Cotton Belt School
Cotton Belt School #63
Out of Sight School
CR 384
Wylie, Texas
The Cotton Belt School was located northeast of Wylie where the Santa Fe Railroad turned northeast to cross over the East Fork of the Trinity River on its way to Clear Lake and, eventually, Paris, and the Cotton Belt Railroad continued east on its way to Greenville. When the Wylie School District #63 started, three schools joined to form the district – Cottonbelt, Lone Elm, and Nickelville. The Cottonbelt school is not listed separately on school lists. It is one of the Wylie District #63 schools.
The Cottonbelt school was started about 1895. Its nickname was Out of Sight. Cottonbelt is usually spelled as one word.
Rev. J. A. Ellis closed a successful meeting at Cottonbelt school house in 1903.
In 1909 the Cottonbelt School had 22 male and 23 female students, totaling 45. The teacher was Prof. Arthur L. Day. He taught for 1 year.
Mr. Hillis was teacher in 1913. After 7th grade the students went to the Kreymer School for 8th grade.
“Marie Moss taught school in the Cottonbelt School east of town. When she began teaching in 1931, Cottonbelt was a "big school" with three classrooms. Years before Fritz Moss was a student there. "It had one big room with 85 students and one teacher. The boys sat on the north side of the building and the girls on the other side. The school was remodeled in the 1920s to 2 rooms, then 3 rooms."’
Fritz explained that school didn't start in the fall until the crops were in and it was over when it was time for spring. School wasn't the family's focus, crops, food, making a living was the work a day life. He tells a story of the school trying to let the boys play football but the first game ended in a "free for all" and from then on, the boys would pair up and wrestle after lunch and after school.
Wylie News, February 23, 1994 “Go with us now on a journey just outside Wylie city limits where the bait houses now stand on the right side of the road. The Cottonbelt railroad flanked both sides of the school ground, which Paul and Annie White had given ground to build a school about 1895. Neighborhood men did the building and paid for the materials for the one room building. It was used for both church services and school.
In 1918 Ed Wood built a two-room structure there, which took the place of the one-room school house.
This particular year Deloss Parsons came to teach at Cottonbelt. He considered physical fitness to both boys and girls very essential to their welfare. He erected a volleyball court and a basketball court. Physiology and Hygiene were taught with the 3 r's. A skilled debater and speaker, he coached his students in debating and dramatics, both comedy and drama.
Other teachers who taught there included Mrs. Dinwiddie, John Allen, Ben Andrews, O. D. Connelly, Frank Brooks, Jick Houseright, Charlie Whickstein, William Jones, Walter Woods, Will Ryan, Tom Osborne, Bill Box, Stela Rose Bellmeyer, Mrs. Grace Bryan, Mr. Gentry, Bertha Tim's, Irma Shipley, Dee Moore, Wayne Cooper, Miss Hall, Fay Snider, Helen Woods, and the last to teach, Virginia Smith Collins. Cottonbelt merged with Wylie schools in the early 1940s.”
