JimBlackBooks.com
1940 - 1949
Archer City, the first school in District 1, was started in 1881 in the middle of the block on the south side of the square. Katy Ingalls taught the first school in Archer City. Earlier, a man by the name of Parks, after having cut trees on the west fork of the Trinity River and hauling them to a little saw mill, hauled the lumber to Archer City and there built a one-room box house to be used as a saloon. An election was ordered and it was voted that the sale of liquor be prohibited in 1880. The property was sold. The building was moved. Another building was erected and used until 1886. ---taken from Trails Through Archer by Jack Loftin
When school began in the fall of 1941, each class skipped up to the next grade, thereby making the first eight years “grade school”. Curriculum was added at the first grade—not the eighth. “High School” was still four years, making twelve years to graduate. Anarene came over in 1942.
During World War II, knitting of war scarves could be done by those in study hall (later library). Some busses couldn’t run during part of the War era and students had to provide their own transportation, especially in 1945 & 1946. War stamps and bonds were bought by students on designated days. Once there was enough money spent to buy two jeeps.
The 1946 Class enrolled sixty-five students at the beginning of 1945 fall season, but graduated only twenty-one, with one of those being a veteran returning to finish. The band was not offered between fall of 1944 and spring of 1946 because of shortage of tires and instruments. Yearbooks began with the 1946 senior year in 1945. Teachers are listed in Trails Through Archer by Jack Loftin.
The gymnasium was in the older south part of the main building. Its height reached through the 2nd floor. A stage was at the north end. Windows were on the 2nd floor inside the building west of the N/S hall where sports could be viewed.
Holliday boys would climb the nearby water tower to paint their names.
Marie (Pryor) Loftin – Class of 1946
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There is a lot of sadness as I watch the old red brick building going down. The Archer School has been an important part of mine and my family’s life for many years. Our story started in 1914 when Thelma Pickering, my future mother-in-law, enrolled in the first grade in Archer school, graduating in 1926 in a class of ten. Her son, Charlie Lee Martin, attended first grade in 1933 and graduated in 1944 in a class of thirty-seven.
I started Archer School in the first grade in 1938 with Mrs. French, a tiny little lady I remember well. I graduated in 1948. My brother Travis Nelson had graduated in 1947 and our sister, Patsie Ann, in 1951. Hers was the first class to attend twelve years and she always reminded us she had to go longer than we did. That was the same year our younger brother Ronnie started first grade. The youngest, Lee, started in 1953. Ronnie Nelson graduated in 1963 which made my dad, Artie Nelson, have from one to three enrolled in Archer School every year for twenty-five years.
Charlie Martin and I had three daughters who were very active in ACHS. They played on the same playground, skated on the same sidewalk, sat in the same desks and walked the same halls as their parents had years before. Debie started the first grade in 1958 and graduated in 1970. Cindy attended from 1960 to 1972 and Pam from 1963 to 1975. To make the story interesting, Pam started first grade in 1963, the same year Ronnie graduated. So going to Archer School was an ongoing thing for my family. From 1914 until 1975 there were only seven years we had no one enrolled there.
Many things happened during my years in school, but one memory I still laugh about is the cold day we came to school to find a very strong, offensive odor. Several high school boys—who shall remain nameless—had slipped into the study hall the night before and deposited skunk bags in empty desks and behind the radiators. With the radiators going full blast to keep us warm, the smell was unbearable. The boys had hoped for school closing, but Mr. Gerron was not about to do that, so while they worked to find the cause and take care of it our seventh grade class below the study hall was suffering. Our teacher Mary Sue Conner was about to be sick so she wet her hankie in the water fountain and covered her nose and mouth. Well, we students had no wet hankies to help us so it was a miserable day, but one we all remember and laughed about for many years.
Telling the old red brick school goodbye will be hard for many of us, but my hope is that the new building well be even better and will echo with the sounds of children’s laughter for many years to come.
Glenda Nelson Martin – Class of 1948
