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Although the Cooper Creek Community was formally established in 1872, families began to settle the area before the Civil War. A land deed from that period set aside a portion of this property for the creation of a church, cemetery, and a school. In 1876, the Texas State Legislature established a county school system that allowed groups of citizens to organize for the creation of a community school. That year, the Cooper Creek School formally organized in Denton County and a one room building on the site served 39 students. In 1919, the Cooper Creek Community approved a bond, to be used in addition to state funds, for the construction of a new school building on the site. The simple, hip-roofed, wooden structure had four large rooms with wood burning stoves and included outhouses, a well, a barn, sheds and a three-acre garden behind the building. Cooper Creek School served as a center for community congregation and its history is closely tied to the local churches. Over the years, church parishioners or preachers were trustees, teachers, and principals of the school. Residents attended plays, lectures on prohibition, and home demonstration club meetings, and convened for church revivals in the building. During a smallpox epidemic in 1918, a local doctor helped stem the outbreak by treating the afflicted children at the schoolhouse. Although the Cooper Creek School closed in 1951, the building continued to be used by the home demonstration club until 1977. The Cooper Creek Cemetery Association maintains the old school building today. |
