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History on
a Pinhead
Powell Point came
by its name indirectly. A local school was situated on a land grant
awarded to one Elizabeth Powell. The school borrowed the name and
after being relocated, the community took the name of the school.
Settlement dates prior to the 1890s, but no history is available.
The school merged with the Kendleton
ISD. The site remains on detailed county maps, but not the state map.
Powell Point is on FM 2929 between Kendleton
and East Bernard. |
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Historical
Marker Text
Powell Point
School
William E. Kendall,
an Anglo lawyer from Richmond, Texas,
subdivided his plantation here into 100-acre farm tracts in 1869.
He sold the land exclusively to Freedmen and by the 1880s a distinctly
African American community named Kendleton
had developed here.
In 1890 local A. M. E. churches built three one-room schools to form
Common School District No. 4, an all-African American district which
included the original land grant of Elizabeth Powell. Tellie B. Mitchell,
a Kendleton native and graduate
of Wiley College (1903), returned to Kendleton
and established Powell Point School in 1904 in a two-room schoolhouse.
The school prospered and in 1918 graduated six students, five of whom
went on to college and became educators.
In 1923 Mitchell persuaded the Rosenwald Foundation to grant funds
to build a new Powell Point School facility here with six classrooms,
a library, and an auditorium. The school became a model institution
and entry into its student body was an advantage sought by African
American throughout southeast Texas. T. B. Mitchell served as school
principal until 1954.
Powell Point, today an elementary school, is a locally revered institution
which symbolizes Kendleton 's unique
cultural heritage and promise for the future.
Sesquicentennial of Texas Statehood 1845-1995 |
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| Texas
Escapes, in its purpose to preserve historic, endangered and vanishing
Texas, asks that anyone wishing to share their local history, stories,
landmarks and recent or vintage photos, please contact
us. |
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