History of Fall Creek School in Travis County, Texas explored and investigated.

Fall Creek School is one of the many forgotten schools of Travis County. Only so much history can be found out about this school.

Fall Creek School started out as a school in 1876 near the Blanco County line located in Southwest Travis County at the intersection of Hamilton Pool Road & FM 12. School was taught in a single one room log cabin. For the first 12 years is when Falls Creek School operated as a county school for Travis County Common School District. Falls Creek School also was known as Falls Creek School.

An election was ordered to be held in School District No. 55 on Saturday, December 2, 1884 at Fall Creek School house to determine whether a tax of ¢25 cents should be levied to increase the fund for maintenance of the public schools in that district. (Ref: https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/364616857/)

An election beheld at William Davis' gin, on Saturday, December 19, 1885, to determine whether hogs and goats shall be permitted to run at large within certain prescribed limits in Travis County. J.J. Davis was appointed presiding officer of said election. It was also ordered that a similar election was to be held at Fall Creek School House, same date, with John Caulfield as presiding officer. (Ref: https://www.newspapers.com/clip/29304480/willis-avery-jr-road/)

Fall Creek School District No. 55 aka Falls Creek School District No. 55 was established in 1888. Falls Creek School District bordered the county lines of Blanco County and Burnet County. Students from Bee Cave, Dripping Springs, Hamilton Pool, and Cedar Valley attended this school. H. L. Hensel and O. L. Wallace were the first teachers at Fall Creek School.

For the latter half of the late 19th century, only grades 1 through 8 were taught at this school. Grades 9 through 12 were added later. The school became a 1-9 school in the 1890s. Eventually Falls Creek School upgraded from a log cabin to a white frame box building that was one story.


A discussion was held about whether or not Fall Creek School should be annexed to Blanco ISD or not in June 2, 1925. Blanco ISD had plans annexing Fall Creek School into their school district. (Ref: Austin Statesman, Blanco May Annex Travis District, Tuesday, June 2, 1925)

“Annexation of the Fall Creek School District in Travis County to the Fall Creek District in Blanco County was discussed in a meeting of the Travis County board of education in the office of Mrs. George R. Felter, county superintendent. A petition was presented by a delegation of Blanco citizens asking for the union of the two districts, since there is no school on the Travis County side and only three children are included in the present Travis district. After some discussion, final action on the county line district was deferred until a special meeting was called for next Tuesday morning. Judge William Pfennis of Pflugerviile was the only member of the board not present at Tuesday morning's meeting, the board announced the anointment of M. Harvey Hayden as trustee of the Teck School District to succeed S. A. Collier, resigned.”

The Fall Creek School District was abandoned in June 11, 1925. County school superintendent Mrs. George R. Felter announced that the school district was abolished. (Ref: Austin Statesman, FALLS CREEK SCHOOL DISTRICT ABANDONED, Thursday, June 11, 1925)

[“Falls Creek district of Travis County has been consolidated with the adjoining district in Blanco County,” Mrs. George R. Felter, county school superintendent, announced Wednesday. “The consolidation removes about 5,000 acres from this county for school taxation purposes only” she said.]

1941 is when the other portion of Falls Creek School consolidated into Marble Falls ISD. The other half of the school district consolidated into Johnson City ISD in 1942 during the 1941-1942 school year. Fall Creek School stopped appearing on maps by 1942 and the school was gone.


The political troubles of this school would not cease here. There would be legal trouble decades on down the line. It was in 1949 when County School Board members realized Fall Creek School only included and covered 4.000 acres in the southwest corner of Travis County. Most the students were attending school in Johnson City already. (Ref: https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/357837964/)

[County School Board members discovered Monday that they have a problem hanging heavy, heavy over their heads. Not only that, but it has been hanging since July 5, 1949. That date was when the Travis board approved the consolidation of Fall Creek School District with Johnson City in Blanco County. The small area it includes only about 4.000 acres in the southwest corner of Travis County and has only a couple of dozen inhabitants had been dormant several years and most of the youngsters were going to Johnson City classrooms anyway.

Johnson City School Board didn't pass a consolidation order at the same time that Travis County's board did. This is required by law for the boundaries to go formally into effect, but it wasn’t done. Word of this reached the Travis County board members in the form of a letter from the First of Texas Corporation, a firm which noted that they want to issue some school district bonds for Johnson City. But that can't be done, the letter added, unless the Travis board reaffirms its 1949 action. Included in the letter was a list of metes and boundaries. The letter says this is a description of the land involved. That last part was what stymied the Travis County officials.

They aren't against re-affirming their 1949 decision, but they aren’t sure that those metes and boundaries are correct. Members explained that while they don’t doubt the word of the bonding firm, It would be safer to check with trustees in dripping Springs and Marble Falls, two other districts which adjoin Fall Creek. Then, they indicated, they are willing to go ahead and sign. "After all," member Tom Beckett said, "We certainly can't take that area back. We turned them loose and there's nothing we can do about them now but sign them away again." Fellow member Gus Urbantka agreed: "If they failed to act, that's their fault. We can't say the district is ours when we let it loose." And Tom Caldwell, president of the board, had the most telling argument of all. "Johnson City," he said, "has been collecting taxes from those people since 1949. If that doesn't put them in that district. I don't know what does.]

So the rest of Fall Creek School was consolidated into Johnson City ISD in 1952.

Fall Creek School was located at the intersection of Hamilton Pool Road (FM 3238) & FM 12, Dripping Springs, Texas, US 78620.