integration lawsuit prevailed.

It’s not surprising that the Grammar School was renamed for Annie Purl. Her first and only job began at the Grammar School, where she taught and was principal starting in 1901 and continued on educating Georgetown children for the next 50 years. Annie was born in Georgetown in 1877 and loved school. She graduated from Georgetown High School as valedictorian.

Annie Purl at top row far left in her Georgetown High School class around 1890

After graduating from Southwestern with honors at 19, she began teaching at Georgetown Grammar School. She said that her guiding view of teaching was this: “You cannot predict by any stated scale that a child will be a failure. Some children simply need time to grow. We must find where each child needs help and nurture that child." In a few years, Annie became principal.

Annie devoted herself to the school, starting a school library and involving parents in a Mother’s Club which became the school PTA. While her school was segregated for only white chldren, Annie pursued many improvements for the Mexican and Black Schools. She made sure teachers at those schools got teacher training along with white teachers. She facilitated the transition of Latino students to the white school, and introduced and taught Spanish classes at the Grammar School so the new children would feel more welcome.

When Georgetown Grammar School became overcrowded and was demolished, a new elementary school was built in 1954 at Laurel and 17th Streets. Of course, it was called Annie Purl Elementary. By then, Annie had “retired” to open a private kindergarten and first grade, and she taught there until she died in 1961, with a teaching career of 60 years. Annie’s name lives on in the latest Georgetown school, Annie Purl Elementary, at 1953 Maple Street.

Photo courtesy of the *Williamson County Sun*

Annie’s grave in the I.O.O.F cemetery has a tribute to her, including the cornerstone from Georgetown Grammar School. (You can learn about Annie and other awesome Georgetown women in a forthcoming “Catch the Spirit” cemeteries Herstories tour.)

While Annie Purl is one of Georgetown’s most-recognized educators, more wonderful educators served at one key location over many years: 507 East University Avenue.

Whole lot of learnin’ goin’ on here over time! This spot’s education heritage started when Georgetown College was built here, which became Southwestern University’s first home. When Southwestern moved east four blocks to its present location, the building became the SU “fitting” or prep school. Check out the young women in their uniforms. Spiffy!

In 1923, the University Avenue education magnet site saw the construction of Georgetown High School.

Here’s a gathering at Georgetown High—brrrr!

Many GHS grads have surely gone on to be notable changemakers, but here’s one who did much to bring equity to girls who like sports. Alice ‘Cookie’ Barron swiftly became a sports star when she started Georgetown High in 1948, earned 16 letters in basketball, volleyball, softball, and tennis.

Cookie was described as the “Babe Zaharias” of Georgetown, after Mildred Ella “Babe” Didrikson Zaharias, a Texas native who gained worldwide fame for her basketball and track and field prowess.

She got a full ride to Wayland Baptist University in Plainview, where the “Flying Queens” women’s basketball team was already on fire.

The Flying Queens didn’t lose ONE game during Cookie’s years there, and the team won three national AAU titles. The Flying Queens, by the way, was named for the team’s sponsor and female sports enthusiast, rancher and flying service owner, Claude Hutcherson. He flew the FEMALE players to games while the male athletes took the bus.

Cookie went on to the USA Women’s Basketball Team, which won the World Tournament in Brazil in 1957. She taught and coached in Texas and then Colorado, where she worked tirelessly for girls’ sports equity at the state and national level. When she started coaching in 1967 at her suburban Denver school district, girls had . . . guess how many sports? Zero.

CHS grad Cookie fought for womens’ sports.

When she left, Cookie had won equality in the numbers and levels of sports for girls, equal facility use, and equal female and male coaching pay. This year, Cookie was inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame—on the 50th anniversary year for the federal Title IX law mandating equal treatment for girls’ sports.

Regrettably, the girls’ basketball program at Georgetown High died in 1956, faulted for being “too expensive and physically demanding.” This was just one year before Georgetown High’s own Cookie Barron Barron was part of the American team that defeated the Russians in the 1957 World Games.

The girls’ basketball program did not emerge for 18 years. Not long after the young women had to start fresh honing skills, they were taking District! Here are some varsity basketball athletes getting their letter jackets in 1977.

Next up, the high school morphed into Central Middle School. Then it was renamed in 1987 as Everett “Pops” Williams Elementary, for the principal who started girls basketball the first year Cookie started high school. Thanks, Pops! Amazing teachers educated Georgetown kids here, most all of them women. And thumbs up to the Hammerlun’s mission to empower teacher leaders!

Georgetown’s first formal school

Let’s head downtown to see what’s considered Georgetown’s first formal school. First Presbyterian Church is Georgetown’s oldest church, built in 1873. Perhaps that’s why the street it’s on is called “Church Street.”

The Georgetown Male and Female Academy, held in the basement of this church, is often considered Georgetown’s first school, in large part because more detailed records exist for that school. The First Presbyterian’s Academy was initially located a few blocks from here in a building long gone on 4th Street and Myrtle. When the church was built in 1873, the Academy was held in the basement of the church at its current location.

In a few years, however, Southwestern University’s Preparatory School (which included grade school) began to capture more students from the Male and Female Academy and became the lead private school.

Several small home-based schools had been established previous to the Academy and Preparatory School, and they continued during and after. Lucy Harper started a school in 1877 and advertised that students “will get the benefit of the public school fund.”

Lucy’s educational experience paid off when she was appointed principal of Southwestern’s Elementary Department of their Preparatory Academy, serving from 1880-1890.

Lucy Harper’s initial foray into teaching school in the early days of Georgetown education was a path taken by a number of women and a few men. One teacher was quite young! Luckily for us, she kept a diary, so we can get a sense of both her daily life as a Georgetown teen and as a schoolmarm.

Handbill for the school Lizzie wanted to attend

Kisia Elizabeth “Lizzie” Clamp was the eldest of 11 children of Asenath and C. A. D. Clamp. Lizzie had enjoyed going to a small local private school operated by local minister Reverend Ledbetter. When she was 14, her father decided he didn’t like the education given to her two younger brothers. He asked Lizzie to teach her brothers, and to also solicit more young students that she could teach. So teen Lizzie taught school for a year to 10-12 small children in her family’s parlor in their house on Brushy (later Austin Avenue) Street.

While this was difficult at times, Lizzie was proud of her job. “I have been very busily employed this year, at a very useful occupation,” she writes in the diary she kept for several years. But she also notes, “I have been ‘school marm’ long enough. I want to be a school girl awhile.” She aspired to go to the new Georgetown Male and Female Academy.

Rev. John McMurray, preacher and teacher

In 1867, Rev. John McMurray came to Georgetown, assigned by the Presbyterian Church to be preacher at the church, as well as principal and teacher of the Academy. He boarded at Lizzie’s family home on 2nd and Brushy (today’s Austin Avenue). Now Lizzie finally got to go the Academy. The boarder preacher and Lizzie appear to have become close, but Lizzie’s diary entries show she got both good and poor grades, connoting teacher impartiality.

Five months later, the Reverend, age 38, was married to Lizzie, now 15. They built a house at 611 Church Street—the same one you can see now. Once married, it appears that Lizzie did not continue as a student at the Academy. Lizzie continued to write in her diary about her activities being a supportive wife to McMurray in his work while she raised five children. Sadly, Lizzie died of tuberculosis at 28 in Taylor, where McMurray had gotten a job. But her teen teacher stint shows how even young teen girls stepped up to the mission of educating children.

Private schools like Lizzie’s blossomed as public schools grew. These days there are many choices. Just one of them that began around 40 years ago and still remains is the Community Montessori School. One of its prior school residences is a former hotel at 1008 Main Street called the Sherman Hotel. Since the Montessori school started in 1981 (founded primarily by mothers), thousands of students have been educated, once again almost exclusively by women. The school is now on Pleasant Valley Road.

Public schools are the backbone of our community, for it’s there that everyone can get the education they need. Be sure to take a look at the site of the Georgetown Grammar School, which was renamed Annie Purl Elementary. It was on University Avenue between Austin and Main, where Dos Salsas and the Oil Change are now. Celebrate the children who learned here, and continue on to Part 2 of the Educators herstories.

Witness some key places where educators guided our young people toward a better life. On this Part One of the Awesome Educators tours, we’ll focus on educational places on the east side of Georgetown. Try Part Two of more west-side schools here.

☛ Come to the newest Annie Purl Elementary School at 1953 Maple Street. Ask at the office if you can take a peek at the portrait they have of Annie inside. Appreciate her educational philosophy that we need to “find where each child needs help and nurture that child.”

Miranda family gathering 1949 in San Jose

☛ At the entrance to Annie Purl, look for 19th Street and head west. Turn right on San Jose Street, and continue to 15th Street. You’re in the heart of San Jose, a Latino neighborhood going back many decades. Learn more about Georgetown’s Latino neighborhoods here.

☛ Turn left on 15th and go to College Street; turn right to head to the Lane-Riley House at 1302 College. Here’s where Daisy Lane taught school in her family living room as a young women. Daisy went on to be one of the first women to graduate from Southwestern University. She taught in Georgetown, Waco, and moved to New Mexico to teach at the Ramona Industrial School for Indian Girls, one of the many government schools that took Indian children from reservations to train them for jobs.

☛ Turn left and go to Ash Street. At the intersection, look left down Ash Street. That’s where women organized to fund and build Georgetown’s first sanitarium, just in time to help us survive the Spanish flu of 1919! Learn more here.

☛ Turn right on Ash and go to University. Check out the historical marker on the First United Methodist Church. Southwestern students and a dedicated music professor, Iola Bowden, educated students from the all-Black segregated school about music. You can learn more about Iola and other SU changemaking women here.

Southwestern’s Iola Bowden and music students

☛ Cross University (carefully!) to a pivotal place in Georgetown’s educational history, now the Hammerlun Center for Leadership and Learning. Get some clues about why in the two historical markers. Imagine all the learning that went on: University, high school, grade school, and now teacher leadership. Not to mention all the fun and friendships of school days!

☛ Walk north on Ash Street and stop at the corner of Ash and 8th and look at Edwards Park. This was once the location of the Mary Bailey Head Start Center. The Center lives on at 601 North Austin Avenue. Read more about the awesome Mary Bailey, who provided preschool education for Georgetown’s children of color.

☛ Turn left on 8th Street and walk to Church. Take a right and go the First Presbyterian Church. Read the historical marker, noting how the membership was split during the Civil War between North and South. Learn more about how these deep differences affected families and organizations such as churches in a forthcoming Tour, Georgetown: Confederate and Union. Look at the lower level of the church—that’s where the Georgetown Male and Female Academy was.

☛ Walk up Church one block to 611 Church. Here’s where Lizzie and husband John started their life together after Lizzie’s time as a teen teacher. Lizzie’s love of school started early. Here’s a transcription of one of Lizzie’s diary entries, provided to Farney by J. C. Johnson, the great-great-grandson of Lizzie Clamp.

☛ Take 7th to Main and turn left. Walk to 1008 Main, where in 1924 the Sherman Hotel opened to welcome travelers to Georgetown. Look in the front glassed door to glimpse the elegant staircase. Many other businesses and residences came after to this building, including the Community Montessori school, which continues its 40-year history in Georgetown.

☛ Keep on Main until University, and turn left. Imagine the imposing original Annie Purl Elementary School here, with children and teachers and parents bustling about. Here’s another Purl class from around 1900 with young teacher posed with her students in front.

☛ Head back to the starting point, the current Annie Purl Elementary at 19th and Maple. You might imagine you’re a parent walking a child home back then. In this Georgetown neighborhood, some houses from those years remain and others are long gone. Here’s a nice route: Take Main south and turn left on 16th; jog up to 15th, take 15th to Maple, and then right on Maple. Or wander as you like!

☛ Take a jaunt to see how one of Georgetown’s most influential educators is remembered! Dr. Jo Ann Ford is the namesake for the Jo Ann Ford Elementary School at 210 Woodlake Drive. Jo Ann was always actively looked out for ALL Georgetown’s children.

Jo Ann was born in 1933 in Dallas and adopted at age four. While raising two sons, she got multiple degrees, including a doctorate degree in Interdisciplinary Education from Texas A & M. She focused on vocational education, started programs to help children from families doing migrant labor, and fundraised to get musical instruments for lower-income children.

Jo Ann saw education as helping the community grow stronger, and she founded The Community Clinic (now part of Lone Star Circle of Care), which provides affordable healthcare to low income families. Along with being honored with the naming of the Jo Ann Ford Elementary School, she also is commemorated with a mural at Benold Middle School at 3407 Northwest Blvd.

Georgetown’s first formal school

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