BLUE MOUND
(Home Demonstration Club Collection)

In the year 1885, several old settlers of this community decided to organize a school. The first schoolhouse was built just south of a mound or hill that is located in the southwestern part of the Blue Mound School District and the name of the community was selected because this mound was covered with blue flowers (bluebonnets?) and it was a beautiful sight even from a distance.

James Bryant, Simon Grabbe and Herman Barthold were the first trustees of this school. Other old settlers at that time were Batis, Brown and Ganzer.

In the year 1894 settlers came and settled on the land that had been cattle ranges. Houses and other buildings were built and barbed wire fences put up so that roads had to be made. The schoolhouse was then moved northeast about a mile, and located on the corner of the John Lindenschmidt place, which is now on highway 77. (35-E)

This schoolhouse was a very humble, small building which housed as many as 60 pupils without even desks to use. The pupils sat on homemade benches, holding their slates in one hand as they wrote or figured with the other hand. Mr. L. G. Lindenschmidt, one of the pioneers of 1894, taught in that school for four years, trying to keep up his farm work and teaching at the same time, because teachers were so scarce and the school term only six or seven months.

It was during the teaching days of Mr. Lindenschmidt that he made a trip to Gainesville one Saturday and purchased desks for the school. He also attended to such chores as buying the coal for heating the school building. He asked for donations from the parents but only a few dimes and nickels were received.

In 1900, a few religious-minded citizens organized a Sunday school to meet in the schoolhouse, which later turned into the organization of a Methodist Church. The trustees of this organization were J. A. and L. G. Lindenschmidt, A. F. Schertz, Fred Hopkins Sr., Franz and Jacob Trietsch. These trustees purchased 10 acres of land from J. A. Lindenschmidt in 1901, on which the church and parsonage were built and a cemetery laid off.

Since the location of the church was more centrally located, the schoolhouse was moved to just south of the church. The buildings were erected by members with very little outside labor used. In 1917 the wooden schoolhouse was enlarged and a two-teacher school established. In 1931 the wooden schoolhouse burned and a brick veneer schoolhouse replaced it. This school continued until 1941 when it was impossible to continue the school due to so few scholastics. The schoolhouse is now being used for a community center, the majority of our recreation is held there.

The church has continued through the years with the children and grandchildren taking the place of the pioneers and others joining us. There are only two charter members remaining: Mrs. L. G. Lindenschmidt and Frank Trietsch. Services are held every Sunday and we have a resident pastor.

(Mrs. Walter Trietsch, Rte 2, Sanger, Texas)