A Brief History of the Saltillo School (Hopkins County, Texas)

                                                           By Robert Cowser

The Sulphur Springs Gazette for October 24, 1913, refers briefly to a new school building that had recently been completed at Saltillo.  The homestead.com/saltillotexas web site provides a photograph of the building.  Mr. and Mrs. J. J.  Robertson were two of the teachers in 1913.  In later years Jewel Tinker (1923) and T. T. Phillips (1924) were teachers at the school.  In 1929 the Saltillo School district in Hopkins County approved a bond issue allowing the district to construct a new building.  The brick building, all on one floor except for a basement under the northwest wing of the building, opened in 1930.

     During the next two years, because of the stock market crash on Wall Street, many banks failed, including the bank at Saltillo.  The School was not able to pay the teachers’ full salaries during the 1931-32 year. George Blaylock taught at Saltillo from 1927 until 1934.  In 1935 the County Superintendent mailed Blaylock a check for $32.00 to compensate for Blaylock’s not having been paid for three weeks at some time during his appointment.. (“In the Connection: The History of the Extended family of George Gallagher” Web)  Blaylock had left the Saltillo School in order to teach in the Posey School,  a few miles from Saltillo, for one year before he moved his family to Dallas.  There he became an insurance salesman.  In 1934 the faculty consisted of C. L. Chandler, Supt.; D. B. McKinney; Guy McGill; Madelyn Hatchell; Lorene Henry; Frieda Leewright; and Opal Patrick.

     In 1937   the average monthly salary for men teachers in Hopkins County was  $118, and for women, $83.  For the 1938-39 academic year at the Saltillo School in Hopkins County, the superintendent was paid $100 per month and was provided a house rent free.  Each of the other 10 teachers, whether male and female, was paid $90 per month.  All had at least a bachelor’s degree.